Nirvana (music)

Identification Alternative rock band

Nirvana and grunge icon Kurt Cobain initiated the alternative music explosion in the early 1990s.

Nirvana in its ultimate incarnation featured singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. After the independent release of 1989’s Bleach, Nirvana signed with Geffen Records and recorded the hugely successful Nevermind (1991). While Bleach was heavily influenced by punk rock, Nevermind fused grunge-era guitar rock with pop hooks and melody. Nevermind was more polished and accessible than Bleach, and though the band expressed some dissatisfaction with the postproduction of the album, its radio-friendliness was a main factor in its widespread popularity. Nevermind shifted popular rock music away from the glam and arena rock of the 1980s toward alternative rock.

In January 1992, Nevermind was selling about 300,000 copies per week, and the album reached number one on the Billboard charts. The album’s popularity was boosted by heavy rotation on MTV of the music video for the hit single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The music video begins in a surrealistic high school pep rally where Nirvana plays to uninterested students and cheerleaders wearing anarchist symbols and ends with the students destroying the set and the band’s equipment. Nevermind spawned three other hit singles and music videos that cemented the grunge look and sound into the public consciousness.

In 1993, amid much hype and press, Nirvana released In Utero, and listeners were shocked as they were introduced to a radically different Nirvana. In Utero harkened back to Nirvana’s punk roots, almost an intentional move to alienate Nirvana’s brand-new legion of fans as quickly as they had come. The album was raw, dissonant, and difficult, yet featured many of Nirvana’s hallmark melodies and hooks. In September 1993, In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 but did not enjoy the lasting power of Nevermind.

Kurt Cobain

As important as Nirvana’s music was for the burgeoning grunge scene in the early 1990s, Kurt Cobain was equally important as the personification of the angst-ridden, identity-lacking, and disillusioned Generation X. Born in 1967, Cobain lived near the depressed logging town of Aberdeen, Washington, for most of his life. When Cobain was seven years old, his parents divorced, an event that profoundly affected him and contributed to the rebellious tendencies that eventually attracted him to the Pacific Northwest punk scene, where he met and befriended many of the musicians who would influence him for years to come. Cobain received his first guitar as a gift at the age of fourteen and finally convinced Krist Novoselic, fellow denizen of Aberdeen and devotee of punk rock, to begin playing with him in 1985.

In 1992, Cobain married Courtney Love of the band Hole. They were immediately hailed as the next Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen of Sex Pistols fame because of their copious heroin use and “live fast, die young” rock-star behavior. Cobain turned to drug use early in his life as a response to depression and chronic pain due to an undiagnosed stomach condition for which he tried to find a cure for most of his life. Heroin dominated his adult life, and although he would occasionally enter a drug rehabilitation program, he always relapsed. Cobain’s habit contributed to his grunge hero status as he slurred and sometimes nodded off on stage and during interviews and photo shoots, but he would often perform and speak lucidly even while under the influence. As with so many other artists, heroin would prove to be his final undoing.

On April 8, 1994, Cobain’s body was discovered in a room above the garage of his Lake Washington home. Cobain had fled rehab just days before. The official cause of death was a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head; a suicide note was found nearby, and heroin was in his system. Seven thousand mourners attended a vigil on April 10 in Seattle. Cobain’s death spawned conspiracy theories, but none were ever deemed probable.

Post-Cobain Nirvana

In November 1993, Nirvana taped a popular and critically acclaimed performance on MTV Unplugged, and an album of the show was released in November 1994. A “plugged-in” concert compilation, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, was released in 1996, named for the river that flows through Cobain’s hometown.

Grohl’s career flourished after Nirvana as he became front man and the creative force behind the popular rock band the Foo Fighters. Novoselic continued to be involved in recording and playing live music and became increasingly involved in politics.

Impact

Nirvana inaugurated a new musical era and managed to occupy the rare space of achieving commercial success and critical acclaim while maintaining artistic integrity. Cobain’s suicide rendered him a John Lennon-esque figure for Generation X and fostered a myth around his life. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2023, Nirvana was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys for their significant contributions to the music industry.

Bibliography

Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. New York: Doubleday, 1993. Members of Nirvana contributed to this biography, which was amended in a 1994 reprint to include information on Nirvana’s final tour and Cobain’s death.

Cross, Charles R. Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain. New York: Hyperion, 2001. Cross conducted more than four hundred interviews over four years for the book and was granted exclusive interviews and access to Cobain’s private journals, lyrics, and photos by Courtney Love.

Konjoyan, David. "Nirvana Receives the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 GRAMMYs." Recording Academy Grammy Awards, 6 Feb. 2023, www.grammy.com/news/nirvana-lifetime-achievement-award-2023-grammys. Accessed 17 Mar. 2023.

True, Everett. Nirvana: The Biography. New York: Omnibus Press, 2006. Includes nearly full transcripts of many interviews with Nirvana members and their acquaintances and offers somewhat more exhaustive details of the controversy surrounding Cobain’s death and Nirvana’s place in grunge music and the culture of the 1990’s than previous biographies of the band.