Nirvana Goes Down in Music History

The Rock and Roll genre of music is split into a million different subgenres and will continue to split until music is no more. Every genre has some key band or bands that can make recognizing that certain genre simple and quick, but one genre that has one of the most recognizable bands is the grunge genre. Grunge is a genre somewhere between normal Rock and Roll and heavier more emotionally driven Heavy Pock, and its headline band is Nirvana.
Nirvana came out of Aberdeen, Washington in the late 1980s with Kurt Cobain as the front man playing guitar and singing, also with David Grohl on drums and Krist Novoselic on bass guitar. They became a part of the little known Seattle Grunge Scene early on and released their first album titled Bleach in 1987 under Sub Pop records.
The band signed onto DRG Records the unexpected success of their second album’s first single titled “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, the band and genre rocketed to stardom and they released two more albums. Their second album “Nevermind” was released in 1991 and their third album “In Utero” was released in 1993.
After much critical acclaim and high talk the band came into an unfortunate end with Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Since then the band has broken up but many posthumous albums have been released since. Overall the band has sold 50 million albums worldwide.
Nirvana is known for their distinct sound, having soft quiet verses then followed by fast, heavy choruses. During their small run they were seen as the “flag ship” band of Generation X and Cobain was seen as the voice of a generation. Their songs and lyrics were very angry, very angsty and very rebellious compared to other bands in their time and bizarre in all means of the word.
These songs dealt with subjects from love and hate, to death and suicide and loneliness and rebellion. Michael Pollock, Urbana High School’s Film and Music teacher said the reason Nirvana was able to hit stardom and such high praise because “They were able to vocalize and write what a lot of kids thought and what other bands weren’t writing,” said Pollock.
“They were innovative; they were in the right place at the right time with the right stuff to get this famous.” When asked of his personal thoughts and views Pollock said, “I always enjoy bands or people who move to push the envelope.”
I also spoke to someone who was a fan of the band at the time, a well known teacher here at UHS Daniel Bechtel. At the time of Cobain’s death Bechtel was 18 and a freshman in college. When asked about his thoughts and views of the band he said “I absolutely liked them, it was the music that everyone listened to at the time.”
When asked about the band as an icon he said “At the time, I didn’t see them as a flagship band or anything big like that, everyone would say ‘Oh, that’s crap, that’s not true’ but if you look back now they really were, the changed music for everyone.”
When asked about Cobain’s problems and down fall Bechtel said “I was surprised by his suicide and the end of Nirvana, I knew he was having problems and I was expecting something, like another overdose maybe, but not suicide.”
Something on the majority’s mind was why he did it, Bechtel gave his views “I think he had an addictive personality, and being surrounded someone as greedy and addicted as Courtney Love (his wife) it made things worse for him. I don’t think he was ready to be that famous and that all of that was too much for him and he broke.”
As stated before, the band came to a tragic end when front man Cobain shot and killed himself in his Lake Washington home on April 8th, 1994. After run ins and outs with rehab and drugs on top of his mental and psychological problems, he brought his own life to an end leaving a suicide note for his wife, Courtney Love.
At the time of his death there were many vigils and ceremonies held around the Seattle and Aberdeen area with fans, family, and band members all in attendance. The unfortunate end to the band sent Grohl and Novoselic on their own.
Grohl has since then formed the band “Foo Fighters” and has had other bands and acts associated with him, all successful in their own way. Novoselic also dabbled in music and even directed movies.
Nirvana is definitely a more recent band that is an instant classic and anyone interested in Rock and Roll or important bands in music history should give them try. Their sound and history are what makes them an amazing band and their songs are an instant classic.
Any of their best of albums are a must hear and if you can’t appreciate them for their music anyone can respect them for their endeavors in music history. If you want more information on the band and their history a highly recommended site is http://www.angelfire.com/clone/syxx/history.html.