Nirvana

Popular music shifted irreversibly once Nirvana appeared on the scene. Their 1991 sophomore release Nevermind lifted alternative rock from the margins into widespread visibility, exposing everyday listeners to abrasive textures, surreal phrasing, and defiant punk sensibilities that had thrived only in hidden record bins or faint college-radio signals. The album fused grating, dissonant guitar work with half-muttered or screamed lyrics and raw, alienated attitudes, none of which seemed destined for mainstream charts, yet the trio laced their grimy tracks with sufficient melodic hooks to produce an entirely novel sound that resonated precisely when listeners were ready, propelling it to historic commercial heights.

Although Nirvana operated from an independent ethos while harboring deep affection for pop songcraft, they simultaneously resisted and pursued widespread fame, earning reputations as rock’s most outspoken anti-stars. Their deliberate bid to alienate listeners came with the raw, Steve Albini-engineered 1993 album In Utero, yet vocalist-guitarist-songwriter Kurt Cobain’s worsening psychological struggles and drug dependency culminated in his 1994 suicide. Nirvana’s abbreviated run ended in tragedy, yet their catalog remains among rock & roll’s most consequential.

Kurt Cobain, who handled vocals and guitar, first encountered bassist Chris Novoselic (born Krist Novoselic) in 1985 inside Aberdeen, Washington, a modest logging community roughly one hundred miles from Seattle. Novoselic enjoyed relative domestic stability, whereas Cobain’s early years unraveled after his parents separated when he was eight. He subsequently moved among relatives’ homes, absorbing the Beatles and later heavy metal, before American hardcore punk seized his attention. Through encounters with the Melvins—an underground heavy-punk outfit based in Olympia—he began performing in short-lived groups such as Fecal Matter, frequently alongside the Melvins’ bassist Dale Crover. Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne introduced Cobain to Novoselic, whose own punk fixation mirrored Cobain’s sense of alienation from Aberdeen’s rugged, working-class milieu. The pair launched the Stiff Woodies, with Cobain on drums and Novoselic on bass, cycling through guitarists and singers until Cobain switched to guitar and vocals. Successive name changes followed, including Skid Row, whose lineup featured drummer Aaron Burkhart until late 1986, when Chad Channing took over; by 1987 the ensemble had settled on the name Nirvana.

The group built a devoted local audience through house parties in Olympia. Around 1987 they cut ten demos with producer Jack Endino, whose tapes reached Jonathan Poneman, co-founder of Seattle’s Sub Pop imprint. Poneman signed the band, and Nirvana issued its debut single—a cover of Shocking Blue’s “Love Buzz”—in December 1988. Sub Pop’s campaign portrayed the members as rustic lumber-town outsiders, a depiction that rankled Cobain and Novoselic. While the single earned modest praise, the June 1989 album Bleach, tracked for slightly more than six hundred dollars, ignited steady college-radio airplay through relentless touring. Although Jason Everman received sleeve credit as second guitarist on Bleach, he contributed no performances, merely supporting the record on the road before departing at year’s end for Soundgarden and later Mindfunk. Bleach moved 35,000 copies, earning Nirvana admirers among college stations, British weeklies, and peers such as Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, and Dinosaur Jr., which in turn drew major-label interest.

In July 1990 the band recorded the single “Sliver”/“Dive” with Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters and producer Butch Vig, also laying down a six-song demo that sparked bidding among major labels. That August Nirvana joined Sonic Youth’s Goo tour, with Crover again on drums. September brought drummer Dave Grohl, formerly of the Washington, D.C., hardcore outfit Scream, and a $287,000 deal with DGC. The group completed its second album with Vig by June 1991; Nevermind arrived in September amid a brisk U.S. trek. DGC anticipated roughly 100,000 copies sold, yet the record sold through its initial 50,000-unit pressing immediately, triggering nationwide shortages. The catalyst was the blistering four-chord single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” whose video entered heavy MTV rotation. By early 1992 the track reached the American Top Ten, Nevermind displaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous from the summit of the Billboard album chart, and the album soon entered Britain’s Top Ten. Triple-platinum certification followed by February.

Nirvana’s breakthrough caught both the industry and the band off guard. Cobain responded by championing underground acts he admired, inviting Japanese alt-pop trio Shonen Knife on tour, covering formative influences such as the Wipers, the Vaselines, and Meat Puppets, and wearing a homemade Daniel Johnston T-shirt on television and at major shows. His endorsements exposed countless fans to previously unknown artists, boosting those careers in the process.

Uncertainty about handling sudden fame soon surfaced. Around Nevermind’s release, Cobain appeared in drag on MTV’s Headbangers Ball; the band lampooned miming on the BBC’s Top of the Pops by having Novoselic repeatedly fling his bass skyward while Cobain delivered vocals à la Ian Curtis; and their customary instrument-smashing ritual was captured during a Saturday Night Live performance that closed with Novoselic and Grohl exchanging a kiss. Early 1992 brought mounting questions about internal stability. Cobain married Courtney Love, frontwoman of the indie-rock/foxcore band Hole, in February 1992 and announced they were expecting a child. Several concerts were soon canceled, and the group declined to mount a full-scale summer U.S. tour. Cobain cited chronic stomach ailments, corroborated when he was hospitalized in Belfast following a June performance. DGC issued the odds-and-ends collection Incesticide late in 1992; it peaked at number 39 in the United States and number 14 in the United Kingdom.

As the band prepared its third album, it released “Oh, the Guilt” as a split single with the Jesus Lizard on Touch & Go Records. Choosing Steve Albini—known for work with Pixies, the Breeders, Big Black, and the Jesus Lizard—as producer, Nirvana tracked In Utero in two weeks during February 1993. Later that year, Newsweek and other outlets reported that DGC found the forthcoming album too uncommercial, allegations both band and label denied. Dissatisfied with Albini’s raw mix, the group enlisted R.E.M. producer Scott Litt to remaster the album and remix the singles “Heart Shaped Box” and “All Apologies.” In Utero appeared in September 1993, earning favorable reviews and debuting atop both the U.S. and U.K. charts. An American tour followed, augmented by former Germs guitarist Pat Smear. Although the album and dates succeeded, attendance lagged behind expectations until the final weeks. The band therefore accepted an invitation to perform MTV’s acoustic Unplugged special at year’s end; In Utero sales rebounded after the December broadcast.

Nirvana closed its U.S. run on January 8, 1994, at Seattle’s Center Arena before heading to Europe in February. After a February 29 concert in Munich, Cobain remained in Rome with Love. On March 4 she discovered he had attempted suicide. Returning to Seattle, his mental health deteriorated further. Love and management arranged an intervention that placed him at the Exodus Recovery Center in Los Angeles on March 30, yet he departed the facility on April 1 and returned to Seattle. His mother filed a missing-persons report on April 4. Cobain died by suicide at his Seattle residence on April 5. In the aftermath he was swiftly cast as a generational spokesperson and emblem of youthful anguish.

Novoselic and Grohl intended to issue a double-disc live set by year’s end, but the emotional weight of the tapes proved overwhelming, leading instead to the release of MTV Unplugged in New York. The album entered both the British and American charts at number one, while a companion home video drawn from Nevermind-era performances and interviews, Live! Tonight! Sold Out!, appeared concurrently—the project having begun before Cobain’s death and been finished by the surviving members. In 1996 the electric counterpart From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah debuted at the top of the U.S. charts. Grohl subsequently formed Foo Fighters, releasing their self-titled debut in 1995, followed by The Colour and the Shape in 1997 and There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999. Novoselic launched the trio Sweet 75, whose debut surfaced in spring 1997, and collaborated with former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra and ex-Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil on the 2000 live recording Live from the Battle in Seattle under the name the No W.T.O. Combo.

By the late 1990s Novoselic began assembling material for a comprehensive box set spanning Nirvana’s career. The collection was slated for fall 2001 to mark Nevermind’s tenth anniversary, yet legal disputes postponed it. Once the Nirvana LLC partnership—comprising Grohl, Novoselic, and Love—reached agreement, the single-disc compilation Nirvana appeared in October 2002. Although that set contained only one previously unreleased track, the long-promised box set With the Lights Out arrived in late 2004, encompassing three discs of rare and unreleased material plus a DVD of footage dating back to 1988. The band’s 1992 Reading Festival performance was issued in 2009 as Live at Reading. That same year Sub Pop launched a reissue series beginning with Bleach; deluxe twentieth-anniversary editions of Nevermind and In Utero followed in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, with multiple vocalists—including Joan Jett and Kim Gordon—filling Cobain’s role during the ceremony.