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If you wanted to find an alternative music album in the late 1980s, you would have to visit the darkest corners of your favourite music store. You'd probably have to fish them out from the tax write-off section, if there was one. Nirvana changed all that forever.
Vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain grew up in a broken home, and was constantly shunted from one relative to another. Initially identifying with the Beatles, he then found the rush of heavy metal and punk more addictive, and began playing with underground punk bands like The Melvins.
His involvement with underground bands led to his meeting with the 6'7" Krist Novoselic, and they began to work together with a revolving cast of guitarists, drummers and vocalists, before the line-up solidified with Cobain handling vocals and guitars, Novoselic on bass, and Chad Channing on drums.
Playing small gigs, the group, now called Nirvana, began to garner a strong cult following. Signing up with Indie label Sub Pop, a single was released - a cover version of Shocking Blue's Love Buzz.
It wasn't until the release of their first album Bleach, recorded for approximately $600, that Nirvana began to hit the headlines. College radio liked the band, and the band was soon signed to the DGC label. Dave Grohl was now the drummer.
Nevermind was expected to sell around 100,000 copies. It ended up a multi-million smash, with the high-energy four-chord rush of songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Their success took everyone by surprise, including themselves. These guys were supposed to be anti-establishment and underground, and here they were with a triple-platinum album.
Their blend of white-noise punk and metal with the tunefulness of pop had obviously succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Dogged by Cobain's drug-related problems and familial instability, Nirvana was unable to record a follow-up to Nevermind until 1993.
Incesticide, a compilation, came out before In Utero was released in 1993. Cobain was already showing suicidal tendencies - he was found in a coma in a Munich hotel room, overdosed on the tranquilizer Rohypnol. The press called it an accident. The suicide note found later proved otherwise.
On April 8, Kurt Cobain was discovered in the home he shared with wife Courtney Love, a shotgun hole through his head. He was gone, but his influence is still felt in every alternative/grunge band that live up to the genre.
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