Nirvana

Nirvana transformed American rock music through a collision of punk fury and pop melody that defined the early 1990s. Formed in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987 by vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, the band crystallised with drummer Dave Grohl in 1990. Their 1991 album Nevermind became an unexpected commercial juggernaut, displacing Michael Jackson from the Billboard charts and rendering hair metal obsolete overnight. Cobain's songwriting married Black Sabbath heaviness with Beatles hooks, his corroded voice expressing generational disaffection. In Utero (1993) offered a more abrasive rejoinder to fame before Cobain's suicide in April 1994 ended the band at their commercial peak.

The group's impact extended beyond music into fashion, attitude and the mainstreaming of alternative culture. Their stripped-down aesthetic, borrowed from hardcore punk and indie rock, provided a template that persists decades later. Grunge became shorthand for a broader cultural shift, though Cobain himself resisted the commodification of his discontent. Nirvana sold over 75 million records worldwide, their brief catalogue remaining an entry point into heavier guitar music.