Nirvana was an American rock band formed by singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl,
who joined in 1990. Despite releasing only three full-length studio
albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has come to be regarded as
one of the most influential and important alternative bands in history.
Though the band dissolved in 1994 after the death of Cobain, their music
maintains a popular following and continues to influence modern rock
and roll culture.
In the late 1980s, Nirvana established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene, releasing its first album,
Bleach, for the independent record label Sub Pop
in 1989. They developed a sound that relied on dynamic contrasts, often
between quiet verses and loud, heavy choruses. After signing to major
label DGC Records, Nirvana found unexpected success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the first single from the band's second album
Nevermind (1991). Nirvana's sudden success widely popularized alternative rock,
and Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a
generation", with Nirvana considered the "flagship band" of Generation X.
Nirvana's third studio album,
In Utero (1993), released to critical acclaim, featured an abrasive, less mainstream sound and challenged the group's audience.
Nirvana's active career ended following the death of Cobain in 1994, but various posthumous releases have been issued since, overseen by Novoselic, Grohl, and Cobain's widow Courtney Love.
Since its debut, the band has sold over 25 million records in the
United States alone, and over 75 million records worldwide, making them
one of the best-selling bands of all time. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, in its first year of eligibility.
Formation and early years (1987–1988)
Cobain and Novoselic met while attending Aberdeen High, although they never connected, according to Cobain.
[4] The pair eventually became friends while frequenting the practice space of the
Melvins.
[5]
Cobain wanted to form a band with Novoselic, but Novoselic did not
respond for a long period of time. In persuading Novoselic to form a
band, Cobain gave him a demo tape of his project
Fecal Matter.
Three years after the two first met, Novoselic notified Cobain that he
had finally listened to the Fecal Matter demo and suggested they start a
group. The pair recruited Bob McFadden on drums, but after a month the
project fell apart.
[6] In early 1987, Cobain and Novoselic recruited drummer
Aaron Burckhard.
[7] The three practiced material from Cobain's Fecal Matter tape but started writing new material soon after forming.
[8]
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names,
starting with Skid Row and including Fecal Matter and Ted Ed Fred. The
group finally settled on Nirvana, which Cobain said was chosen because
"I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead
of a mean, raunchy punk name like the
Angry Samoans".
[9] With Novoselic and Cobain having moved to
Tacoma and
Olympia, Washington, respectively, the two temporarily lost contact with Burckhard. The pair instead practiced with
Dale Crover of the Melvins, and Nirvana recorded its first demos in January 1988.
[10] In early 1988, Crover moved to
San Francisco but recommended
Dave Foster to the band as his replacement on drums.
[11]
Foster's tenure with Nirvana lasted only a few months; during a stint
in jail, he was replaced by a returning Burckhard, who himself didn't
stay with the band after telling Cobain he was too hungover to practice
one day.
[12] Cobain and Novoselic put an ad in Seattle music publication
The Rocket seeking a replacement drummer, which only yielded unsatisfactory responses. Meanwhile, a mutual friend introduced them to
Chad Channing,
and the three musicians agreed to jam together. Channing continued to
jam with Cobain and Novoselic, although the drummer noted, "They never
actually said 'okay, you're in,'" and Channing played his first show
with the group that May.
[13]
Early releases (1988–1990)
Nirvana released its first single, a cover of
Shocking Blue's "
Love Buzz", in November 1988 on the Seattle
independent record label Sub Pop.
[14] They did their first ever interview with
John Robb in
Sounds who also made the release single of the week. The following month, the band began recording its debut album,
Bleach, with local producer
Jack Endino.
[15] Bleach was highly influenced by the heavy dirge-rock of the Melvins and
Mudhoney, 1980s punk rock, and the 1970s
heavy metal of
Black Sabbath. Novoselic said in a 2001 interview with
Rolling Stone that the band had played a tape in their van while on tour that had an album by
The Smithereens on one side and an album by the
extreme metal band
Celtic Frost on the other, and noted that the combination probably played an influence as well.
[16] The money for the recording sessions for
Bleach, listed as $606.17 on the album sleeve, was supplied by
Jason Everman,
who was subsequently brought into the band as the second guitarist.
Though Everman did not actually play on the album, he received a credit
on
Bleach because, according to Novoselic, they "wanted to make him feel more at home in the band".
[17]
Just prior to the album's release, Nirvana insisted on signing an
extended contract with Sub Pop, making the band the first to do so with
the label.
[18]
Following the release of
Bleach in June 1989, Nirvana embarked on its first national tour,
[19] and the album became a favorite of
college radio stations.
[20]
Due to increasing differences between Everman and the rest of the band
over the course of the tour, Nirvana canceled the last few dates and
drove back to Washington. No one told Everman he was fired at the time,
while Everman later said that he actually quit the group.
[21] Although Sub Pop did not promote
Bleach as much as other releases, it was a steady seller,
[22] and had initial sales of 40,000 copies.
[23] However, Cobain was upset by the label's lack of promotion and distribution for the album.
[22] In late 1989, the band recorded the
Blew EP with producer
Steve Fisk.
[24]
In a late 1989 interview with
John Robb in
Sounds,
Cobain noted that the band's music was changing. He said, "The early
songs were really angry... But as time goes on the songs are getting
poppier and poppier as I get happier and happier. The songs are now
about conflicts in relationships, emotional things with other human
beings".
[25] In April 1990, the band began working with producer
Butch Vig at Smart Studios in
Madison, Wisconsin on recordings for the follow-up to
Bleach.
[26]
During the sessions, Cobain and Novoselic became disenchanted with
Channing's drumming, and Channing expressed frustration at not being
actively involved in songwriting. As bootlegs of Nirvana's demos with
Vig began to circulate in the music industry and draw attention from
major labels, Channing left the band.
[27] That July, the band recorded the single "
Sliver" with Mudhoney drummer
Dan Peters.
[28] Nirvana asked Dale Crover to fill in on drums for a seven-date American West Coast tour with
Sonic Youth that August.
[29]
Dave Grohl performing in 1991
In September 1990,
Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced the band to
Dave Grohl, who was looking for a new band following the sudden break-up of Washington, D.C.,
hardcore punks Scream.
[30]
A few days after arriving in Seattle, Novoselic and Cobain auditioned
Grohl, with Novoselic later stating, "We knew in two minutes that he was
the right drummer".
[31] Grohl later told
Q "I remember being in the same room with them and thinking, 'What?
That's Nirvana? Are you kidding?'" and "Because on their
record cover
they looked like psycho lumberjacks... I was like, 'What, that little
dude and that big motherfucker? You're kidding me'. I laughed. I was
like, 'No way'".
[32]
Mainstream success (1991–1994)
Nevermind and Incesticide (1991–1992)
Disenchanted
with Sub Pop and with the Smart Studios sessions generating interest,
Nirvana decided to look for a deal with a major record label since no
indie label could buy the group out of its contract.
[33] Following repeated recommendations by Sonic Youth's
Kim Gordon, Nirvana signed to
DGC Records in 1990.
[34] The band subsequently began recording its first major label album,
Nevermind. The group was offered a number of producers to choose from, but ultimately held out for Butch Vig.
[35] Rather than recording at Vig's Madison studio as they had in 1990, production shifted to
Sound City Studios in
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. For two months, the band worked through a variety of songs in its catalog. Some of the songs, such as "
In Bloom" and "Breed", had been in Nirvana's repertoire for years, while others, including "
On a Plain" and "Stay Away", lacked finished lyrics until midway through the recording process.
[36]
After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out
to mix the album. However, the recording sessions had run behind
schedule and the resulting mixes were deemed unsatisfactory.
Slayer mixer
Andy Wallace
was brought in to create the final mix. After the album's release,
members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the polished sound the
mixer had given
Nevermind.
[37] In January 1992 the band played two songs from
Nevermind on
Saturday Night Live, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Territorial Pissings".
Announcement from the band encouraging people to participate in the making of the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Initially, DGC Records was hoping to sell 250,000 copies of
Nevermind, which was the same level they had achieved with Sonic Youth's
Goo.
[38] However, the album's first single "
Smells Like Teen Spirit" quickly gained momentum, thanks in part to significant airplay of the song's music video on
MTV.
As it toured Europe during late 1991, the band found that its shows
were dangerously oversold, that television crews were becoming a
constant presence onstage, and that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost
omnipresent on radio and music television.
[39] By Christmas 1991,
Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week in the US.
[40] In January 1992, the album displaced
Michael Jackson's
Dangerous at number one on the
Billboard album charts, and also topped the charts in numerous other countries.
[41] The month
Nevermind reached number one,
Billboard
proclaimed, "Nirvana is that rare band that has everything: critical
acclaim, industry respect, pop radio appeal, and a rock-solid
college/alternative base".
[42] The album would eventually sell over seven million copies in the United States,
[43] and over 30 million worldwide.
[44]
Krist Novoselic performing in 2011
Citing exhaustion, Nirvana decided not to undertake another American tour in support of
Nevermind, instead opting to make only a handful of performances later that year.
[45]
In March 1992, Cobain sought to reorganize the group's songwriting
royalties (which to this point had been split equally) so that they were
more representative of the fact that he wrote the majority of the
music. Grohl and Novoselic did not object to Cobain's request, but when
the frontman asked for the agreement to be retroactive to the release of
Nevermind, the disagreements between the two sides came close to
breaking up the band. After a week of tension, Cobain ended up
receiving a retroactive share of 75 percent of the royalties, and bad
feelings about the situation remained within the group afterward.
[46] Amid rumors that the band was disbanding due to Cobain's health, Nirvana headlined the closing night of England's 1992
Reading Festival, where Cobain personally programmed the performance lineup.
[47] Nirvana's performance at Reading is often regarded by the press as one of the most memorable of the group's career.
[48][49] A few days later, Nirvana performed at the
MTV Video Music Awards where, despite the network's refusal to let the band play the new song "
Rape Me" during the broadcast, Cobain strummed and sang the first few bars of the song before breaking into "
Lithium". At the ceremony, the band received awards for the
Best Alternative Video and
Best New Artist categories.
[50]
DGC had hoped to have a new Nirvana album by the band ready for a
late 1992 holiday season release; since work on it proceeded slowly, the
label released the compilation album
Incesticide in December 1992.
[51] A joint venture between DGC and Sub Pop,
Incesticide
collected various rare Nirvana recordings and was intended to provide
the material for a better price and at better quality than was available
via bootleg copies.
[52] As
Nevermind
had been out for 15 months and had yielded a fourth single in "In
Bloom" by that point, Geffen/DGC opted not to heavily promote
Incesticide, which was certified gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America the following February.
[53]
In Utero, final months, and Cobain's death (1993–1994)
Cobain's house in Seattle where he died in April 1994
In February 1993, Nirvana released
"Puss"/"Oh, the Guilt", a split single with
The Jesus Lizard, on the independent label
Touch & Go.
[51] Meanwhile, the group chose
Steve Albini, who had a reputation as a principled and opinionated individual in the American
indie music
scene, to record its third album. While there was speculation that the
band chose Albini to record the album due to his underground
credentials,
[54]
Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always
wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers of studio
trickery.
[55] Nirvana traveled to
Pachyderm Studio in
Cannon Falls, Minnesota, in that February to record the album.
[56]
The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick, and the
album was recorded and mixed in two weeks for a cost of $25,000.
[57]
Several weeks after the completion of the recording sessions, stories ran in the
Chicago Tribune and
Newsweek that quoted sources claiming DGC considered the album "unreleasable".
[58] As a result, fans began to believe that the band's creative vision might be compromised by their label.
[59]
While the stories about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band
actually was unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes.
Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low,
[60] and Cobain felt that "
Heart-Shaped Box" and "
All Apologies" did not sound "perfect".
[61] Longtime
R.E.M. producer
Scott Litt was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional instrumentation and backing vocals.
[62]
In Utero debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 album chart in September 1993.
[63] Time's
Christopher John Farley
wrote in his review of the album, "Despite the fears of some
alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this
potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana".
[64] In Utero went on to sell over 3.5 million copies in the United States.
[43] That October, Nirvana embarked on its first tour of the United States in two years with support from
Half Japanese and
The Breeders.
[65] For the tour, the band added
Pat Smear of the punk rock band
Germs as a second guitarist.
[66] In November 1993, Nirvana recorded a performance for the television program
MTV Unplugged. Augmented by Smear and cellist
Lori Goldston,
the band sought to veer from the typical approach to the show, opting
to stay away from playing its most recognizable songs. Instead, Nirvana
performed several covers, and invited
Cris and
Curt Kirkwood of the
Meat Puppets to join the group for renditions of three of their songs.
[67] Also in November 1993, the band made its second appearance on
Saturday Night Live, where they played "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Rape Me".
In early 1994, the band embarked on a European tour. Nirvana's final concert took place in
Munich, Germany, on March 1. In
Rome, on the morning of March 4, Cobain's wife,
Courtney Love,
found Cobain unconscious in their hotel room and he was rushed to the
hospital. A doctor from the hospital told in a press conference that
Cobain had reacted to a combination of prescribed
Rohypnol and of alcohol. The rest of the tour was cancelled.
[68] In the ensuing weeks, Cobain's
heroin
addiction resurfaced. An intervention was organized, and Cobain was
convinced to admit himself into drug rehabilitation. After less than a
week in rehabilitation, Cobain climbed over the wall of the facility and
took a plane back to Seattle. A week later, on Friday, April 8, 1994,
Cobain was found dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head at
his home in Seattle.
[69]
Aftermath and posthumous releases (1994–present)
Touring guitarist, former
Germs member, and Foo Fighters member Pat Smear has performed with the surviving members of Nirvana several times in the 2010s.
In August 1994, DGC announced that a double album titled
Verse Chorus Verse featuring live material from throughout the group's career on one CD and its
MTV Unplugged performance on another was due for release that November.
[51]
However, Novoselic and Grohl found assembling the live material so soon
after Cobain's death to be too emotionally overwhelming.
[70] Grohl founded the
Foo Fighters, and Novoselic turned his attention to political activism. With the career-spanning live portion postponed,
MTV Unplugged in New York debuted at number one on the
Billboard charts upon release in November 1994. A few weeks later the group's first full-length video,
Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!, was released.
[51] The following year,
MTV Unplugged in New York earned Nirvana a
Grammy Award for
Best Alternative Music Album.
[71] In 1996, DGC finally issued a Nirvana live album,
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, which became the third Nirvana release in a row to debut at the top of the
Billboard album chart.
[51]
In 1997, Novoselic, Grohl, and Courtney Love formed the
limited liability company Nirvana LLC to oversee all Nirvana-related projects.
[72] A 45-track box set of Nirvana rarities was scheduled for release in October 2001.
[73]
However, shortly before the release date, Love filed a suit to dissolve
Nirvana LLC, and an injunction was issued preventing the release of any
new Nirvana material until the case was resolved.
[74]
Love contended that Cobain was the band, that Grohl and Novoselic were
sidemen, and that she signed the partnership agreement originally under
bad advice. Grohl and Novoselic countersued, asking the court to remove
Love from the partnership and to replace her with another representative
of Cobain's estate.
[73]
The day before the case was set to go to trial in October 2002, Love,
Novoselic, and Grohl announced that they had reached a settlement. The
settlement paved the way for the release of the compilation album
Nirvana, which featured the previously unreleased track "
You Know You're Right", the last song Nirvana recorded before Cobain's death.
[75] Nirvana was released later that month, debuting at number three on the
Billboard album chart.
[76] The box set,
With the Lights Out,
was finally released in November 2004. The release contained a vast
array of early Cobain demos, rough rehearsal recordings, and live tracks
recorded throughout the band's history.
Sliver: The Best of the Box,
which culled 19 tracks from the box set in addition to featuring three
previously unreleased tracks, was released in late 2005.
[77]
In April 2006, Love announced that she had arranged to sell 25
percent of her stake in the Nirvana song catalog in a deal estimated at
$50 million. The share of Nirvana's publishing was purchased by Primary
Wave Music, which was founded by Larry Mestel, a former CEO of
Virgin Records.
In an accompanying statement, Love sought to assure Nirvana's fanbase
that the music would not simply be licensed to the highest bidder,
noting, "We are going to remain very tasteful and true to the spirit of
Nirvana while taking the music to places it has never been before".
[78] Further releases have since been made. This includes the DVD releases of
Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! in 2006,
[79] and the full, uncut version of
MTV Unplugged in New York in 2007.
[80] The band's performance at the 1992 Reading Festival was released on both CD and DVD as
Live at Reading in November 2009. That month, Sub Pop released a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of
Bleach, and DGC released a number of 20th anniversary deluxe-edition packages of both
Nevermind in September 2011, and
In Utero in September 2013.
In 2012, Grohl, Novoselic, and Smear joined
Paul McCartney at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief.The performance featured the premiere of a new song written by the four
musicians entitled "Cut Me Some Slack". A studio recording was released
on the soundtrack to
Sound City, a film by Grohl. On July 19, 2013, they would once again play with McCartney during the encore of his Safeco Field "Out There" concert in Seattle, the first time Nirvana members played together in their hometown in over 15 years.
In 2014, Nirvana was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;
the members inducted were Cobain, Novoselic, and Grohl. At the
induction ceremony, Novoselic, Grohl and Smear performed a four-song set
with guest vocalists
Joan Jett,
Kim Gordon,
St. Vincent, and
Lorde.
[90][91] Novoselic, Grohl, and Smear then performed a full show at Brooklyn's St. Vitus Bar with Jett, Gordon, St. Vincent,
J Mascis, and
John McCauley as guest vocalists.
[92]
At the ceremony, Grohl thanked Burckhard, Crover, Peters and Channing
for their time in Nirvana. Everman was also invited and attended the
ceremony.
[93]
At Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party in 2016, the surviving members of Nirvana once again reunited to perform the
David Bowie song "
The Man Who Sold the World" that they'd covered on their Unplugged album.
Beck joined the band to play acoustic guitar and handle lead vocals.
[94]
Musical style
Cobain described the sound of Nirvana when it first started as "a
Gang of Four and
Scratch Acid ripoff".
[52] Later when Nirvana recorded
Bleach,
Cobain felt he had to fit the expectations of the Sub Pop grunge sound
to build a fanbase, and hence suppressed his arty and pop songwriting
traits while crafting the record in favor of a more rocking sound.
[96] Nirvana biographer
Michael Azerrad
argued, "Ironically, it was the restrictions of the Sub Pop sound that
helped the band find its musical identity". Azerrad stated that by
acknowledging that its members had grown up listening to
Black Sabbath and
Aerosmith, the band was able to move on from its derivative early sound.
[97]
Nirvana used dynamic shifts that went from quiet to loud.
[60] Cobain had sought to mix heavy and pop musical sounds; he commented, "I wanted to be totally
Led Zeppelin in a way and then be totally extreme punk rock and then do real wimpy pop songs". When Cobain heard the
Pixies' 1988 album
Surfer Rosa after recording
Bleach,
he felt it had the sound he wanted to achieve but until then was too
intimidated to try. The Pixies' subsequent popularity encouraged Cobain
to follow his instincts as a songwriter.
[98] Like the Pixies, Nirvana moved between "spare bass-and-drum grooves and shrill bursts of screaming guitar and vocals".
[99]
Near the end of his life, Cobain noted the band had become bored by the
formula, finding it limited, but he expressed doubts that the band was
skilled enough to try other dynamics.
[60]
Cobain's rhythm guitar style, which relied on power chords, low-note
riffs, and a loose left-handed technique, featured the key components to
the band’s songs. Cobain would often initially play a song's verse riff
in a clean tone, then double it with distorted guitars when he repeated
the part. In some songs the guitar would be absent from the verses
entirely to allow the drums and bass guitar to support the vocals, or it
would only play sparse melodies like the two-note pattern used in
"Smells Like Teen Spirit". Cobain rarely played standard guitar solos,
opting to play slight variations of the song's melody as single note
lines. Cobain's solos were mostly blues-based and discordant, which
music writer Jon Chappell described as "almost an iconoclastic parody of
the traditional instrumental break", a quality typified by the
note-for-note replication of the lead melody in "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" and the atonal solo for "Breed".
[95]
When asked about their musical education, the band states that they had
no formal musical training. In fact, Cobain says: "I have no concept of
knowing how to be a musician at all what-so-ever... I couldn't even
pass Guitar 101".
[100]
Grohl's drumming "took Nirvana's sound to a new level of intensity".
[101]
Azerrad stated that Grohl's "powerful drumming propelled the band to a
whole new plane, visually as well as musically", noting, "Although Dave
is a merciless basher, his parts are also distinctly musical—it wouldn't
be difficult to figure out what song he was playing even without the
rest of the music".
[102]
From 1992, Cobain and Novoselic would tune their guitars to E flat
for studio and live performances (up until then, their live tunings were
to
concert pitch).
[103] Cobain noted, "We play so hard we can't tune our guitars fast enough".
[104]
The band made a habit of destroying its equipment after shows.
Novoselic said he and Cobain created the "shtick" in order to get off of
the stage sooner.
[105]
Cobain stated it began as an expression of his frustration with Chad
Channing making mistakes and dropping out entirely during performances.
[106]
Songwriting and lyrics
Everett True said in 1989, "Nirvana songs treat the banal and pedestrian with a unique slant".
[107]
Cobain came up with the basic components of each song (usually writing
them on an acoustic guitar), as well as the singing style and the
lyrics. He emphasized that Novoselic and Grohl "have a big part in
deciding on how long a song should be and how many parts it should have.
So I don't like to be considered the sole songwriter".
[108]
When asked which part of the songs he would write first, Cobain
responded, "I don’t know. I really don't know. I guess I start with the
verse and then go into the chorus".
[60]
Cobain usually wrote lyrics for songs minutes before recording them.
[108]
Cobain said, "When I write a song the lyrics are the least important
subject. I can go through two or three different subjects in a song and
the title can mean absolutely nothing at all".
[109] Cobain told
Spin in 1993 that he "didn't give a flying fuck" what the lyrics on
Bleach
were about, figuring "Let's just scream some negative lyrics and as
long as they're not sexist and don't get too embarrassing it'll be
okay", while the lyrics to
Nevermind were taken from two years of
poetry he had accumulated, which he cut up and chose lines he preferred
from. In comparison, Cobain stated that the lyrics to
In Utero were "more focused, they're almost built on themes".
[110]
Cobain didn't write necessarily in a linear fashion, instead relying on
juxtapositions of contradictory images to convey emotions and ideas.
Often in his lyrics, Cobain would present an idea then reject it; the
songwriter explained, "I'm such a nihilistic jerk half the time and
other times I'm so vulnerable and sincere [.. The songs are] like a
mixture of both of them. That's how most people my age are".
[111]
Legacy
Sign erected in 2005 in Cobain's hometown of
Aberdeen, Washington in tribute to him. It was paid for by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee and is a reference to the Nirvana song "
Come as You Are".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
wrote that prior to Nirvana, "alternative music was consigned to
specialty sections of record stores, and major labels considered it to
be, at the very most, a tax write-off". Following the release of
Nevermind, "nothing was ever quite the same, for better and for worse".
[112] The success of
Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general".
[113]
While other alternative bands had hits before, Nirvana "broke down the
doors forever", according to Erlewine. Erlewine further stated that
Nirvana's breakthrough "didn't eliminate the underground", but rather
"just gave it more exposure".
[114] In 1992,
Jon Pareles of
The New York Times
reported that Nirvana's breakthrough had made others in the alternative
scene impatient for achieving similar success, noting, "Suddenly, all
bets are off. No one has the inside track on which of dozens, perhaps
hundreds, of ornery, obstreperous, unkempt bands might next appeal to
the mall-walking millions". Record company executives offered large
advances and record deals to bands, and previous strategies of building
audiences for alternative rock groups had been replaced by the
opportunity to achieve mainstream popularity quickly.
[115]
Erlewine stated that Nirvana's breakthrough "popularized so-called '
Generation X' and 'slacker' culture".
[114]
Immediately following Cobain's death, numerous headlines referred to
Nirvana's frontman as "the voice of a generation", although he had
rejected such labeling during his lifetime.
[116] Reflecting on Cobain's death over ten years later,
MSNBC's
Eric Olsen wrote, "In the intervening decade, Cobain, a small, frail
but handsome man in life, has become an abstract Generation X icon,
viewed by many as the 'last real rock star' [...] a messiah and martyr
whose every utterance has been plundered and parsed".
[113]
Awards and accolades
Since its breakup, Nirvana has continued to receive acclaim, and is
regularly considered one of the greatest music artists of all time. In
2003, Nirvana was selected as one of the inductees of the
Mojo Hall of Fame 100.
[117] The band also received a nomination for induction in the
UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004 as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s".
[118] Rolling Stone placed Nirvana at number 27 on their list of the "
100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004,
[119] and at number 30 on their updated list in 2011.
[120] In 2003, the magazine's senior editor
David Fricke picked Kurt Cobain as the 12th best guitarist of all time.
[121] Rolling Stone later ranked Cobain as the 45th greatest singer in 2008
[122] and 73rd greatest guitarist of all time in 2011.
[123] VH1 ranked Nirvana as the 42nd greatest artists of rock and roll in 1998,
[124] the 7th greatest hard rock artists in 2000,
[125] and the 14th greatest artists of all time in 2010.
[126]
Nirvana's contributions to music have also received recognition, with
Nevermind
and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" consistently being ranked as one of the
greatest albums and songs of all time, respectively. The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame has inducted two of Nirvana's recordings, "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" and "All Apologies", into its list of "
The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
[127] The museum also ranked
Nevermind number 10 on its "The Definitive 200 Albums of All Time" list in 2007.
[128] In 2005, the
Library of Congress added
Nevermind to the
National Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.
[129] In 2011, four of Nirvana's songs appeared on
Rolling Stone's updated list of "
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ranking the highest at number 9.
[130] Three of the band's albums were ranked on the magazine's 2012 list of "
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", with
Nevermind placing the highest at number 17.
[131] The same three Nirvana albums were also placed on
Rolling Stone's 2011 list of "The 100 Best Albums of the Nineties", with
Nevermind ranking the highest at number 1, making it the greatest album of the decade.
[132] Time included
Nevermind on its list of "The All-TIME 100 Albums" in 2006, labeling it "the finest album of the 90s".
[133] In 2011, the magazine also added "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on its list of "The All-TIME 100 Songs",
[134] and "Heart-Shaped Box" on its list of "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos".
[135]
Nirvana is one of
the best-selling bands of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.
[136] With over 25 million
RIAA-certified units, the band is also
the 80th best-selling music artist in the United States.
[3] Two of the band's studio albums and two of their live albums have reached the top spot on the
Billboard 200.
[137] Nirvana has been awarded one Diamond, three Multi-Platinum, seven Platinum and two Gold
certified albums in the United States by the RIAA,
[138] and four Multi-Platinum, four Platinum, two Gold and one Silver certified albums in the UK by the
BPI.
[139] Nevermind, the band's most successful album, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of
the best-selling albums ever.
[140] Their most successful song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", is among
the best-selling singles of all time, having sold 8 million copies.
[141]
Nirvana were announced in their first year of eligibility as being part of the 2014 class of inductees into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on December 17, 2013. The induction ceremony was held April 10, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York, at the
Barclays Center.
[142] However, Channing, who was informed of his omission by
SMS, was not included in the induction, as the accolade was only applied to Cobain, Novoselic and Grohl
