Not hip hop..but How are songs like “smells like teen spirit” by nirvana only 1x platinum in the US?

[TripleAgent]

You don't have to.

Put it this way: you see how disenchanted you are with rap and you wanna hear something that changes EVERYTHING? When Smells Like Teen Spirit dropped, that was the song that a new generation of fans (especially rock of course) got behind, and when MTV started playing it heavy, everyone else followed and they went from small time band to the group that knocked off Michael Jackson from #1. It killed hair bands off. It made everyone dress differently. Groups that came after them from the same city blew up with the same style. It changed how people wrote songs. When that shyt blew up, it made everyone go "ok we're doing this now."


A rap equivalent would be Straight Outta Compton, or Nuthin But A G Thing, something that made everyone drop what they were doing and switch everything up.


The closest thing rap has had to that recently (and it hasn't been nearly as successful but made big time waves in hip-hop) was Don't Like because everyone wanted to jack that drill sound upon hearing it.

You can argue that we'll never see popular music shift off one song the way it did with that.

An even more apt comparison is DMX is starting the death of the shiny suit era.

 

[MaxBundles]

Cause the songs sucks

 

[Buckeye Fever]

How come Nirvana never had no chains made?

Imagine a big ass chain with "Nirvana" on a ice out pendant

They dont rep the label right either. They should've been screamin' "Geffen Records up in this muthafukka"


Oh, Smashing Pumpkins>>>>Nirvana


The song "1979" shyts on everything Nirvana did.

 

[ZEupTWN]

You don't have to.

Put it this way: you see how disenchanted you are with rap and you wanna hear something that changes EVERYTHING? When Smells Like Teen Spirit dropped, that was the song that a new generation of fans (especially rock of course) got behind, and when MTV started playing it heavy, everyone else followed and they went from small time band to the group that knocked off Michael Jackson from #1. It killed hair bands off. It made everyone dress differently. Groups that came after them from the same city blew up with the same style. It changed how people wrote songs. When that shyt blew up, it made everyone go "ok we're doing this now."


A rap equivalent would be Straight Outta Compton, or Nuthin But A G Thing, something that made everyone drop what they were doing and switch everything up.


The closest thing rap has had to that recently (and it hasn't been nearly as successful but made big time waves in hip-hop) was Don't Like because everyone wanted to jack that drill sound upon hearing it.

You can argue that we'll never see popular music shift off one song the way it did with that.

Dope breakdown

 

[A Tribe Called Quest ™]

Its not hiphop you idiot.

We all don’t like fakkit rock. You’re on a hip hop board fool.

He literally said in OP “I know this is rock but”

 

[A Tribe Called Quest ™]

Cause the songs sucks

nikkas be having quirky opinions just to seem “different”

 

[Mike the Executioner]

You don't have to.

Put it this way: you see how disenchanted you are with rap and you wanna hear something that changes EVERYTHING? When Smells Like Teen Spirit dropped, that was the song that a new generation of fans (especially rock of course) got behind, and when MTV started playing it heavy, everyone else followed and they went from small time band to the group that knocked off Michael Jackson from #1. It killed hair bands off. It made everyone dress differently. Groups that came after them from the same city blew up with the same style. It changed how people wrote songs. When that shyt blew up, it made everyone go "ok we're doing this now."


A rap equivalent would be Straight Outta Compton, or Nuthin But A G Thing, something that made everyone drop what they were doing and switch everything up.


The closest thing rap has had to that recently (and it hasn't been nearly as successful but made big time waves in hip-hop) was Don't Like because everyone wanted to jack that drill sound upon hearing it.

You can argue that we'll never see popular music shift off one song the way it did with that.

Was it you that said the modern-day equivalent to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would be a Mobb Deep-style group coming out today?

 

[rantanamo]

I wasn't even into rock, but when this dropped, everybody knew it was different and it just hit. People analyze so much these days. When shyt just hits, it hits.

 

[REdefinition]

Also not mentioned, the label or artist has to pay and apply for recertification. They may have not bothered. A lot of huge artists may have gone Plat more times than we know.

For example, Get Rich Or Die Trying may have gone Plat again since however long ago they got it certified. If you don't pay the RIAA to count it up, it just sits there.

This is the real answer. I'm sure it sold more than 1 million in actuality.

 

[tremonthustler1]

Was it you that said the modern-day equivalent to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would be a Mobb Deep-style group coming out today?

that’s not a bad example at all. I don’t remember saying that though so

Shook Ones was kinda like that for NY (though to be fair, I’m not sure it was one song in particular that got the East back on track.) That grunge era was super unique in how it came up and how it burnt out.


But yes, imagine hearing Shook Ones for the first time and it causing most of the industry to start spittin gutter shyt (and in the process, alienating everyone who raps and sings)

 

[L. Deezy]

lol.. cassette singles back then were about 4 or 5.00. Most people just waited for the album. You could record the songs back then on cassette and be straight till the album.

 

[Chip Skylark]

Cause that album sold a shyt load of copies. So instead of buying singles they bought the album.

funny cause I was just singing somethings in the way a couple days to my 1 year lol

 

[Harry B]

It was released the same time as the album and I don’t know if they were counting radio plays towards streams in 91 yet, however from what I heard it wasn’t played in prime time like that until after the album.

So labels could finesse riaa with payola back then but can’t compare with today as album sales = single sales.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Back then, labels released the single so that you would go buy the whole album later on.

It's not like today, where people just buy the one song and skip getting the entire album. Singles were like the warmup, you would cop the single, and then when the album came out, you would go get the whole album too. That's why the music business was booming back then. We would all spend our bread. Nevermind has sold like 30 million albums worldwide.

For those true Nirvana fans on here, they know that the single dropped just a couple weeks before the album did. So the fact that it sold a million physical copies, is crazy. You only had to wait a couple weeks for the album to drop, and people still went out there and bought the single up in droves. That says a lot about how huge that record was. They couldn't even wait another two weeks for the actual album. But when the album dropped, those same people went out and copped that too. 30 million of them.

 

[kdslittlebro]

Its not hiphop you idiot.

We all don’t like fakkit rock. You’re on a hip hop board fool.

I don't even fw rock like that but that's one of the few I liked from the first time I heard it