Underpinning the meteoric success of Nirvana was a lifelong love of music. From sugary 1960s pop to hardcore, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl had been captivated by the world of music since their childhood. A desire to emulate the innovation of their heroes whilst also doing something completely new fuelled everything they did….
At the start of the 1990s, Nirvana was the breath of fresh air that most of the rock scene needed. Instead of the thousands of hair metal bands that liked to strut their stuff all over MTV, Kurt Cobain didn’t care one bit about what the mainstream had to say, often playing the music he…
Courtney Love, the former partner of Kurt Cobain, has shared unpublished lyrics that the late legend wrote for the biggest Nirvana hit, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Love, the frontwoman of Hole, revealed the lyrics while appearing on Rob Harvilla’s podcast 60 Songs That Explain The ’90s. Amid some fascinating anecdotes about her infamous relationship with…
The entire wave of alternative music was brought to a standstill when news of Kurt Cobain’s death broke. Although Nirvana never had that much output while Cobain was alive, what fans were left with was the wildest music of the 1990s, from alternative anthems to caustic rock and roll. If Cobain had managed to conquer…
Of all the titans of grunge, Nirvana was never known as the most lyrical band in the world. Although Kurt Cobain may have stirred up kids’ souls across the globe whenever he sang, his lyrics were often abstract tone paintings that had to do more with the sound of the words than anything too lyrical….
Steve Albini, the American musician, and record producer famed most for working with Nirvana, Pixies, The Breeders and PJ Harvey, has revealed that his experience working with Nirvana wasn’t enjoyable. In 1993, Kurt Cobain asked Albini to produce Nirvana’s third and final album, In Utero. The Nirvana frontman had been impressed with the producer’s previous…
Alongside being one of the greatest rock stars of all time, Kurt Cobain was a passionate and outspoken supporter of women’s rights. This advocacy often bled into Cobain’s work within music – from penning anti-rape songs in ‘Rape Me’ and ‘Polly’ to platforming female-fronted bands with Nirvana support slots. Cobain often called in up-and-coming, female-fronted…
In Utero, the third and final studio album by Nirvana, still stands today as a powerful and emotionally charged record that showcases the band’s evolution and artistic maturity. The album was the result of the band’s desire to create something that would set them apart from their previous works, like Nevermind, and instead form a…
Woody Guthrie was famously quoted as saying, “That guy stole that from me, but I steal from everybody”. Of course, he referred to the sharing nature of the folk community. Still, the line between gentle borrowing and plagiarism is a fine one, especially when it comes to highly commercial music, such as ‘Smells Like Teen…
The Seattle grunge movement was instrumental in popularising alternative rock in the mainstream, with Nirvana becoming one of the leaders of the genre. After forming in the 1980s, the band picked up greater steam as they entered the ‘90s, finding widespread commercial success with their anthem for disillusioned youth, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Taken from…