If there was one band that epitomised the sound of grunge then it had to be Nirvana, the garage rock outfit that emerged from the trailer-park no man's land of Aberdeen, Washington, some eight miles outside Seattle, way back in 1986. Comprised of Kurt Cobain (guitar/vocals) and Chris Novoselic (bass), they went through a succession of drummers before finally settling on ex-Scream member Dave Grohl.
With something of a landmark album already to their name - the fuzz-drenched 'Bleach' emerged in 1989 - the band took mainstream rock influences and twisted them beyond all recognition for what was to become the most important release of the 1990s. If Cobain had hinted at a melodic pop sensibility beneath the grimy production of 'Bleach' then 'Nevermind' (1991) stripped away the filth and presented his songwriting abilities to an unsuspecting public.
Unwittingly, Cobain had tapped into the zeitgeist of the time. Overtly punk influenced the band turned the accepted view of rock upside down and helped create a movement that virtually wiped out the bloated big-haired excesses of '80s rock. The media coined the phrase Generation X to describe disaffected youth of the time and Nirvana provided the soundtrack for an alienated generation, a sound and influence still resonant in the music scene today.
Visit www.kurt-cobain.com, a neat website with lyrics, biographys, discography, photos and other cool stuff. Check out Kurt Cobain's suicide note here. Download the text version here.
