[Bubbles]

It's all about 'Force of Personality' over all else.

Foo Fighters have more shelf life than Nirvana.. fine make that argument.

AIC/Melvins/Screaming Trees/Mudhoney/Whateverobscurebandyounametomakeyourselflook cool were probably better song crafters... fine.. whatever.

No one inspired more kids to pick up a guitar and start playing it at a young age than John Lennon and Kurt Cobain.

No one.. Not even Eddie Vedder & Stevie Ray Vaughan (who player theirs as well as anyone in history).

As a random side note: Audioslave... They should really get a free pass for Tom Morello alone.. In 30 years looking back on this era, It'll be surprisingly easy to see that Morello (via Rage/Audioslave) has done far more interesting things with a guitar than just about anyone in this era.

Really, the only contemporary who has the "force of personality" to bring a cult following to a fevered pitch would be Maynard... ainec. No one else has such a rabid and unrelenting hold on american youth.