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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. After the band's second album,
1991's Nevermind, nothing was ever quite the same, for better
and for worse. Nirvana popularized punk, post-punk, and indie
rock, unintentionally bringing it into the American mainstream
like no other band before it. While its sound was equal parts
Black Sabbath (as learned by fellow Washington underground
rockers the Melvins) and Cheap Trick, Nirvana's aesthetics
were strictly indie rock. They covered Vaselines songs, they
revived new wave cuts by Devo, and leader Kurt Cobain relentlessly
pushed his favorite bands -- whether it was the art punk of
the Raincoats or the country-fried hardcore of the Meat Puppets
-- as if his favorite records were always more important than
his own music. While Nirvana's ideology was indie rock and
melodies were pop, the sonic rush of their records and live
shows merged the post-industrial white noise with heavy metal
grind. And that's what made the group an unprecedented multi-platinum
sensation. Jane's Addiction and Soundgarden may have proven
to the vast American heavy metal audience that alternative
could rock, and the Pixies may have merged pop sensibilities
with indie rock white noise, but Nirvana pulled at all together,
creating a sound that was both fiery and melodic. Since Nirvana
was rooted in the indie aesthetic, but loved pop music, they
fought their stardom while courting it, becoming some of the
most notorious anti-rock stars in history. The result was
a conscious attempt to shed their audience with the abrasive
In Utero, which only partially fulfilled the band's goal.
But by that point, the fate of the band and Kurt Cobain had
been sealed. Suffering from drug addiction and manic depression,
Cobain had become destructive and suicidal, though his management
and label were able to hide the extent of his problems from
the public until April 8, 1994, when he was found dead of
a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Cobain may not have been able
to weather Nirvana's success, but the band's legacy stands
as one of the most influential in rock & roll history.
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