When Nirvana rips you off

[@stonie3216]

One of the best ways I’ve heard the Pixies described is ‘your favourite band’s favourite band’

[@DeKevers]

my parents favourite band

[@millennialanimal]

They’re the MF DOOM of guitar music

[@kve5520]

that's the beatles, and the velvet underground

[@millennialanimal]

@@steaksauce199 genre 💀

[@calicosky9863]

Not really

[@sicarus3572]

I hate when people say "stole" or "copied" it's just inspiration and every song takes something from another, it's the highest form of respect and shouldn't be looked down upon

[@andycalifornia426]

Exactly, especially when the band acknowledges the influence. The word "stealing" is very wrong there. It goes to show that the speaker has an irrational problem with Nirvana's success.

[@frodiesel0]

@@andycalifornia426Kurt himself had a problem with their success. I think the Pixies are great. Kurt blended so many different styles he created his own. Nirvarna is still my favorite cover band. “Bevis”

[@westywest4480]

Hell yeah. amen

[@andycalifornia426]

​@@frodiesel0 Kurt had a problem with his success for a completely different reason. The butt-hurt youtuber here has a problem with Nirvana's success because he's jealous that his favorite band that had some good albeit half-baked ideas didn't. Forward-thinking and whatever other attributes you want to ascribe to Pixies is apparently not enough for people to like it. Enough of this "they're too sophisticated for the masses". I like some of Pixies' songs, but how much of Surfer Rosa do you ACTUALLY like? On Doolittle, Frank chose to sabotage the band and cut all the good songs short, while keeping crap like "I Love You" long. And literally no one cares about the next two albums (I personally like a few songs from them) because no boundaries are being pushed there and nothing new is brought to the table. Pixies are a throwaway band for people who like art for the sake of pushing boundaries, not enjoying the art itself.

[@craigcampbell1843]

@@andycalifornia426 I agree for the most part. This video would have you believe that every band after the Pixies that got louder during the chorus on any of their songs was literally just ripping off the Pixies. Even TLC and Whitney Houston. Lol. Who hears a Celine Dion song and thinks, man I can’t believe she could rip off the Pixies like that? Just because the Pixies were your favorite band and you noticed that they used dynamics and talked about it doesn’t mean everyone after them that does that too is ripping them off. I learned about dynamics in band in elementary school. It’s a huge part of music. The Pixies were a fun band but they didn’t invent dynamics. Beethoven used dynamics. Were the Pixies ripping off Beethoven? It’s called music.

[@HukkitukkiUK]

Nirvana always gave plenty of light to their influences, they helped lift many bands up.

[@paranoizehfx]

Including us 😂

[@Humblemumble7]

Like....who?

[@Biloxata]

@@Humblemumble7daniel johnston, half japanese, beat happening, vaselines, fang, the wipers, meat puppets, raincoats, shonen knife, mudhoney, melvins, devo and even fucking leadbelly and william burroughs... nirvana continues to introduce them to new generations of fans.

[@awarewolves1712]

@@Biloxata Nice. Saccharine Trust is a good one too.

[@ForageGardener]

​@@Biloxata they didn't "uplift" Melvins. Was already successful and had already denied fame by refusing a record deal because they didn't like the terms and refuse to play arenas

[@darriendane]

pixies is always that band you imagine started later than they actually did. *how* are they an 80s band

[@g-wiz154]

Idk imo they have a much rougher sound that feels older than the more polished bands that came out after, who built upon what they did. And I mean, they are barely an 80s band anyways. Yeah i think they formed in 86 and there first 2 albums were released in 88 and 89, but by that logic Nirvana is also an 80s band since 'Bleach' came out in 89 and they apparently formed in 87. Classifying things by decades has always been dumb.

[@gx1tar1er]

they were ahead of their time though. Just like The Velvet Underground in the 60's. It's funny that their music aged better than 95% of 80's glam/hair metal.

[@adonaiyah2196]

Thats the one thing i can take away from this video

[@circuithearts]

and dinosaur jr

[@jerimiahstephens8580]

Yes and no. Most people only know them for one song which came out in 1986 i think? But when people think of nirvana the vast majority of those songs were released in 1989 and 1990. Just because the popular sound or the sound that has been labeled as the 1980s over time, doesn't sound like other music of the time doesn't mean it's out of place or necessarily ahead of its time

[@myless.5493]

One thing about Nirvana is that while they were very inspired by The Pixies or other alternative bands like them, what made Nirvana stand out was their ability to craft brilliant melodies, which were very much inspired by The Beatles

[@adamfindlay7091]

Really? Why do some give me grief for being into the fab four? So old and not current. Well... thanks.

[@isaacness2647]

awesome melodies backed up by insane guitar distortion and feedback, inspired by sonic youth

[@indiehifi]

@@adamfindlay7091Kurt was inspired by the beatles and black sabbath in the song "About a Girl"...

[@user-tz2zz5ij1s]

I’m a huge Beatles fan. I have never heard anything by Nirvana that made me go “oh that’s the Beatles influence.” To me it’s always been Kurt said it and people just repeat it.

[@paranoizehfx]

Agreed

[@kevinbrown1893]

Yeah, I remember hearing about this, because as everyone knows, the Pixies invented dynamics, chord progressions, music and, sound itself.

[@Glixity]

😂😂

[@KingofCrusher]

lol

[@xxandrewwilsonxxable]

Yes all the Russian / German CLASSICAL Composers in history owe everything to the Pixies. Especially the explosive Dynamics found in their music that they used back then before sound recording existed.

[@robertd1046]

I hear they are collaborating on world peace next.

[@strqrt70]

Yeah, I’m glad someone saw the absurdity of this claim.

[@NinjaMatt2201]

I watched a documentary on their reunion. By the time they had their first reunion tour, they found they were selling quite a lot of tickets. There were several generations of fans in the crowd singing along. The way artists like Kurt Cobain were so vocal about stealing from the Pixies really paid off in the long run. I was really happy for them finally getting to experience that level of success.

[@RandomButtonPusher]

Exactly. When I saw the reformed band in Milwaukee, the crowd was big and ranged in age from about 10 to 75, most singing along, my wife, an original era fan, among them. And it was LOUD.

[@westernhemlock]

Nirvana was my gateway to the Pixies as a teenager. I’m forever grateful for that.

[@dre6289]

I'm 26 and I go to their shows every chance I get. And they're always packed with a good mix of ages. Nothing else like them

[@kwizzeh]

Saw them twice during their 2004 reunion tour and it exceeded my expectations. I clearly remember the crowd being a mix of young and old and at that time I was in my teens. The Pixies, Radiohead and Rage Against the Machine are the reasons I picked up an electric guitar and be in a couple of bands 😅

[@dudeflynn2781]

I can’t wait to see them in San Diego!!! Later this year

[@ChicoCabra]

Joey Santiago: “A lot of other bands did the quiet/loud dynamic, too, so giving us all the credit is kinda silly. But we really exploited it. Also, we were heavily influenced by The Cars, and they chug a lot. When we discovered that chugging thing, it was like, ‘Holy fuck, this is really good.’ So you could really just chug it down then be quiet - and then just power in with another chord."

[@rickchyczewski576]

exactly. I am trying to remember who was the first. Zep made a career of slowly working a song into a frenzy. I could name bunches but many followed the over the hills and far away or stairway to heaven format. Slow and beautiful and then BAM, Plant screaming and Page slamming that guitar. This video is kind of silly.

[@latentsea]

Think it was my grandpas band that invented dynamics, the 1/4 tape from the 40’s proves it. Caveman, “hit it softer, Now loud!”

[@JB-1138]

Seems like some credit should go to Iggy and the Stooges.

[@randomdudelife]

black sabbath - black sabbath is a classic in quiet/loud. i'm sure it was "invented" by some classical dude like wagner or something. piano/forte. it is silly to say it was the pixies. dinosaur jr and husker du did it before them

[@ko-rp7ge]

That's dope

[@stupidhipsterdoofus3278]

The Pixies even managed to inspire Lennon back in 1968 when he wrote "I'm so tired" which really is amazing!!!

[@dzonder1]

😂

[@latentsea]

Lennon inspired Bach, Not Just Johann but his uncle as well.

[@AverageBeatlesFan]

Woah, that's so sick dude!

[@armondtanz]

Yea, theres prob a lot of beatles songs like that, yer blues, mother (his solo period), Also golden slumbers. This vid has some reach!

[@avillianchillinskrillian]

@@armondtanz ....but bands didn't credit the beatles for it though, they credited the Pixies. The Beatles are the most celebrated band of all time. If all these bands learned Dynamics from the Pixies then it's irrelevant who "did it first"

[@erikbarrett85]

The amount of bands that had wild dynamics BEFORE the pixies is immensely large. They're definitely a band that made the soft verse\lntense chorus a huge point of the arrangement, but what even was all this lol

[@Ntrinzc]

Ye they never listened to ramble on by Led Zeppelin lmao

[@smithjedediah]

A poorly researched video delivered confidentally by someone too young to understand context and the nuances of things from the era that can't be picked up on from Wikipedia and other people's videos (other people also too young to know about such things)

[@therainman7777]

You guys have no idea what you’re talking about, yet are so convinced that you do.

[@adamprice3466]

​@@Ntrinzc or Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd or Fade to Black

[@ZENOBlAmusic]

It is a by product of creating music, you need different dynamic to make music more interesting. But you can just go back to Queen's Doing Alright, it seems like Pixies heard that song and decided that they will used that idea a lot.

[@erikbarrett85]

Bro Kurt must have said 400 times this they were basically a Pixies tribute band. But utilizing inspiration is not only fine, it's even more finer when you make a completely distinct sound 🤣🤣

[@Hiajarock]

The trouble was'nt Kurt.,but the media overhype of grunge

[@CandGoods]

Y'know, the main Pixies albums that got talked about in this video were Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, with a very brief mention of Trompe Le Monde. That just reminds me that I actually particularly like their Bossanova album, "Velouria" absolutely slaps.

[@kevinclarke9406]

Exactly this ❤

[@NinjaMatt2201]

Oh, yeah. I remember Velouria getting decent radio play on alternative rock stations in the nineties. I'm a little fuzzy on the timeline, but I think the success of Canonball from Kim Deal's other band, the Breeders, helped out and gave Velouria a second wind of success, but I remember it doing pretty good. Great song.

[@jonny26281]

@@NinjaMatt2201 cannonball came out 3 years after bossanova

[@Birdsofthelou]

Absolutely their best album

[@Monticello19]

Surprisingly, Weezer did a solid cover of Velouria back in the day.

[@sofaking1627]

"good artists copy; great artists steal" - Me in 1997

[@PixieMeat_444]

Ima steal this quote, because this is awesome.

[@gsly6081]

Yeah you definitely stole that quote.

[@sofaking1627]

@@gsly6081 🖤

[@user-tz2zz5ij1s]

Okay Pablo Picasso.

[@paranoizehfx]

😅😅😅 hopefully we can all just do what we love

[@jtors5]

“When Nirvana rips you off” -Rambles about the history of the Pixies

[@Megoodfilmguy]

It's interesting the Pixies get credit for this loud-quiet dynamic when you see it all throughout 50's music like My Boyfriend's Back or It's My Party.

[@zoeherriot]

@ghost mall Husker Du, which used the technique inspired the Pixies. They literally put an advert in the paper for a bassist "into Husker Du".

[@badgasaurus4211]

⁠@ghost mall Boston did it in “More than a Feeling”; The Beatles did it in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. It has always been experimented with in the past and so I’m not sure how much credit the Pixies should get.

[@dwboston1]

Or Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"

[@evanjohnrobasci7356]

I don’t think any part of this video is arguing that they’re the first to do it in all of music history.

[@mj.l]

@@evanjohnrobasci7356this video makes a lot of silly unverified claims. like the spice girls being influenced by the pixies’ so-called “extreme dynamics” lol

[@Cyranek]

the ending of fight club started me on a long rock journey

[@6EndlessNameless9]

seems like that was a strange point in your life

[@paranoizehfx]

Oh yeah !! Forgot

[@elcheekoful]

Yeah I 100% would have never heard of the Pixies if it not being for Fight Club and Nirvana.

[@CaseyWinehouse]

You can really hear The Pixies’ influence on Led Zeppelin for their song “What Is And What Should Never Be.” Also The Beatles’ “Dig A Pony.” Oh and Beethoven was in a big Pixies phase when he wrote his 5th. Where would we be without the Pixies inventing soft-verse-loud-chorus dynamics?

[@davlor86]

💀

[@crashburn3292]

I'm sensing sarcasm.

[@PS3customer]

Speaking of unsung alternative rock pioneers, you should definitely do a video on Sonic Youth and their influence on the genre.

[@colin6603]

I never got into Sonic Youth. I can see them being influential to shoegaze and similar stuff but I personally find them boring and pretentious. To each their own.

[@paranoizehfx]

Yes for sure❤

[@howkel]

It's hard for me to think of Sonic Youth as unsung. Me and my group of friends saw them over and over and listened to them all the time.

[@josiahroberts4025]

Sonic Youth was also a bunch of douchebags ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ always a bummer when the music is good (arguable too) and then the people suck

[@ZootZinBootZ]

Thurston Moore was a prelude to Trent Reznor

[@PeerwasNOPE]

Alongside Pixies, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain introduced me to a lot of lesser known bands that really make great music. Teenage Fanclub, The Vaselines, Hüsker Dü, Wipers, Beat Happening and The Replacements are some of the many bands i discovered and fell in love with. Thank you Kurt. P.S, the fact that Pixies have more than 9 million monthly listeners on spotify now is insane.

[@edvinparmeza1298]

Don't forget Killing Joke's song "Eighties", the melody of which was used in "Come As You Are"

[@zoomer619]

The Damned’s Life Goes On....that too

[@edvinparmeza1298]

@@zoomer619 yeah, that also, but Eighties is more relevant to Come as You Are

[@gordonbennett7931]

To the untrained ear they sound similar but in actual fact the riff from the song ''Eighties'' is not exactly the same as the riff from ''Come as you are''. Therefore, it's not accurate to say one was used in the other.

[@thebeingbecoming3596]

WRONG! It's not the melody, it's the riff that is similar. The melody (the vocal parts) are very different. Get a clue.

[@paranoizehfx]

Yes that is the sound!

[@blueeyeddevil1]

This style existed and was used effectively loooooong before the Pixies. As but one obvious--albeit perfect--example among many: Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be."

[@latentsea]

DeBussy, Vivaldi, Otis Redding , goes back even farther to cave men around the fire bangin sticks on a log

[@krisfrederick5001]

"Come as you are" has been considered a rip off. But Nirvana famously mocks themselves, and rocks the Smells like teen spirit "More than a feeling" connection in this at Reading 1992. Kurt's smile is priceless kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGS7enqlo5eFoLs

[@badgasaurus4211]

Everyone knows this already…

[@Mraquanetchris]

The story on Come as you are riff went from Killing Joke from The Damned from a 60's Garage band.

[@codyddd3634]

love seeing pixies get love

[@AugustRx]

Only if people felt the same when I rip them off

[@paranoizehfx]

They're so great. Glad they're still active

[@MACHINArebirth]

Finding those first 4 Pixies album as a teenager was like finding gold

[@cafeplastique890]

Man I remember the first time i heard "Bone Machine" like it was today. The skies opened. I felt like a weirder, stronger, riskier person just for listenig to it. The visceral wild power AND the catchy pop appeal. Pixies remain one of my all time favourite bands and artistic idols to look up to. If only on their post-.reunion-albums they could somehow reawaken that element of surprise. But with so many artists they inspired having adopted and developed their sound, and with many of their sounds and dynamics having become familiar tropes (which surely is an achievement on their part) I guess that is a really difficult job - and in Rock, everything must be off-hand and instinctive by definition, so it seems an impossible task to set oneself, or rather, one that can only be achieved by not trying. Oh well. I give my love to the Pixies, my admiration and my gratitude.

[@paranoizehfx]

Oh yeah def inspiring

[@jamescarter3196]

Until you said "Pixies" I thought you meant the Tom Waits album 'Bone Machine'

[@adamfindlay7091]

Bowie would know. He studied alot of eras and styles across the world. No rookie. Nicely done. 2 of my fave bands, Galaxy 500 ripped off everybody, but so what!? They still have their voice, their mistakes their added ideas and effects and energy so I don't think it matters one iota.

[@thefirepenguins74]

Etreme dynamics were very common on 70s hard rock, not invented by the pixies, Mozart did it too lol.

[@TailoredSwift-qu7ij]

Nirvana didn't rip anyone off. When Kurt made that comment, he was flattering his favourite band. As a fan of both PIxies and Frank Black Stuff, I can say that none of it sounds like Nirvana at all

[@buzkie314159]

The quality of the videos keeps going up. I love the words on the cards. the dates help place everything and often I don't know what album songs are on for artists I don't listen to much. One suggestion would be to place names together on one side. It can be confusing if you are trying to read fast and you go in the wrong order.

[@keysersoze657]

The thing i love most about Pixies is there are all pretty normal and not virtuosos by any stretch. But they truely pioneered the alt rock scene that can still be heard to this day and started one of the biggest movements in the 90s.

[@thecircledk8597]

Irish folks and especially rebel songs have being doing that for over a century... swapping between picking notes and singing quietly to raging elbow smashing chorus's... it's always been around

[@thecircledk8597]

@ghost mall Yeah they where the first to electrify it but they didn't "invent" it.

[@thebeingbecoming3596]

@@thecircledk8597 Nonsense, The Pixies weren't even the first rock band to use the quiet/loud thing. Not at all. Listen to Gun Club, The Electric Prunes, Husker Du, The Birthday Party. Hell, even Queen's "We Are The Champions" uses that same quiet/loud dynamic to deliver the verses and choruses waaaaay before The Pixies ever did. Talk about living in a bubble... geez

[@badgasaurus4211]

@@thebeingbecoming3596 Boston did it in More Than a Feeling too. This video is a stretch for sure

[@leecarruthers6473]

I love the pixies, but attributing the soft verse, loud chorus solely to them is kind of silly.

[@--Paws--]

It's like the "when the bass drops", effect that the mid-2010's had with dub-step. Classical music does this effect too especially if the music is meant for a performance like ballet or even an opera. It makes a dynamic shift in the tone of the scene, the introduction of another character or the villain appears.

[@paranoizehfx]

Yeah ❤

[@3rdStoreyChemist]

The ‘Bass Drop’ is far older than Dubstep and has always been a staple of Dance music and can be traced back to Jamaican music and sound system culture. Though it does make sense to connect later Dubstep to this type of Rock, as overall it has more in common with it than it does actual Dubstep and a lot of producers of the later sound did come from Rock/Metal.

[@--Paws--]

@@3rdStoreyChemist I did mention classical music...

[@crissycodywhite5821]

Boston's 1976 iconic classic More Than A Feeling is the real ticket here. All of this stuff points back to that song.

[@Spooky_515]

Lol wonder where you got that from

[@ShadowV]

There's loads of bands that had the quiet verse, loud chorus dynamics. Fade to Black by Metallica, Can't Always Get What You Want by Rolling Stones, S.O.S by ABBA. Pop, rock, metal, that dynamic was already everywhere before 1986

[@d13da14b]

My girlfriend loves to tell the story of how one of the members of the Clash was asked to join the band but he was like "I don't know how to play an instrument. But then I heard the Pixies and realized it didn't matter."

[@colin6603]

The clash formed a decade before the pixies, you might have them mixed up.

[@johnjohnsonf739]

@@colin6603 Thats the joke

[@michaelmalone7231]

@@colin6603 He replaced Sex Pistols with Pixies. That's the joke. It's taken from a Clash interview that became part of the E.P. single "Capitol Radio One" So, Devin's either complimenting Pixies, or thinks they're garbage.

[@awarewolves1712]

@@michaelmalone7231 Damn right. Stop making JOKES, so-called DEVIN, and tell us where you REALLY STAND.

[@blueodum]

@@michaelmalone7231 Same with the Manchester bands like Joy Division - the Pistols came up for a show and a lot of people said - hey we can be a band too.

[@alexrusso6456]

Great video! For what it’s worth, there’s so much more that Nirvana was inspired by (The Melvins), and I always appreciate they’re openness to admitting it.

[@markferguson3745]

I think that the Melvin's influence begins and ends at " being in a band".

[@dave-jk6en]

Yeah they were influenced by many sub genres, New Wave, Hardcore, Metal

[@Heisenbinks]

​@@markferguson3745not at all, listen to 'milk it' and then listen to the Melvins song 'it's shoved'

[@glennt69lol]

Bowie had a great understanding of all music genres

[@kaiisth]

I freaking love pixies. I think it's a little too harsh to say it was ripped off. I think that they made it more radio friendly.

[@manhattenman6075]

Dont forget, Killing Jokes - Eighties and the whole controversy of Come as you Are. Both great songs and Dave grohl playing with Killing Joke

[@DrFroyd123]

Nobody knew the pixies till Cobain said they 're his favourite band! Great video, by the way

[@LouisWritingSomethingCrazy]

I have to disagree. Nirvana's sound is much closer to a little known band called "The Meat Puppets". Also, having a bombastic chorus has been a thing in pop music for a long time. Since the days of Elvis, really. Though Pixies did start quiet/loud and influenced early Grunge, you are correct about that.

[@paranoizehfx]

Oh good input 😮

[@stuartewoldt1513]

Met a Dude from California in 1989. I was a metal head but I grew up on all types of music. I was 15 and he was 20 and had a car. He showed me Surfer Rosa and driving around in his car listening to that was a great experience.he got me to buy Doolittle and I basicly loved the pixies. I didn't stop listening to metallica but my eyes were open to something else that literally changed the projection of my life. Thanks Rob....wherever you are

[@hyungtaecf]

Thank you for mapping it to the source. It is a great technique that makes exactly the kind of songs I like. This style of songs that change dynamics should have a name to find their peers easier.

[@paranoizehfx]

Yes it's nice to line it all up

[@rabidbwah3430]

As other commenter says, i think 'your favourite bands favourite band' is more fitting for this essay

[@hexywesky]

It's so sensational to say a band has ripped something off. Everyone takes inspiration from something

[@paranoizehfx]

This is so true

[@andycalifornia426]

"Nirvana Stole that technique". First of all, a technique cannot be "stolen" unless it's patented and was used without buying the patent -- and there is no patenting in music. Kurt didn't even try to hide the fact that he liked Pixies and specifically their quiet-loud dynamics. That ain't stealing. Stealing would be doing it and then never mentioning the band and perhaps even denying it if asked or saying "I came up with this way before I heard the band" (like Bathory did with Venom). Secondly, Pixies weren't the first band to do that either. Listen to Led Zeppelin Over The Hills And Far Away, for example.

[@killercaos123]

I will always argue that 90s music had the greatest impact on society and music culture. It was a total renaissance

[@user-tz2zz5ij1s]

I’ve never heard it as the greatest, nor any other era that happened as the greatest. Each of these eras had their own music that was different from the previous and helped shape pop culture, and by that the current culture at the time.

[@aelfredrex8354]

I would argue that 90's music was total crap. Compared to the excellent song writing of the 70s and 80s, it was corporate dreck.

[@lenenlawless]

@@aelfredrex8354 70's is a fair shout, and so is the 60's! but 80's?! 80's was much more corporate sellout than the 90's! the 90's also had so so so many essential albums released by new artists every year

[@colin6603]

Blink 182 was from the 90s though. For that reason alone the 60s-80s were better music decades.

[@aelfredrex8354]

@@lenenlawless In the 80s you still had what was left of punk and you had post-punk, and metal was at it's height.

[@Ginlah]

Sonic Youth is another big influence on grunge

[@Jegbmf]

Where is my mind is my local scene’s wonderwall. I remember at one DIY show, 3 out of the 4 bands played it that night. By the second time hearing a shitty where is my mind cover I was done lmao

[@jbryant5253]

I've mever been a hige fan of Nirvana but thwy seem like interesting people, Grohl and Cobain seem to have been really good friends amd Grohl in particular seems like an amazing human being, and the stuff my favorite band's frontman Anyhony Kiedes says avout Cobain mkae me feel like he was a good person

[@batautomat]

Soft-Loud slam dynamics came way before the Pixies… if you look a little harder you’ll find it frequently used by Violent Femmes, King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, even in The Wall and prog rock like Genesis and Yes.

[@GGarciaGameplay]

OMFG how I love your youtube channel

[@custard-scream]

i love your videos, man! keep up the amazing work!

[@Plazman]

I really love the video editing in this. It's distinctive.

[@isaacness2647]

that's not a pixies innovation tho, songs like led Zeppelin's over the hills and far away already used sudden dynamic changes on a single song and that was on the early 70s, and i'm sure the technique goes even further back

[@Faks.09]

Metallica - welcome home

[@lincolndaugherty]

"What is and What Should Never Be" as well. Seems odd to say that someone stole being quiet then loud. Pretty sure that musical concept can be traced back even before Beethoven. Pixies were great though.

[@guitarusa3521]

NIRVANAS BIGGEST RIPPOFF,,,IS 'COME AS YOU ARE' WHICH WAS VERY SIMILLAR TO the SWEET - LOVE Is LIKE OXYGEN ,,,same riff Nirvana did thru out the song

[@TomVCunningham]

I hope this video talks about "More Than A Feeling" by Boston and "Eighties" by Killing Joke. Edit: it didn't.

[@TheBadBuffalo]

Honestly I was expecting the whole video to be about the latter 😂

[@imnotnarcian]

Listen to “life goes on” by the dammed. It’s another one that nirvana “stole”

[@ThePro100DK]

@@imnotnarcian thanks, sounds supermodern and cool

[@georgehenry76]

Lemme hear this kid who wasn’t born yet tell me about Nirvana..

[@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245]

Steve albini is such a goat. Yall should do a video about his bands like Big Black and Shellac

[@HeyHeyChey]

Couldnt believe it when he won that Poker championship too

[@marvinlear5848]

I appreciate Albini uncompromisingly doing things just for the art and the principle of it, as well as his impact on rock music. That drum sound on In Utero is indeed goat. But I literally just spent too much time last weekend using drum replacement to finally get around to 'fixing' the kick drum on Chevelle's "Point #1" that sounds like banging on plywood. I've only been a Chevelle fan since about 2010, but it still grates after all these years. He also engineered and mixed that song (and album) and it sounds like he just said to himself, "You know what? I'm going to just leave the faders right where they were for the last band that used this studio. I'm that hard core!!" lol If you've listened to any other Chevelle album, you'd know that can't be the sound they were trying to achieve. Chevelle, especially 2000's era, is about as polished sounding as metal gets. On Chevelle's greatest hits album they actually re-released Point #1 with a proper mix. I must admit, for that song's opening couple of minutes (of just sludge metal riffing), I actually prefer the raw sounding Albini version, which is why I've had it in the back of my mind to make a combo of the two for some time (with the exception of that yucky kick). Point is...as a producer, there's a fine line between fearlessly eschewing slick, cliche production excess, and coming off like you're incompetent. Albini is the type of to producer who'll take an olympic long jumper's leap over that line. To be fair, Albini was probably only paid peanuts for recording that entire album. Whatever it was, it was still too much, though!

[@HeyHeyChey]

@@marvinlear5848 Didn't know Albini recorded that album. I am going to give it a listen now. It's the only Chevelle album I've never heard

[@paranoizehfx]

Oh def!

[@paranoizehfx]

​@@marvinlear5848yes and not taking the money from artists big or new

[@ToddWyattRebelSon]

Listen to the lyrics of Smells like Teen Spirit & tell me you believe this band could have done anything on their own.

[@seblevi3320]

You should do a video talking about Villains by Queens of the Stone age , since their new album is releasing soon...

[@maratortega8860]

Two weeks ago, i had the opportunity to see them live and it has been one of the best concerts i have ever seen!!!

[@donniedavis6163]

I cant name one single song in all of history where the chorus isnt louder then the verse. I dont think the Pixies invented that

[@pankfish]

This guy thinks the Pixies invented the idea of playing the chorus louder than the verse?

[@roosternm6830]

I discovered the Pixies during my Thrash Metal obsession. No other genre could penatrate until I discovered the Pixies. They kinda primed me up for the changing of the guard in 1991 when Nirvana changed everything for me. As a guitarist, I had been trying to live up to my heroes in Metal. Once Grunge took over I was born again as a musician and adapted very well to the whole new way of playing, writing music. I had more fun in bands in the 90s than I ever did in the 80s. I thank everything Holy for the Pixies and Nirvana.

[@paranoizehfx]

Yeah same for us

[@roosternm6830]

@@gardenwarrior77 I only liked the guitar riff in the hit song

[@roosternm6830]

@@gardenwarrior77 Will do. Thank you

[@jamesreasoner9029]

You forgot to mention how the Who and the Kinks stole that technique from the Pixies twenty years before the Pixies ever recorded.

[@doscwolny2221]

Lol

[@jonathangraf7671]

Steve Albini is my favorite musician. I’ve seen his band Shellac twice in Portland. Always a fantastic show. Loved Big Black back in the day. Touch and Go Records makes great music. Nirvana and the Pixies helped to shape my childhood and the person I am today.

[@cuqueflan]

I thought the video was going to be about Very Ape and how they borrowed the riff from Kanishka by Los Brujos, but maybe that's for a Short, love your videos!

[@oliverlangrall2014]

I just watched a nirvana interview and they were talking about how they just wrote a pixies song for smells like teen spirit

[@paranoizehfx]

Pretty much 😅

[@WoockerSocket2]

Every song has a soft verse and loud chorus, obviously cause its the hook of the song. The main point in this video is distortion probably.

[@undriftedpop788]

"Stole that technique" Um so only one band in history can have quiet verses and loud choruses??

[@coldloner7453]

Right there are other artist before them that did the same thing

[@michaelmcdonald8452]

The only song Nirvana "ripped off" was the riff for Milk It from Melvins "It's Shoved." Everything else is just having influences.

[@MrThedonhead]

Its not stealing its how music works! Dylan, Lennon, McCartney, Bowie, Gallagher,gaye, Coldplay,rem, Radiohead etc etc its how music works!

[@mandm145]

Thank you captain obvious.

[@MrThedonhead]

​@@mandm145 I am not your captain and I don't need thanks, I am to humble for that

[@MrThedonhead]

​@ghost mall it's not a trick it's music and how can it be stolen it is not an object, you can't steal a sound especially one that is about quiet verses and loud choruses 😂 it's ridiculous. You also did not understand the video did you

[@heatnationwpb]

I'm so glad that someone finally made this video 💯

[@paranoizehfx]

Agreed ❤

[@williamshaw5388]

And the Pixies stole it from The Cars, just ask Frank Black.

[@chilinitro5599]

The Pixies and Van Halen are my favorite bands. both have extreme energy, dynamics, and raw sound.

[@AclinGG]

pixies and nirvana, 2 out of 3 bands (can u guess the third?) i literally grew up listening to every day, love to see it

[@mattemilo]

It’s gotta be the Velvet underground

[@AclinGG]

@@mattemilo Sonic youth XD

[@AclinGG]

@@mattemilo dinosaur jr would count too, i barely listened tto velet actually.... maybe i should give tthem a chance

[@johnnypalooka]

The size of a venue really matters when seeing bands live. The 300-600 ticket standing only venues were the best way to see and hear The Pixies and Nirvana in the late 80's/early 90's. When Nirvana exploded overnight and started booking arenas I knew I had seen my last Nirvana show. I did see The Pixies play a larger venue when they opened for U2 after the Trompe Le Monde album. The arena didn't even bother turning the lights down and the band didn't have much energy because all the U2 fans were still filing in and showed no interest in The Pixies. I never missed a Pixies show in my area even though they were never a great live band. But don't blame The Pixies for crap like Brittney Spears, Whitney Houston and the Spice Girls.

[@jackdeprato4474]

Man I love your videos so much, but these new “When you…” titles have gotta go

[@TheSiZaGaming]

fr

[@abdoul5176]

It's the algorithms fault.

[@michaelkies9451]

Thats the quality music content I want. You made me fall in love with the arctic Monkeys through your video on "tranquility base hotel & Casino" Will be on their Concert in Luxemburg in July Thank you

[@BLACK-AUTUMN-MAGICK]

You guys must be huffing airplane glue if you think the pixies invented dynamics

[@ronzy566]

Smells Like Teen Spirits riff sounds fairly similar to the riff at 1:10 on the Pixies song U-Mass. Both albums released on the same day so maybe just a coincidence. Either way, very interesting.

[@kamperonipizza]

it’s educational!

[@mpactdesignmedia]

The Pumpkins perfected the technique. Porcelina, Drown, Siva, Rhinoceros, Today, Bullet with BW....so many great ones have that going on.

[@arthurdurham]

The Pixies basically started 90s rock music. I don't care for them nearly as much as those thry inspired but they still deserve the credit for pioneering (not inventing) a style.

[@callumruss667]

You know when I first saw the title I thought you were gonna talk about the plagiarism lawsuit between Nirvana and Killing Joke over the similarities between 'Come As You Are' and 'Eighties". Still a great video though!

[@frothyphilosophy7000]

Nice vid, appreciate your analysis. But want to note that many of the pop examples you cite really have nothing to do with Pixies. A drop, or change in tempo/dynamism, has long been a part of many genres of music. Citing some 90’s pop songs and implying Pixies influenced them in any way is misleading (unless you have evidence). Correlation =/= causation.

[@frothyphilosophy7000]

To elaborate… Smells Like Teen Spirit… absolutely. Kurt was on record about it. Baby One More Time? Not seeing the connection and never heard Max Martin name Pixies as an influence. Verse/chorus =/= quiet loud. Genuinely wanting to understand the claims made here. Thank you!

[@focusfanny]

Wait a minute... were we clickbaited to watch a video about the Pixies but titled as a Nirvana video instead. Brilliant! ❤️

[@deathrowlemon7367]

This is a dynamic technique has been used for fucking ages. Saying it's proprietary to The Pixies is a bit shortsighted. Also, grunge isn't a genre.

[@kevinbirge2130]

I was in radio when this hit. We heard this, observed it was racing up the alternative charts, and knew it was a hit. End of story. We actually added it as a Hitbound selection before it broke out of the bottom 100 Billboard.

[@davidellis5141]

Be A Debaser ! 🎸

[@UGLY-MONEY17]

I fucking love that song. It’s what got me into then originally. The way that chorus hits is so goddamn nasty lol. I love it

[@Tan3l6]

Moby was GOOD!

[@itsbroiso2893]

Epic

[@glennabate1708]

I don’t think Nirvana copied them

[@clouseaux]

Nirvana just did it better, better songs and better execution

[@pnwajs3532]

Their final album Trompe Le Monde is one of my all time favorites. Talk about a good album to memorize and sing along to while driving. Damn, this one saved my life plenty of times in my younger years. I know it's pretty much a Black Francis solo project, but I just love him for this crazy album that means the world to me.

[@challism]

Not quite their FINAL ALBUM. It was for a long time, but they have since reformed and released four more LPs since Trompe (if you consider it the Pixies without Kim Deal - which I certainly do). Indie Cindy (2014) Head Carrier (2016) Beneath the Eyrie (2019) Doggerel (2022)

[@dmmesa]

Nirvana stole going quiet to loud from the Pixies...has this person never listened to early prog rock, or jazz?

[@playlist9980]

Kurt Cobain explicitly mentioned the Pixies' influence. Unsurprisingly he never mentioned prog rock or jazz.

[@Professorkenneth]

Kurt even stole the name Nirvana from a band from my country...1965 rock psychedelic band called Nirvana😅

[@peterpfukwa]

nahhhh, nevermind is literally just a Pixies punk record like bone machine, but with pumpkins' production. Butch Vig just took Billy's guitar sound and gave it to Kurt

[@chrisridenhour]

Kurt was nervous about Come as You Are being released as a single because of the song 80s. But at the end of the day, whatever he touched he made his own