What you're missing Hobbe is the 1990's. Nirvana needs some time period incorporation in the sense that you need to have been in the mindset of the era to appreciate what they were to the full extent.
Stairway loses some sheen from all of the influences you probably listened to first. Same goes for The Beatles. Imagine a world of Chuck Berry, Elvis, and Bill Haley & The Comets when, out of nowhere, Please, Please Me comes out.
Failing that perspective, I'd still argue they're a fantastic band.
A lot of people these days hear about Nirvana for obvious reasons and get turned off by them. They aren't the most listenable group ever but there's gold to be found.
Fact is that Nirvana changed music on a massive scale and became disgustingly popular for their music and image. I'm not a Foo Fighters fan so my choice is obvious. Personally I think David Grohl's best independent work was Songs for the Deaf with Queens of the Stone Age.
For anyone in this thread who doesn't like Nirvana and thinks they can just write them off, I've got a Pitchfork Media quote for you.
"Sure, there will always be those who insist that Nevermind was more of cultural import than musical, but they will also be full of ****: Nirvana are, a decade later, still regarded as the greatest and most legendary band of the 1990s. This band proved to a whole new generation that technical prowess has no bearing on quality, inspired their fans to seek out the music that slipped beneath the commercial radar, and then had the balls to be ridiculously, unthinkably ****ing brilliant. Anyone who hates this record today is just trying to be cool, and needs to be trying harder."
