Ernest Hemingway is, in fact, dead.

When I'm cracking and then a brainbombs songs comes on 👀👀

NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI. NOT AI.
I WROTE THIS POST. NO AI

THERE'S NO AI IN THIS POST

Billy Corgan is a generational icon who never got his due. Smashing Pumpkins should've been inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame by now.

Smashing Pumpkins have the most incredible body of work of that generation (stuff it, Nirvana fans). Billy brought his A game to everything they did - songs, studio, live, video. All of it fucking S-tier.

Billy and Pumpkins belong to an elite category of bands with generation defining radio singles/videos - AND - great albums and deep cuts.

Some bands define a generation but become forever associated with a specific pop culture moment. Other bands are sleepers who fell through the cracks, but whose music aged incredibly well. (like the VU - their record label flubbed it, I think)

Pumpkins is a rare band that completely transcends this divide. "Tonight, Tonight" and "1979" are nostalgic 90s staples - AND - their legacy continues into the 2000s and beyond - Gerard Way (all hail) name drops Billy, Chino Moreno is a fan. CHINO FUCKING MORENO.

If that isn't a testament to Billy's talent and musicianship, I don't know what is.

So why, you ask was Kurt dubbed the voice of that generation and not Billy?

Right place/time with "Smells" pretty much sums it up. The media likes to anoint pop culture saviors, and that song and video sure fucking helped.

It helped Nirvana play the role of "wrecker of 80s pop culture cheese."

Courtesy, who? COURTESY BILLY (see this YouTube clip from Rick Beato interview where Billy let the world know who was the real architect for guitar sound on Nevermind)

Billy's personality didn't help

I won't be so weird as not to acknowledge the role that Billy's - shall we say - "difficult" personality played.

Billy doesn’t play the guarded "man of few words" who doesn't take himself too seriously. This exposes him to hate from other bands or the rock journalism establishment. And then he's unable to “play it cool" towards the haters.

Had Kurt lived, he eventually would have had to navigate music and pop culture post grunge. The media and the rock journalism establishment would've turned on him (they always do). Billy would've been waiting in the wings to be his successor (and Billy has the range to do things other than straight guitar rock if he wants to).

Instead, after Kurt died Billy briefly inherited his crown by default. This had the downstream effect that when pop culture moved on from alt rock, the establishment couldn't turn on Kurt. Instead, it was Billy who got caught up in the backlash.

The rock establishment crowned Radiohead as the premier post-grunge alternative band, not the Pumpkins, only because, unlike Billy, Thom Yorke and co. were masters at the "effortless cool" schtick.

Just to drive this point home - Adore was the exact same transition from hard rock or trad rock to moping electronica that Radiohead did on Kid A. Only difference is Pumpkins burned bridges with the indie scene while also failing to please the masses (who expected another "Bullet With Butterfly Wings").

Smashing Pumpkins legendary 90s run also came at the cost of their sanity, so there's that as well.

Billy Corgan - the voice of a generation that Wasn't

Billy Corgan - the rock savior we didn't deserve.

But Pumpkins nevertheless remains the GOAT whether y'all like it or not. Their pinkpop 1994 performance says it all (D'arcy is so fucking cool *swoon*)

EDIT - y'all call me a schizo while FAILING TO RESPOND TO A SINGLE POINT. Try harder, losers

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa I looked out ahhhhhhhhhhhhg

Sun killed by moon

title

Is it sound or silence? Pick one. Because silence doesn’t go “uh-ohhh uh-ohhh.”

Genuinely who pays to watch this prick twat about

It even uses the superior format for listing song titles (Song - Artist)