Whether you like it or not Nirvana was on of those bands who changed music and in my opinion probably for the better.  They took their own form of alternative rock and brought it to the mainstream even though it was never the band’s intention.  Considered a poet, genius, legend and troubled, Kurt Cobain came through the music industry by storm and left it just as quickly.  I felt it was right to have them in the artist spotlight this week considering yesterday was the 20th anniversary of their debut and underrated album Bleach.   The band only had about three full length albums and one B-sides album while the band was still together but released 4 compilation albums after the band had long departed.  This is how everything began and ended.

Kurt Cobain met friend Christ Noveselic while hanging out with the band the Melvins who both were obsessed with at the time.  They decided to put a band together and took most of their influences from 80′s punk and alternative bands and obviously of course the Melvins.  They had gone through a couple band names and drummers before finally setting on the name Nirvana and drummer Chris Channing.  Just shortly after this happened the band was set to release their debut album from new indie label Sub Pop which they had quickly recorded in a week.  The album was the early work of Nirvana and was much heavier then their later albums but that’s because Kurt and Christ wanted to take the sludge sound of the Melvins and blend it into their own style of alternative rock.  Needless to say the album had some mainstream attention but little to know air play even after a heavy tour schedule.  During their touring Channing had become disenchanted with the band due to the fact that he wasn’t involved in as much song writing as he wanted to be and needless to say Kurt and Christ didn’t seem to care and wanted him out of the band anyway.  This led to the finding and start of drumer Dave Grohl into what most people know as the real Nirvana.

When Grohl entered the band both other bandmates have been quoted as saying “he just fit” and had put some demos together which would appear on their B-Sides album called Incesticide that featured old and new tracks from the band.  It wasn’t too long after that Nirvana entered the studio and recorded what would become their legacy, masterpiece and burden in the highly praised Nevermind.  Shortly after the album came out the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was blowing up the airwaves and quickly destroying all 80′s metal, new wave and rock bands at the time all while creating a new style of music which was named Grunge Rock.  The widespread success was becoming a burden on Cobain for the next two years and wasn’t really happy that most people weren’t getting his music and more often then not just following the trend.  In doing so he wanted to throw away the fake fans and keep the real intellectual fans by creating a new album that wouldn’t be so PC.

When In Utero was released even with songs as crude as “Rape Me” the public and critics praised Nirvana again and the fan base was as strong as ever.  Cobain becoming more and more addicted to Heroin and now more strung out about the popularity of his music was starting to behave differently and not quite able to realize the success he had.  The band went on tour and played a special Unplugged session for MTV that was later created into a platinum selling album and the world watched Kurt Cobain ruin the new band that changed rock music.  Shortly after checking into a rehab clinic, Cobain had checked out and flew to his home in Washington where he was found dead from a self inflicted shotgun wound while on a heavy dose of heroin.

The world was in shock and the music industry was hit with the break up of one of the biggest influential bands since the Beatles (arguably).  Dave Grohl went on to form the Foo Fighters and had great success while Christ Noveselic got into production as well as playing in several punk related bands.  More then 7 years after Cobain’s death, Grohl and Noveselic won the legal band against Cobain’s wife Courtney Love to release all unreleased material that band had done and release it to the fans.  Nirvana has influenced many bands today and it’s a shame Kurt Cobain couldn’t see that he was influencing the right people and not the wrong one’s all along.