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171-425: Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana . Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establishment persona, his compositions widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was heralded as a spokesman of Generation X , and is widely recognized as one of

342-573: A Fender Twin Reverb due to his main amplifier, a solid-state Randall , being repaired at the time, but as the Twin Reverb's speakers were blown, he was forced to pair it with an external cabinet featuring two 12" speakers. He used a Boss DS-1 for distortion, while playing Hi-Flier guitars, which cost him $ 100 each. Nirvana embarked on their first American tour in 1989, at the start of which Cobain played an Epiphone ET270; however, he destroyed

513-424: A Vox AC30 and a Fender Bassman . Producer Butch Vig preferred to avoid pedals, but allowed Cobain to use his Boss DS-1, which Cobain considered a key part of his sound, as well as an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedal and a Small Clone chorus, which can be heard on songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," and "Aneurysm." Cobain used his '69 Mustang, '65 Jaguar, a custom Jaguar/Mustang, and

684-454: A countercultural punk rock community. Vail's lovers were described by her friend Alice Wheeler as "fashion accessories". Cobain wrote many of his songs about Vail. On his 14th birthday, February 20, 1981, Cobain's uncle offered him the choice of either a bike or a used guitar; Kurt chose the guitar. Soon, he was trying to play Led Zeppelin 's song " Stairway to Heaven ". He also learned how to play " Louie Louie ", Queen 's " Another One Bites

855-503: A dirge -like music that was the beginning of northwest grunge. The Melvins were the most influential of the early grunge bands. Sub Pop producer Jack Endino described grunge as "seventies-influenced, slowed-down punk music". Leighton Beezer, who played with Mark Arm and Steve Turner in the Thrown Ups, state that when he heard Green River play Come On Down , he realized that they were playing punk rock backwards. He noted that

1026-472: A sellout ?" Clothing commonly worn by grunge musicians in Washington were a "mundane everyday style", in which they would wear the same clothes on stage that they wore at home. This Pacific Northwest "slacker style" or "slouch look" contrasted sharply with the "wild" mohawks , leather jackets and chains worn by punks. This everyday clothing approach was used by grunge musicians because authenticity

1197-419: A snare drum and, for cymbals , Zildjian instruments, including "... 14-inch K Light [Hi-] hats ; 17-inch K Custom Dark crash [cymbal] and 18-inch K Crash Ride; 19-inch Projection crash; a 20-inch Rezo crash; ... and a ... 22-inch A Medium ride [cymbal]". A second example is Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl 's set-up during 1990 and 1991. He used a four-piece Tama drumset, with an 8" × 14" birch snare drum,

1368-407: A "desire to 'crucify the insincere ' ", an approach which fans appreciated for its authenticity . Grunge lyrics have been criticized as "violent and often obscene." In 1996, conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote an essay criticizing grunge, entitled "Our Hero, Heroin"; he called it a music that is mostly "... shorn of ideals and the impulse for political action". A number of factors influenced

1539-507: A "dirty" background texture which is done with dull, subdued colors. A key figure in creating the "look" of the grunge scene for outsiders was music photographer Charles Peterson . Peterson's black and white, uncropped, and sometimes blurry shots of the underground Pacific Northwest music scene's members playing and jamming, wearing their characteristic everyday clothes, were used by Sub Pop to promote its Seattle bands. Grays Harbor County Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1710-420: A "low-rent studio named Reciprocal ", where producer Jack Endino created the grunge genre's aesthetic, a "raw and unpolished sound with distortion , but usually without any added studio effects ". Endino is known for his stripped-down recording practices and his dislike of 'over-producing' music with effects and remastering . His work on Soundgarden's Screaming Life and Nirvana's Bleach as well as for

1881-521: A 14" × 15" rack tom, a 16" × 18" floor tom, and a 16" × 24" bass drum (this kit "was demolished at the Cabaret Metro, Chicago, 10/12/91"). Like Matt Cameron, Dave Grohl used Zildjian cymbals. Grohl used the company's A Series Medium cymbals, including an 18" and a 20" crash cymbal, a 22" ride cymbal, and a pair of 15" hi-hat cymbals. Although other instruments are generally not included in grunge, Seattle band Gorilla created controversy by breaking

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2052-482: A 1992 interview, "Junk is always best," but denied this was a punk statement and claimed it was a necessity, as he had trouble finding high quality lefthanded guitars. Cobain's first guitar was a used electric guitar from Sears that he received on his 14th birthday. He took guitar lessons long enough to learn AC/DC 's " Back in Black " and began playing with local kids. Cobain found the guitar smashed after leaving it in

2223-443: A Bone EP in a Sub Pop record company catalogue as "gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation". Although the word "grunge" has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the grinding, sludgy sound of Seattle. It is expensive and time-consuming to get a recording to sound clean, so for those northwestern bands just starting out it

2394-429: A Cross ", the latter of which featured Cobain performing solo. Cobain was inspired to record the songs after receiving a copy of Lead Belly's Last Sessions from friend Slim Moon ; after hearing it, he "felt a connection to Leadbelly's almost physical expressions of longing and desire." In 1990, Cobain and his girlfriend, Tobi Vail of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill , collaborated on a musical project called Bathtub

2565-519: A Guatemalan purse and wore green pajamas, because he had been "too lazy to put on a tux." Eight people were in attendance at the ceremony, including Grohl, but not Novoselic. Love said she was warned by the Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon that marrying Cobain would "destroy her life"; Love responded: "'Whatever! I love him, and I want to be with him!' ... It wasn't his fault. He wasn't trying to do that." The couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain ,

2736-583: A Hi-Flier for the In Utero recording sessions. To tour behind the album, Cobain placed an order for 10 Mustangs split between Fiesta Red and Sonic Blue. As the Fender Custom Shop was new, the guitars were to be shipped out two at a time over a period of months. By the time of his death, Cobain had received six of the guitars. The remaining four, waiting to be shipped, were instead sold as regular stock at Japanese music stores without informing buyers

2907-667: A London bookstall. Cobain met with Burroughs at his home in Lawrence, Kansas in October 1993. Burroughs expressed no surprise at Cobain's death: "It wasn't an act of will for Kurt to kill himself. As far as I was concerned, he was dead already." In a Guitar World retrospective, Cobain's guitar tone was deemed "one of the most iconic" in the history of the electric guitar, while noting that rather than relying on expensive or vintage items, Cobain used "an eccentric cache of budget models, low-end imports and pawn shop prizes." Cobain stated in

3078-480: A Murderer inspired Cobain to write the song " Scentless Apprentice " from In Utero . The book is a historical horror novel about a perfumer 's apprentice born with no body odor of his own but with a highly developed sense of smell, and who attempts to create the "ultimate perfume" by killing virginal women and taking their scent. Cobain immersed himself in artistic projects throughout his life, as much so as he did in songwriting. The sentiments of his artwork followed

3249-525: A band with him by lending him a copy of a home demo recorded by Fecal Matter. After months of asking, Novoselic agreed to join Cobain, forming the beginnings of Nirvana. Religion appeared to remain a significant muse to Cobain during this time as he often used Christian imagery in his work and developed an interest in Jainism and Buddhist philosophy. Cobain became disenchanted after early touring because of

3420-410: A benefit opposing the 1992 Oregon Ballot Measure 9 , and supported local bands with LGBTQ+ members. He reported having felt "different" from the age of seven, and was a frequent target of homophobic bullying in his school due to his having a "gay friend". Cobain was interviewed by two gay magazines, Out and The Advocate ; the 1993 interview with The Advocate being described as "the only [interview]

3591-568: A bisexual life-style", but also that he was "more sexually attracted to women". He described himself as being "feminine" in childhood, and often wore dresses and other stereotypically feminine clothing. Some of his song lyrics, as well as phrases he would use to vandalize vehicles and a bank, included "God is gay", "Jesus is gay", "HOMOSEXUAL SEX RULES", and "Everyone is gay". One of his personal journals states, "I am not gay, although I wish I were, just to piss off homophobes." Cobain advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, including traveling to Oregon to perform at

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3762-868: A bridge over the Wishkah River , an experience that inspired the song " Something in the Way ". His future bandmate Krist Novoselic later said, "He hung out there, but you couldn't live on those muddy banks, with the tides coming up and down. That was his own revisionism." In late 1986, Cobain moved into an apartment, paying his rent by working at the Polynesian Resort, a themed resort on the Pacific coast at Ocean Shores, Washington approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Aberdeen. During this period, he traveled frequently to Olympia, Washington , to go to rock concerts. During his visits to Olympia, Cobain formed

3933-558: A couple of records, and now he turns out to be my absolute favorite of all time in music. I absolutely love it more than any rock'n'roll I ever heard." The album MTV Unplugged in New York was released posthumously in 1994. It has drawn comparisons to R.E.M.'s 1992 release, Automatic for the People . In 1993, Cobain had predicted that the next Nirvana album would be "pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.'s last album". "Yeah, he talked

4104-475: A desire for freedom . An article by MIT states that grunge "lyrics [were] obsessed with disenfranchisement" and described a mood of "resigned despair". Catherine Strong, in her book Grunge: Music and Memory, states that grunge songs were usually about "negative experiences or feelings", with the main themes being alienation and depression , but with an "ironic sneer." Grunge artists expressed "strong feelings" in their lyrics about "societal ills", including

4275-621: A devout Christian and attended church services regularly. He later renounced Christianity, engaging in what was described as "anti-God" rants. Kurt claimed that " Lithium " was about his experience while living with the Reed family. He also stated in a 1992 interview that it was a fictionalized account of a man who "turned to religion as a last resort to keep himself alive" after the death of his girlfriend, "to keep him from suicide". However, spirituality remained an important part of Cobain's personal life and beliefs. Although uninterested in sports, Cobain

4446-513: A drug related to Ecstasy , "was a vital contributor to grunge", because it gave users a "body high" (in contrast to marijuana's "head high") that made them appreciate "bass-heavy grooves ". Pat Long's History of the NME states that scene members involved with the Sub Pop label would have multi-day MDMA parties in the woods, which shows that what Long calls Ecstasy's "warm glow" had an impact even in

4617-841: A feeling of burnout in the culture at large. Kids are depressed about the future". The topics of grunge lyrics– homelessness , suicide , rape , "broken homes, drug addiction and self-loathing"–contrasted sharply to the glam metal lyrics of bands like Poison , which described "life in the fast lane", partying, and hedonism. Grunge lyrics developed as part of " Generation X malaise", reflecting that demographic's feelings of "disillusionment and uselessness". Grunge songs about love were usually about "failed, boring, doomed or destructive relationships" (e.g., " Black " by Pearl Jam). The Alice in Chains songs "Sickman", "Junkhead", "God Smack", and " Hate to Feel " have references to heroin . Grunge lyrics tended to be more introspective and aimed to enable

4788-591: A few notes apart but sound unalike. He took the same rhythm with the same chord, however descending the neck made it sound darker, and therefore grunge. Early grunge bands would also copy a riff from metal and slow it down, play it backwards, distort it and bury it in feedback, then shout lyrics with little melody over the top of it. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock (specifically American hardcore punk such as Black Flag) and heavy metal (especially traditional, earlier heavy metal groups such as Black Sabbath), although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or

4959-434: A gay student at school and was bullied by peers who concluded that he was gay. In an interview, he said that he liked being associated with a gay identity because he did not like people, and when they thought he was gay they left him alone. He said, "I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't." Cobain backed away in an occasion where this friend tried to kiss him, explaining to his friend that he

5130-595: A great composer," and noted that, "I have great respect for him." Cobain was also a fan of protopunk acts like the Stooges , whose 1973 album Raw Power he listed as his favorite of all time in his journals. The 1980s American alternative rock band Pixies were instrumental in helping an adult Cobain develop his own songwriting style. In a 1992 interview with Melody Maker , Cobain said that hearing their 1988 debut album, Surfer Rosa , "convinced him to abandon his more Black Flag-influenced songwriting in favor of

5301-454: A high level of distortion and fuzz, typically created with small 1970s-style stompbox pedals, with some guitarists chaining several fuzz pedals together and plugging them into a tube amplifier and speaker cabinet. Grunge guitarists use very loud Marshall guitar amplifiers and some used powerful Mesa-Boogie amplifiers, including Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl (the latter in early, grunge-oriented Foo Fighters songs). Grunge has been called

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5472-683: A higher one." Steve Albini was another important influence on the grunge sound. Albini preferred to be called a "recording engineer", because he believed that putting record producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys the band's real sound, while the role of the recording engineer is to capture the actual sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their creative product. Albini's recordings have been analyzed by writers such as Michael Azerrad , who stated that Albini's "recordings were both very basic and very exacting: like Endino, Albini used few special effects ; got an aggressive, often violent guitar sound; and made sure

5643-592: A highly amplified electric guitar is held in front of its speaker, were used to create high-pitched, sustained sounds that are not possible with regular guitar technique. Grunge guitarists were influenced by the raw, primitive sound of punk, and they favored "... energy and lack of finesse over technique and precision"; key guitar influences included the Sex Pistols , the Dead Boys , Celtic Frost , King's X , Voivod , Neil Young ( Rust Never Sleeps , side two),

5814-526: A job caused arguments that influenced Cobain to write the song " About a Girl ", which appeared on the Nirvana album Bleach . Marander is credited with having taken the cover photo for the album, as well as the front and back cover photos of their Blew single. She did not become aware that Cobain wrote "About a Girl" about her until years after his death. Soon after his separation from Marander, Cobain began dating Tobi Vail , an influential punk zinester of

5985-447: A locker, but he was able to purchase new equipment, including a Peavey amp, by recovering and selling his stepfather's gun collection, which his mother had dumped in a river after discovering his infidelity. Upon forming what would be Nirvana, Cobain was playing a Fender Champ amplifier and a righthanded Univox Hi-Flier guitar he flipped over and strung for lefthanded playing. For the recording of Bleach , Cobain needed to borrow

6156-411: A lot about what direction he was heading in", Cobain's friend, R.E.M.'s lead singer Michael Stipe , told Newsweek in 1994. "I mean, I know what the next Nirvana recording was going to sound like. It was going to be very quiet and acoustic, with lots of stringed instruments. It was going to be an amazing fucking record, and I'm a little bit angry at him for killing himself. He and I were going to record

6327-428: A major early musical influence on Cobain; his admiration for them led him to drive their van on tour and help them to carry their equipment. He and Novoselic watched hundreds of Melvins rehearsals and "learned almost everything from them", as stated by Cobain. The Melvins' heavy, grungey sound was mimicked by Nirvana on many songs from Bleach ; in an early interview given by Nirvana, Cobain stated that their biggest fear

6498-450: A non-conformist move against the "manufactured image", often pushing musicians to dress in authentic ways and to not glamorize themselves. At the same time, Sub-Pop utilized the 'grunge look' in their marketing of their bands. In an interview with VH1, photographer Charles Peterson commented that members from grunge band Tad "were given blue collar identities that weren't entirely earned. Bruce (Pavitt) really got him to dress up in flannel and

6669-419: A real chain saw and really play up this image of a mountain man and it worked." Dazed magazine called Courtney Love one of "ten women who defined the 1990s" from a style perspective: the "... image of Courtney Love's too-short baby doll dress, tattered fur coat and shock of platinum hair", a look dubbed " kinderwhore ", "... topped with a tiara, of course – is seared on the memory of anyone who lived through

6840-647: A recording of " The Junky's Christmas " (which he recorded in his studio in Lawrence, Kansas ). Two months later at a studio in Seattle , Cobain added guitar backing based on "Silent Night" and "To Anacreon in Heaven". The two would meet shortly later in Lawrence, Kansas and produce " The 'Priest' They Called Him ", a spoken word version of "The Junky's Christmas". The Beatles were an early and lasting influence on Cobain; his aunt Mari remembers him singing " Hey Jude " at

7011-518: A relationship with Tracy Marander. Their relationship was close but strained by financial problems and Cobain's absence when touring. Marander supported the couple by working at the cafeteria of the Boeing plant in Auburn, Washington , often stealing food. Cobain spent most of his time sleeping into the late evening, watching television, and concentrating on art projects. Marander's insistence that he get

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7182-411: A result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the U.S. during the first half of the 1990s. Nirvana was considered the "flagship band of Generation X ", and Cobain found himself reluctantly anointed by the media as the generation's "spokesman". He resented this characterization since he believed his artistic message had been misinterpreted by the public. When you're in

7353-411: A savanna landscape wearing grunge-styled clothing. This shoot made McMenamy the face for grunge, as she had her eyebrows shaved and her hair cropped short. Designers like Christian Lacroix , Donna Karen and Karl Lagerfeld incorporated the grunge influence into their looks. In 1993, James Truman, editor of Details , said: "to me the thing about grunge is it's not anti-fashion, it's unfashion. Punk

7524-464: A side project known as the Jury. The band featured Cobain on vocals and guitar, Mark Lanegan on vocals, Krist Novoselic on bass, and Mark Pickerel on drums. Over two days of recording sessions, on August 20 and 28, 1989, the band recorded four songs also performed by Lead Belly ; " Where Did You Sleep Last Night? ", an instrumental version of " Grey Goose ", " Ain't It a Shame ", and " They Hung Him on

7695-572: A slow, "sludgy" speed, and used more dissonant harmonies. Seattle music journalist Charles R. Cross defines "grunge" as distortion-filled, down-tuned and riff-based rock that uses loud electric guitar feedback and heavy, "ponderous" basslines to support its song melodies. Robert Loss calls grunge a melding of "violence and speed, muscularity and melody", where there is space for all people, including women musicians . VH1 writer Dan Tucker feels that different grunge bands were influenced by different genres; that while Nirvana drew on punk, Pearl Jam

7866-489: A technique of "ripping, shredding and remaking letters" and using "overprinted, disharmonious letters" and experimental design approaches, including "deliberate 'mistakes' in alignment". Carson's art used "messy and chaotic design" and he did not "respect any rule of composition", using an "experimental, personal and intuitive" approach. Another "grunge graphic designer" was Elliott Earls , who used "distorted ... older typefaces" and "aggressively illegible" type which adopted

8037-494: A therapist who concluded that he would benefit from a single-family environment. Both sides of the family unsuccessfully attempted to reunite his parents. On June 28, 1979, Cobain's mother granted full custody to his father. Cobain's teenage rebellion quickly became overwhelming for his father who placed him in the care of family and friends. While living with the born-again Christian family of his friend Jesse Reed, Cobain became

8208-523: A trial run of the album, a demo tape. It was all set up. He had a plane ticket. He had a car picking him up. And at the last minute he called and said, 'I can't come. ' " Stipe was chosen as the godfather of Cobain's and Courtney Love 's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain . According to Grohl, Cobain believed that music comes first and lyrics second; he focused primarily on the melodies. He complained when fans and rock journalists attempted to decipher his singing and extract meaning from his lyrics, writing: "Why in

8379-536: A tribute to Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. Recollecting touring with his band, Cobain stated, "I used to take a nap in the van and listen to Queen. Over and over again and drain the battery on the van. We'd be stuck with a dead battery because I'd listened to Queen too much". He was introduced to punk rock and hardcore music by his Aberdeen classmate Buzz Osborne , lead singer and guitarist of the Melvins , who taught Cobain about punk by loaning him records and old copies of

8550-790: A village near Omagh in County Tyrone in Ulster , the northern province in Ireland. Researchers found that they were shoemakers, originally surnamed Cobane, and were Ulster Scots people who came from the Inishatieve area of Carrickmore. They first settled in Canada, where they lived in Cornwall, Ontario , before moving to Washington . Cobain mistakenly believed that his Irish ancestors came from County Cork . His younger sister, Kimberly,

8721-460: A woman's and a man's wardrobe, and his Seattle thrift-store look ran the gamut of masculine lumberjack workwear and 40s-by-way-of-70s feminine dresses. It was completely counter to the shellacked, flashy aesthetic of the 1980s in every way. In disheveled jeans and floral frocks, he softened the tough exterior of the archetypal rebel from the inside out, and set the ball in motion for a radical, millennial idea of androgyny." Cobain's way of dressing "was

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8892-492: Is Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez 's setup. He uses four powerful Ampeg SVT -2 PRO tube amplifier heads, two of them plugged into four 1×18" subwoofer cabinets for the low register, and the other two plugged into two 8×10" cabinets. Krist Novoselic and Jeff Ament are also known for using Ampeg SVT tube amplifiers. Ben Shepherd uses a 300 watt all-tube Ampeg SVT-VR amp and a 600 watt Mesa/Boogie Carbine M6 amplifier. Ament uses four 6×10" speaker cabinets. In contrast to

9063-439: Is Real in which they both sang and played guitar and drums. They recorded their songs on a four-track tape machine that belonged to Vail's father. In Everett True 's 2009 book Nirvana: The Biography , Vail is quoted as saying that Cobain "would play the songs he was writing, I would play the songs I was writing and we'd record them on my dad's four-track. Sometimes I'd sing on the songs he was writing and play drums on them ... He

9234-451: Is a progressive college which does not use a conventional grading system and has its own radio station, KAOS . Seattle's remoteness from Los Angeles led to a perceived purity of its music. The music of these bands, many of which had recorded with Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, became labeled as "grunge". Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain , in one of his final interviews, credited Jonathan Poneman , cofounder of Sub Pop, with coining

9405-460: Is about a "man who finds faith after his girlfriend's suicide"; it depicts "irony and ugliness" as a way of dealing with these "dark issues". Like punk, grunge's sound came from a lo fi (low fidelity) recording and production approach. Before the arrival of major labels, early grunge albums were recorded using low-budget analogue studios: "Nirvana's first album Bleach , was recorded for $ 606.17 in 1989." Sub Pop recorded most of their music at

9576-515: The In Utero tour in late 1993 and early 1994. Cobain even invited his favorite musicians to perform with him: ex- Germs guitarist Pat Smear joined the band in 1993, and the Meat Puppets appeared onstage during Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged appearance to perform three songs from their second album, Meat Puppets II . Nirvana's Unplugged set includes renditions of " The Man Who Sold

9747-886: The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time , 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and was placed 20th by Hit Parader on their 2006 list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time". Kurt Donald Cobain was born at Grays Harbor Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington , on February 20, 1967, the son of waitress Wendy Elizabeth (née Fradenburg; 1947-2021) and car mechanic Donald Leland Cobain (born 1946). His parents married in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho , on July 31, 1965. Cobain had Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. The Cobain surname comes from his Irish ancestors, who emigrated in 1875 from Carrickmore ,

9918-678: The Iggy Pop /Aerosmith-type songwriting that appeared on Nevermind . In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone , he said that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was his attempt at "trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard". Cobain's appreciation of early alternative rock bands also extended to Sonic Youth and R.E.M. , both of which

10089-591: The Indianapolis Colts , for $ 4.5 million , with an original estimate of $ 600,000 . There are differing accounts of exactly when and how Kurt Cobain first met Courtney Love. In his 1993 authorized biography of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad cites a January 21, 1989, Dharma Bums gig in Portland where Nirvana played as support, while the Charles R. Cross 2001 Cobain biography has Love and Cobain meeting at

10260-467: The Nevermind tracks "Polly" and "Something in the Way." Despite receiving a $ 287,000 advance upon signing with Geffen Records, Cobain retained a preference for inexpensive gear. He became a fan of Japanese-made Fender guitars ahead of recording Nevermind , due to their slim necks and wide availability in lefthanded orientation. These included several Stratocasters fitted with humbucker pickups in

10431-586: The Small Clone chorus effect , used by Kurt Cobain on " Come As You Are " and by the Screaming Trees on " Nearly Lost You ". The DS-1 (later DS-2) distortion pedal played a key role in Cobain's switching from quiet to loud and back to quiet approach to songwriting. The use of small pedals by grunge guitarists helped to start off the revival of interest in boutique, hand-soldered, 1970s-style analog pedals. The other effect that grunge guitarists used

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10602-472: The diminished fifth note was used by Black Sabbath to produce an ominous feeling but it is not used in punk rock. In the 1996 grunge film documentary Hype! , Beezer demonstrated on guitar the difference between punk and grunge. First he played the riff from "Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones that ascends the neck of the guitar, then "Come On Down" by Green River that descends the neck. The two pieces are only

10773-552: The hippie counterculture and reggae , both of which are associated with marijuana and psychedelics. In the 1990s, the media focused on the use of heroin by musicians in the Seattle grunge scene, with a 1992 New York Times article listing the city's "three principal drugs" as " espresso , beer and heroin" and a 1996 article calling Seattle's grunge scene the "... subculture that has most strongly embraced heroin". Tim Jonze from The Guardian states that "... heroin had blighted

10944-419: The rhythm section slammed as one." Nirvana's In Utero is a typical example of Albini's recording approach. He preferred to have the entire band play live in the studio, rather than use mainstream rock's approach of recording each instrument on a separate track at different times, and then mixing them using multi-track recording . While multitracking results in a more polished product, it does not capture

11115-489: The riot grrrl band Bikini Kill who embraced the DIY ethos. After meeting Vail, Cobain vomited, overwhelmed with anxiety caused by his infatuation with her. This event inspired the lyric "love you so much it makes me sick" in the song " Aneurysm ". While Cobain regarded Vail as his female counterpart, his relationship with her waned; he desired the maternal comfort of a traditional relationship, which Vail regarded as sexist within

11286-740: The " Eric Clapton of grunge", a reference to the British blues guitarist who Time magazine has named as number five in their list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players". Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has been praised for his blues-influenced, rapid licks. The Smashing Pumpkins ' guitarist Billy Corgan has been called the "arena rock genius of the '90s" for pioneering guitar playing techniques and showing through his playing skill that grunge guitarists do not have to be sloppy players to rebel against mainstream music. Thayil stated that when other major grunge bands, such as Nirvana, were reducing their guitar solos, Soundgarden responded by bringing back

11457-402: The "guitars only" approach and using a 1960s-style Vox organ in their group. In 2002, Pearl Jam added a keyboard player, Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar , who played piano , Hammond organ , and other keyboards; the addition of a keyboardist to the band would have been "inconceivable" in the band's "grungy" early years, but it shows how a group's sound can change over time. The grunge singing style

11628-400: The "heroin is not a big part of the [Seattle music] culture", and that "marijuana and alcohol ... are far more prevalent". Jeff Gilbert, one of the editors of Guitar World magazine, stated in 1994 that the media association of the Seattle grunge scene with heroin was "really overblown"; instead, he says that Seattle musicians were "... all a bunch of potheads." Gil Troy's history of America in

11799-412: The "live" sound of the band playing together. Albini used a range of different microphones for the vocals and instruments. Like most metal and punk recording engineers, he mics the guitar amp speakers and bass amp speakers to capture each performer's unique tone. Grunge concerts were known for being straightforward, high-energy performances. Grunge shows were "celebrations, parties [and] carnivals", where

11970-435: The "massive drum kits " used in 1980s pop metal , grunge drummers used relatively smaller drum kits. One example is the drumkit used by Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron 's set-up. He uses a six-piece kit (this way of describing drumkits counts only the wooden drums, and does not count the cymbals ), including a "12×8-inch rack tom ; 13×9-inch rack tom; 16×14-inch floor tom ; 18×16-inch floor tom; 24×14-inch bass drum " and

12141-421: The "ugliness" they saw around them and shine a light on unseen "depths and depravity" of the real world. Some key individuals in the development of the grunge sound, including Sub Pop producer Jack Endino and the Melvins , described grunge's incorporation of heavy rock influences such as Kiss as "musical provocation". Grunge artists considered these bands "cheesy" but nonetheless enjoyed them; Buzz Osborne of

12312-549: The "unkempt expressiveness" of the "grunge [music] aesthetic"; this radical, anti-establishment approach in graphic design was influenced by the 1910s-era avant-garde Dada movement. Hat Nguyen's Droplet, Harriet Goren's Morire and Eric Lin's Tema Canante were all "signature grunge fonts." Sven Lennartz states that grunge design images have a "realistic, genuine look" which is created by adding simulated torn paper, dog-eared corners, creases, yellowed scotch tape, coffee cup stains, hand-drawn images and handwritten words, typically over

12483-405: The 1980s, he preferred to make noise and do feedback during the guitar solo. Baeble Music calls the grunge guitar solos of the 1990s "raw", "sloppy", and "basic". Not all sources support the "grunge killed the guitar solo" argument. Sean Gonzalez states that Pearl Jam has plentiful examples of guitar solos. Michael Azerrad praises the guitar playing of Mudhoney's Steve Turner , calling him

12654-455: The 1990s states that in the Seattle grunge scene, the "... drug of choice switched from upscale cocaine [of the 1980s] to blue-collar marijuana." Rolling Stone magazine reported that members of Seattle's grunge scene were "coffee-crazed" by day on espresso and "... by night, they quaff[ed] oceans of beer – jolted by Java and looped with liquor, no wonder the [grunge] music sounds like it does." "Some [Seattle] scene veterans maintain that MDA ",

12825-539: The Beatles! . Cobain was also a fan of 1970s hard rock and heavy metal bands, including Led Zeppelin , AC/DC , Black Sabbath , Aerosmith , Queen , and Kiss . Nirvana occasionally played cover songs by these bands, including Led Zeppelin's " Heartbreaker ", " Moby Dick " and " Immigrant Song ", Black Sabbath's " Hand of Doom ", and Kiss' " Do You Love Me? " and wrote the Incesticide song "Aero Zeppelin" as

12996-625: The Cobains days after Love gave birth and later took them to court, stating that their drug usage made them unfit parents. In October 1992, when asked, "Well, are you gay?" by Monk Magazine , Cobain replied, "If I wasn't attracted to Courtney, I'd be a bisexual." In another interview, he described identifying with the gay community in The Advocate , stating, "I'm definitely gay in spirit and I probably could be bisexual" and "if I wouldn't have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with

13167-635: The Detroit-based magazine Creem . Punk rock proved to be a profound influence on a teenaged Cobain's attitude and artistic style. His first punk rock album was Sandinista! by the Clash , but he became a bigger fan of fellow 1970s British punk band the Sex Pistols , describing them as "one million times more important than the Clash" in his journals. He quickly discovered contemporary American hardcore bands like Black Flag , Bad Brains , Millions of Dead Cops and Flipper . The Melvins themselves were

13338-684: The Dust ", and the Cars ' " My Best Friend's Girl ", before he began working on his own songs. Cobain played left-handed, despite being forced to write right-handed. In early 1985, Cobain formed Fecal Matter after he had dropped out of Aberdeen High School . One of "several joke bands" that arose from the circle of friends associated with the Melvins , it initially featured Cobain singing and playing guitar, Melvins drummer Dale Crover playing bass, and Greg Hokanson playing drums. They spent several months rehearsing original material and covers, including songs by

13509-486: The Melvins described it as an attempt to see what ridiculous things bands could do and get away with. In the early-1990s, Nirvana's signature "stop-start" song format and alternating between soft and loud sections became a genre convention. In the book Accidental Revolution: The Story of Grunge , Kyle Anderson wrote: The twelve songs on Sixteen Stone sound exactly like what grunge is supposed to sound like, while

13680-543: The Perry Ellis collection they received from Marc Jacobs back in 1993. In 2016, grunge inspired an upscale "reinvention" of the style by A$ AP Rocky , Rihanna and Kanye West . However, "dressing grunge is no longer a badge of authenticity, though: the signifiers of rebellion (Dr Martens boots, tartan shirts) are omnipotent on the high street", says Lynette Nylander, deputy editor of i-D magazine . Many music subcultures are associated with particular drugs, such as

13851-408: The Ramones , Led Zeppelin , and Jimi Hendrix . During high school, Cobain rarely found anyone with whom he could play music. While hanging out at the Melvins' practice space, he met Krist Novoselic , a fellow devotee of punk rock. Novoselic's mother owned a hair salon, and the pair occasionally practiced in the upstairs room of the salon. A few years later, Cobain tried to convince Novoselic to form

14022-464: The Replacements , Hüsker Dü , Black Flag , and the Melvins . Grunge guitarists often downtuned their instruments for a lower, heavier sound. Soundgarden 's guitarist, Kim Thayil , did not use a regular guitar amplifier ; instead, he used a bass combo amp equipped with a 15-inch speaker as he played low riffs, and the bass amp gave him a deeper tone. Grunge guitarists "flatly rejected"

14193-592: The Smashing Pumpkins also died from heroin. After Cobain's death, his "... widow, singer Courtney Love, characterized Seattle as a drug mecca, where heroin is easier to get than in San Francisco or Los Angeles." However, Daniel House , who owned C/Z Records , disputed these perceptions in 1994. House stated that there was "... no more (heroin) here [in Seattle] than anyplace else"; he stated that

14364-654: The World ", by David Bowie , and the American folk song, " Where Did You Sleep Last Night ", as adapted by Lead Belly . Cobain introduced the latter by calling Lead Belly his favorite performer, and in a 1993 interview revealed he had been introduced to him from reading the American author William S. Burroughs , saying: "I remember [Burroughs] saying in an interview, 'These new rock'n'roll kids should just throw away their guitars and listen to something with real soul, like Leadbelly.' I'd never heard about Leadbelly before so I bought

14535-405: The [grunge] scene ever since its inception in the mid-80s" and he argues that the "... involvement of heroin mirrors the self-hating, nihilistic aspect to the music"; in addition to the heroin deaths, Jonze points out that Stone Temple Pilots ' Scott Weiland , as well as Courtney Love , Mark Lanegan , Jimmy Chamberlin and Evan Dando "... all had their run-ins with the drug, but lived to tell

14706-470: The age of two. "My aunts would give me Beatles records", Cobain told Jon Savage in 1993, "so for the most part [I listened to] the Beatles [as a child], and if I was lucky, I'd be able to buy a single." Cobain expressed a particular fondness for John Lennon , whom he called his "idol" in his posthumously released journals , and he said that he wrote the song "About a Girl", from Nirvana's 1989 debut album Bleach , after spending three hours listening to Meet

14877-602: The amp just used to make the sound louder. Grunge guitarists tended to use the Fender Twin Reverb and the Fender Champion 100 combo amps (Cobain used both of these amps). The use of pedals by grunge guitarists was a move away from the expensive, studio-grade rackmount effects units used in other rock genres. The positive way that grunge bands viewed stompbox pedals can be seen in Mudhoney 's use of

15048-614: The antithesis of the macho American man", because he "... made it cooler to look slouchy and loose, no matter if you were a boy or a girl." Music and culture writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd wrote that with Cobain's style of dress "Not only did he make it okay to be a freak, he made it desirable." Grunge music hit the mainstream in the early 1990s with bands such as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana being signed to major record labels. Grunge fashion began to break into mainstream fashion in mid-1992 for both sexes and peaked in late 1993 and early 1994. As it picked up momentum,

15219-461: The audience at shows were positive and created a "life-affirming" attitude. Grunge bands rejected the complex and high budget presentations of many mainstream musical genres, including the use of complex digitally controlled light arrays, pyrotechnics, and other visual effects then popular in " hair metal " shows. Grunge performers viewed these elements unrelated to playing the music. Stage acting and "onstage theatrics" were generally avoided. Instead

15390-516: The audience expressed its spirit by stagediving, moshing and thrashing. Simon Reynolds states that in "... some of the most masculine forms of rock— thrash metal , grunge, moshing becomes a form of surrogate combat" in which "male bodies" can contact in the "sweat-and-bloodbath" of the moshpit. As with punk shows, grunge "performances were about frontmen who screamed and jumped around on stage and musicians who thrashed wildly on their instruments." While grunge lyrical themes focused on "angst and rage",

15561-569: The band record their 1991 major-label debut, Nevermind . With Nevermind ' s lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana quickly entered the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called " grunge ". Since their debut, Nirvana has sold over 28 million albums in the United States alone and over 75 million worldwide. The success of Nevermind provided numerous Seattle bands, such as Alice in Chains , Pearl Jam , and Soundgarden , access to wider audiences. As

15732-409: The band signed with DGC and found commercial success with the single " Smells Like Teen Spirit " from their critically acclaimed second album Nevermind (1991). Cobain wrote many other hit Nirvana songs such as " Come as You Are ", " Lithium ", " In Bloom ", " Heart-Shaped Box ", and " Something in the Way ". Although he was hailed as the voice of his generation following Nirvana's sudden success, he

15903-516: The band's inability to draw substantial crowds and the difficulty in supporting themselves financially. During their first few years playing together, Novoselic and Cobain were hosts to a succession of drummers. Eventually, the band settled on Chad Channing with whom Nirvana recorded the album Bleach , released on Sub Pop Records in 1989. Cobain, however, became dissatisfied with Channing's style and subsequently fired him. He and Novoselic eventually hired Dave Grohl to replace Channing. Grohl helped

16074-411: The band's lead singer says he plans to do for Incesticide ", an album whose liner notes included a statement decrying homophobia , racism and misogyny : Grunge The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed the style shrewdly, encouraging the media to describe it as "grunge";

16245-454: The bands Green River , Screaming Trees , L7 , the Gits , Hole , 7 Year Bitch , and TAD helped to define the grunge sound. An example of the lower cost production approach is Mudhoney; even after the band signed to Warner Music , "[t]rue to [the band's] indie roots ... [they are] ... probably one of the few bands that would have to fight [their label] to record for a lower budget rather than

16416-450: The bands presented themselves as no different from minor local bands. Jack Endino said in Hype! that Seattle bands were inconsistent live performers, since their primary objective was not to be entertainers, but simply to "rock out". Grunge bands gave enthusiastic performances; they would thrash their long hair during shows as "a symbolic weapon" for releasing "pent-up aggression" ( Dave Grohl

16587-450: The body—there was something about anatomy. He really liked that. You look at his art—there are these people, and they're all weird, like mutants. And dolls—creepy dolls." Cobain contributed backing guitar for a spoken word recording of beat poet William S. Burroughs ' entitled The "Priest" They Called Him . Cobain regarded Burroughs as a hero. During Nirvana's European tour Cobain kept a copy of Burroughs' Naked Lunch , purchased from

16758-402: The bridge positions, as well as a 1965 Jaguar with DiMarzio pickups and a 1969 Competition Mustang , the latter of which Cobain cited as his favorite, despite noting, "They're cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small." For the album, Cobain used a rackmount system featuring a Mesa/Boogie Studio preamp, a Crown power amp, and Marshall cabinets. He also used

16929-602: The decade." The kinderwhore look consisted of torn, ripped tight or low-cut babydoll and Peter-Pan-collared dresses, slips, heavy makeup with dark eyeliner, barrettes, and leather boots or Mary–Jane shoes. Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland was the first to define it, while Courtney Love of Hole was the first to popularize it. Love has claimed that she took the style from Divinyls frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett . The look became very popular in 1994. Vogue stated in 2014 that "Cobain pulled liberally from both ends of

17100-403: The divorce had a profound effect on his life, and his mother noted that his personality changed dramatically; Cobain became defiant and withdrawn. In a 1993 interview, he said he felt "ashamed" of his parents as a child and had desperately wanted to have a "typical family ... I wanted that security, so I resented my parents for quite a few years because of that." His parents found new partners after

17271-403: The divorce. Although his father had promised not to remarry, he married Jenny Westeby, to Kurt's dismay. Cobain, his father, Westeby, and her two children, Mindy and James, moved into a new household. Cobain liked Westeby at first, as she gave him the maternal attention he desired. In January 1979, Westeby gave birth to a boy, Chad Cobain. This new family, which Cobain insisted was not his real one,

17442-740: The focus on such subject matter. Many grunge musicians displayed a general disenchantment with the state of society, as well as a discomfort with social prejudices . Grunge lyrics contained "explicit political messages and ... questioning about ... society and how it might be changed." While grunge lyrics were less overtly political than punk songs, grunge songs still indicated a concern for social issues, particularly those affecting young people. The main themes in grunge were "tolerance of difference", "support of women", "mistrust of authority" and "cynicism towards big corporations." Grunge song themes bear similarities to those addressed by punk rock musicians. In 1992, music critic Simon Reynolds said that "there's

17613-417: The four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail." Though Cobain wrote "Lithium" before meeting Vail, he wrote the lyrics to reference her. Cobain said in an interview with Musician that he wrote about "some of my very personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that

17784-401: The genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to the label, preferring instead to be referred to as " rock and roll " bands. Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden stated that he "hates the word" grunge and hates "being associated with it." Seattle musician Jeff Stetson states that when he visited Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a touring musician,

17955-572: The greatest. They've dealt with their success like saints, and they keep delivering great music". After attaining mainstream success, Cobain became a devoted champion of lesser known indie bands, covering songs by the Vaselines , Meat Puppets , Wipers and Fang onstage and/or in the studio, wearing Daniel Johnston T-shirts during photo shoots, having the K Records logo tattooed on his forearm, and enlisting bands like Butthole Surfers , Shonen Knife , Chokebore and Half Japanese along for

18126-457: The grunge scene wore the "... same plaid [shirt]s, boots, and short cropped heads as their male counterparts", women showed "... that they are not defined by their sex appeal." "Grunge ... became an anti-consumerist movement where the less you spent on clothes, the more 'coolness' you had." The style did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion; music journalist Charles R. Cross said, "[Nirvana frontman] Kurt Cobain

18297-480: The grunge tag was being used by shops selling expensive flannelette shirts to cash in on the trend. Ironically, the non-conformist look suddenly became a mainstream trend. In the fashion world, Marc Jacobs presented a show for Perry Ellis in 1992 (the Spring 1993 Collection,) featuring grunge-inspired clothing mixed with high-end fabrics. Jacobs found inspiration in the " realism " of grunge streetwear; he mixed it with

18468-406: The guitar onstage during a show, a subsequent habit that forced label Sub Pop to have to call local pawn shops looking for replacement guitars. Cobain's first acoustic guitar, a Stella 12-string, cost him $ 31.21 . Cobain strung it with six (or sometimes five) strings, and while the guitar's tuners had to be held together with duct tape, it sounded good enough that the guitar was later used to record

18639-477: The guitars had been made for Cobain. For Nirvana's Unplugged performance, Cobain played a righthanded 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar modified for lefthanded playing. The guitar became the most expensive ever sold when it fetched over $ 6 million at auction in 2020. Cobain's 1969 Competition Mustang, which he also played in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" music video, sold at a 2022 auction to Jim Irsay , owner of

18810-438: The habit of choice for many a grunger". The title of Nirvana's debut album Bleach was inspired by a harm reduction poster aimed at heroin injection users, which stated "Bleach your works [e.g., syringe and needle ] before you get stoned". The poster was released by the U.S. State Health Department which was trying to reduce AIDS transmission caused through sharing used needles. Alice in Chains' song "God Smack" includes

18981-445: The hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second-rate Freudian evaluation of my lyrics, when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed them incorrectly?" Though Cobain insisted on the subjectivity and unimportance of his lyrics, he labored and procrastinated in writing them, often changing the content and order of lyrics during performances. Cobain would describe his own lyrics as "a big pile of contradictions. They're split down

19152-426: The image was inappropriate for a school hallway. He then drew an image of then-President Ronald Reagan that was seen as "unflattering". Through art and electronics classes, Cobain met Roger "Buzz" Osborne , singer and guitarist of the Melvins , who became his friend and introduced him to punk rock and hardcore music. As attested to by several of Cobain's classmates and family members, the first concert he attended

19323-488: The instrument. In Will Byers' article "Grunge committed a crime against music—it killed the guitar solo" in The Guardian , he states that while the guitar solo managed to survive through the punk rock era, it was weakened by grunge. He also states that when Kurt Cobain played guitar solos that were a restatement of the main vocal melody, fans realized that they did not need to be a Jimi Hendrix -level virtuoso to play

19494-461: The instrument; he then says this approach helped to make music feel accessible by fans in a way not seen since the 1960s folk music movement. The producer of Nirvana's Nevermind , Butch Vig , stated that this album and Nirvana "killed the guitar solo". Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil stated he feels in part to be responsible for the "death of the guitar solo"; he said that his punk rocker aspects made him feel that he did not want to solo, so in

19665-567: The late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself . Grunge was also an influence on later genres such as post-grunge . The word "grunge" is American slang for "someone or something that is repugnant" and also for "dirt". The word was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in July 1987 when Bruce Pavitt described Green River 's Dry as

19836-515: The line "stick your arm for some real fun", a reference to injecting heroin. Seattle musicians known to use heroin included Cobain, who was using "heroin when he shot himself in the head"; " Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone [who] overdosed on heroin in 1990"; " Stefanie Sargent of 7 Year Bitch [who] died of an overdose of the same opiate in 1992 ... [and] Layne Staley of Alice in Chains [who] publicly detailed his battles with heroin ...". Mike Starr of Alice in Chains and Jonathan Melvoin from

20007-440: The listener to see into "hidden" personal issues and examine the "depravity" of the world. This approach can be seen in Mudhoney 's song " Touch Me I'm Sick ", which includes lyrics with "deranged imagery" which depict a "broken world and a fragmented self-image"; the song includes the lines "I feel bad, and I've felt worse" and "I won't live long and I'm full of rot". Nirvana's song " Lithium ", from their 1991 album Nevermind ,

20178-427: The local musicians did not refer to themselves as "grunge" performers or their style as "grunge" and they were not flattered that their music was being called "grunge". Rolling Stone noted the genre's lack of a clear definition. Robert Loss acknowledges the challenges of defining "grunge"; stating that while he can recount stories about grunge, they do not serve to provide a useful definition. Roy Shuker states that

20349-473: The lower-sounding, downtuned guitars and the darker-themed lyrical messages used in the style. Grunge singers used "gravelly, raspy" vocals, "... growls, moans, screams and mumbles" and "plaintive groans"; this range of singing styles was used to communicate the "varied emotions" of the lyrics. Cobain's reaction to the "bad times" and discontent of the era was that he screamed his lyrics. In general, grunge songs were sung "simply, often somewhat unintelligibly";

20520-489: The luxury of fashion by sending models down the catwalk in beanies, floral dresses and silk flannel shirts. This did, however, not sit well with the brand owners and Jacobs was dismissed. Other designers like Anna Sui , also drew inspiration from grunge during the spring/summer 1993 season. In the same year, Vogue did a spread called "Grunge & Glory" with fashion photographer Steven Meisel who shot supermodels Kristen McMenamy , Naomi Campbell , and Nadja Auermann in

20691-519: The media, comparing himself to Frances Farmer whom he named a song after. He began to harbor resentment against people who claimed to be fans of the band yet refused to acknowledge, or misinterpreted, the band's social and political views. A vocal opponent of sexism, racism, sexual assault, and homophobia, he was publicly proud that Nirvana had played at a gay rights benefit concert that was held to oppose Oregon's 1992 Ballot Measure 9 , which would have directed Oregon schools to teach that homosexuality

20862-465: The members of Nirvana befriended and looked up to for advice. It was under recommendation from Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon that Nirvana signed to DGC in 1990, and both bands did a two-week tour of Europe in the summer of 1991, as documented in the 1992 documentary, 1991: The Year Punk Broke . In 1993, Cobain said of R.E.M.: "If I could write just a couple of songs as good as what they've written... I don't know how that band does what they do. God, they're

21033-494: The middle between very sincere opinions that I have and sarcastic opinions and feelings that I have and sarcastic and hopeful, humorous rebuttals toward cliché bohemian ideals that have been exhausted for years." Cobain originally wanted Nevermind to be divided into two sides: a "Boy" side, for the songs written about the experiences of his early life and childhood, and a "Girl" side, for the songs written about his dysfunctional relationship with Vail. Charles R. Cross wrote, "In

21204-418: The most influential rock musicians. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard in 1987, establishing themselves as part of the Seattle music scene that later became known as grunge . Burckhard was replaced by Chad Channing before the band released their debut album Bleach (1989) on Sub Pop , after which Channing was in turn replaced by Dave Grohl . With this finalized lineup,

21375-464: The movement. Grunge appeared as a trend again in 2008, and for Fall/Winter 2013, Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent brought back grunge to the runway . With Courtney Love as his muse for the collection, she reportedly loved the collection. "No offense to MJ [Marc Jacobs] but he never got it right," Courtney said. "This is what it really was. Hedi knows his shit. He got it accurate, and MJ and Anna [Sui] did not." Both Cobain and Love apparently burnt

21546-530: The name of two overdrive pedals, the Univox Super-Fuzz and the Big Muff , in the title of their debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff . In the song "Mudride", the band's guitars were said to have "growled malevolently" through its "Cro-magnon slog". Other key pedals used by grunge bands included four brands of distortion pedals (the Big Muff , DOD , and Boss DS-2 and Boss DS-1 distortion pedals) and

21717-439: The other. Alex DiBlasi feels that indie rock was a third key source, with the most important influence coming from Sonic Youth 's "free-form" noise. Grunge shares with punk a raw, lo fi sound and similar lyrical concerns, and it also used punk's haphazard and untrained approach to playing and performing. However, grunge was "deeper and darker"-sounding than punk rock and it decreased the "adrenaline"-fueled tempos of punk to

21888-479: The person in the song is feeling. Very lonely, sick." While Cobain regarded In Utero as "for the most part very impersonal", its lyrics deal with his parents' divorce, his newfound fame and the public image and perception of himself and Courtney Love on "Serve the Servants", with his enamored relationship with Love conveyed through lyrical themes of pregnancy and the female anatomy on " Heart-Shaped Box ." Cobain

22059-511: The piano and singing, writing a song about a trip to a park. He listened to artists including Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), and, from a young age, would sing songs including Arlo Guthrie 's "Motorcycle Song", the Beatles ' " Hey Jude ", Terry Jacks ' " Seasons in the Sun ", and the theme song to the Monkees television show . When Cobain was nine years old, his parents divorced. He later said

22230-521: The popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music . Several factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s , many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain , labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", struggled with an addiction to heroin before his suicide in 1994. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by

22401-459: The public eye, you have no choice but to be raped over and over again – they'll take every ounce of blood out of you until you're exhausted. ... I'm looking forward to the future. It will only be another year and then everyone will forget about it. —Kurt Cobain on the overwhelming media attention after Nevermind , 1992 Cobain struggled to reconcile the massive success of Nirvana with his underground roots and vision. He also felt persecuted by

22572-485: The punk rock band Black Flag toured small towns across the US to bring punk to the more remote parts of the country. By this time, their music had become slow and sludgy, less like the Sex Pistols and more like Black Sabbath . Krist Novoselic , later the bassist with Nirvana , recalled going with the Melvins to see one of these shows, after which Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne began writing "slow and heavy riffs" to form

22743-533: The rock genre with the most "lugubrious sound"; the use of heavy distortion and loud amps has been compared to a massive "buildup of sonic fog". or even dismissed as "noise" by one critic. As with metal and punk, a key part of grunge's sound is very distorted power chords played on the electric guitar. Whereas metal guitarists' overdriven sound generally comes from a combination of overdriven amplifiers and distortion pedals, grunge guitarists typically got all of their "dirty" sound from overdrive and fuzz pedals, with

22914-530: The same Satyricon nightclub venue in Portland but a different Nirvana show, January 12, 1990, when both still led ardent underground rock bands. Love made advances soon after they met, but Cobain was evasive. Early in their interactions, Cobain broke off dates and ignored Love's advances because he was unsure if he wanted a relationship. Cobain noted, "I was determined to be a bachelor for a few months [...] But I knew that I liked Courtney so much right away that it

23085-428: The same subjects of his lyrics, often expressed through a dark and macabre sense of humor. Noted were his fascination with physiology , his own rare medical conditions, and the human anatomy. According to Novoselic, "Kurt said that he never liked literal things. He liked cryptic things. He would cut out pictures of meat from grocery-store fliers, then paste these orchids on them ... And all this stuff on [ In Utero ] about

23256-486: The solos. The early Seattle grunge album Skin Yard recorded in 1987 by the band of the same name included fuzz bass ( overdriven bass guitar) played by Jack Endino and Daniel House . Some grunge bassists, such as Ben Shepherd , layered power chords with distorted low-end density by adding a fifth and an octave-higher note to a bass note. An example of the powerful, loud bass amplifier systems used in grunge

23427-663: The style became known as a hybrid of punk and metal . By the early 1990s, its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge was commercially successful in the early-to-mid-1990s due to releases such as Nirvana 's Nevermind , Pearl Jam 's Ten , Soundgarden 's Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt , and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core . The success of these bands boosted

23598-560: The tale." A 2014 book stated that whereas in the 1980s, people used the "stimulant" cocaine to socialize and "... celebrate good times", in the 1990s grunge scene, the "depressant" heroin was used to "retreat" into a "cocoon" and be "... sheltered from a harsh and unforgiving world which offered ... few prospects for ... change or hope." Justin Henderson states that all of the "downer" opiates, including "heroin, morphine , etorphine , codeine , opium , [and] hydrocodone ... seemed to be

23769-538: The term "grunge" to describe the music. The term "Seattle sound" became a marketing ploy for the music industry. In September 1991, the Nirvana album Nevermind was released, bringing mainstream attention to the music of Seattle. Cobain loathed the word "grunge" and despised the new scene that was developing, feeling that record companies were signing old " cock-rock " bands who were pretending to be grunge and claiming to be from Seattle. Some bands associated with

23940-561: The term "obscured a variety of styles." Stetson states that grunge was not a movement, "monolithic musical genre", or a way to react to 1980s-era metal pop ; he calls the term a misnomer mostly based on hype. Stetson states that prominent bands considered to be grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Hammerbox ) all sound different. Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge , pointed out vast differences between grunge bands, with some being punk and others being metal-based. In 1984,

24111-681: The thriving Pacific Northwest punk scene, going to punk rock shows in Seattle. During his second year in high school, Cobain began living with his mother in Aberdeen. Two weeks prior to graduation, he dropped out of Aberdeen High School upon realizing that he did not have enough credits to graduate. His mother gave him an ultimatum: find employment or leave. After one week, Cobain found his clothes and other belongings packed away in boxes. Feeling banished, Cobain stayed with friends, occasionally sneaking back into his mother's basement. Cobain also claimed that, during periods of homelessness, he lived under

24282-410: The time they were unpopular enough to offer a new image as opposed to more frequently seen Gibson Les Pauls or Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster used by mainstream pop & rock bands. Being unpopular when grunge started, offset guitars also offered excellent bang for buck. Grunge is generally characterized by a sludgy electric guitar sound with a thick middle register and rolled-off treble tone and

24453-472: The virtuoso "shredding" guitar solos that had become the centerpiece of heavy metal songs, instead opting for melodic, blues -inspired solos – focusing "on the song, not the guitar solo". Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains stated that solos should be to serve the song, rather than to show off a guitarist's technical skill. In place of the strutting guitar heroes of metal, grunge had "guitar anti-heroes " like Cobain, who showed little interest in mastering

24624-399: The virtuoso " operatics of hair-metal were shunned." Grunge singing has been characterized as "borderline out-of-tune vocals". Grunge lyrics are typically dark, nihilistic , wretched, angst -filled and anguished, often addressing themes such as social alienation , self-doubt , abuse , assault, neglect , betrayal , social isolation / emotional isolation , psychological trauma , and

24795-479: The weeks that followed, after learning from Grohl that Cobain shared mutual interests with her, Love began pursuing Cobain. In late 1991, the two were often together and bonded through drug use. On February 24, 1992, a few days after the conclusion of Nirvana's " Pacific Rim " tour, Cobain and Love were married on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Love wore a satin and lace dress once owned by Frances Farmer, and Cobain donned

24966-497: The wet, grey and isolated Pacific Northwest region. Regarding graphic design and images, a common feature of grunge bands was the use of "lo-fi" (low fidelity) and deliberately unconventional album covers, for example presenting intentionally murky or miscolored photography, collage or distressed lettering. Early grunge "[a]lbum covers and concert flyers appeared Xeroxed not in allegiance to some DIY aesthetic" but because of "economic necessity", as "bands had so little money". This

25137-540: The whole point of grunge was that it didn't really sound like anything , including itself. Just consider how many different bands and styles of music have been shoved under the "grunge" header in this discography alone, and you realize that grunge is probably the most ill-defined genre of music in history. Grunge guitarists like Kurt Cobain often used "offset" guitars like the Fender Jaguar, Fender Jazzmaster, or Mustang. They used primarily offset guitars because at

25308-642: Was Sammy Hagar and Quarterflash , held at the Seattle Center Coliseum in 1983. Cobain, however, claimed that the first live show he attended was the Melvins, when they played a free concert outside the Thriftway supermarket where Osborne worked. Cobain wrote in his journals of this experience, as well as in interviews, singling out the impact it had on him. As a teenager living in Montesano, Washington , Cobain eventually found escape through

25479-517: Was "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse". Cobain was a vocal supporter of the pro-choice movement, and Nirvana was involved in L7 's Rock for Choice campaign. He received death threats from a small number of anti-abortion activists for participating in the pro-choice campaign, with one activist threatening to shoot Cobain as soon as he stepped on a stage. In 1989, members of Nirvana and fellow American alternative rock band Screaming Trees formed

25650-513: Was a key principle in the Seattle scene. The grunge look typically consisted of second-hand clothes or thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing (most notably flannel shirts) of the region, as well as a generally unkempt appearance and long hair. For grunge singers, long hair was used "as a mask to conceal the face" so they can "expres[s their] innermost thoughts"; Cobain is a notable example. Male grunge musicians were "... unkempt ... [and] ... unshaven [,] with ... tousled hair" that

25821-573: Was a really hard struggle to stay away from her for so many months." Everett True , who was an associate of both Cobain and Love, disputes those versions of events in his 2006 book, claiming that he himself introduced the couple on May 17, 1991. Cobain was already aware of Love through her role in the 1987 film Straight to Hell . According to True, the pair were formally introduced at an L7 and Butthole Surfers concert in Los Angeles in May 1991. In

25992-499: Was affected enough to write " Polly " from Nevermind after reading a newspaper story of an incident in 1987, when a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped after attending a punk rock show, then raped and tortured with a blowtorch . She escaped after gaining the trust of her captor Gerald Friend through flirting with him. After seeing Nirvana perform, Bob Dylan cited "Polly" as the best of Nirvana's songs, and said of Cobain, "the kid has heart". Patrick Süskind 's novel Perfume: The Story of

26163-409: Was already a common feature of punk rock design, but could be extended in the grunge period due to the increasing use of Macintosh computers for desktop publishing and digital image processing. The style was sometimes called 'grunge typography' when used outside music. A famous example of 'grunge'-style experimental design was Ray Gun magazine, art directed by David Carson . Carson developed

26334-469: Was anti-fashion. It made a statement. Grunge is about not making a statement, which is why it's crazy for it to become a fashion statement." The unkempt fashion sense defined the look of the "slacker generation", who "skipped school, smoked pot ... [and] cigarettes and listened to music" hoping to become a rock star one day. Even though grunge fashion had declined in popularity by the late 1990s, designers have continued to occasionally draw inspiration from

26505-492: Was born August 18, 1992. A sonogram was included in the artwork for Nirvana's single, " Lithium ." In a 1992 Vanity Fair article , Love admitted to a drug binge with Cobain in the early weeks of her pregnancy. At the time, she claimed that Vanity Fair had misquoted her. Love later admitted to using heroin before knowing she was pregnant. The couple were asked by the press if Frances was addicted to drugs at birth. The Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services visited

26676-539: Was born on April 24, 1970. Cobain's family had a musical background. His maternal uncle, Chuck Fradenburg, played in a band called the Beachcombers; his aunt, Mari Earle, played guitar and performed in bands throughout Grays Harbor County ; and his great-uncle, Delbert, had a career as an Irish tenor, making an appearance in the 1930 film King of Jazz . Kurt was described as a happy and excitable child, who also exhibited sensitivity and care. His talent as an artist

26847-613: Was cheaper for them to leave the sound dirty and just turn up their volume. This dirty sound, due to low budgets, unfamiliarity with recording, and a lack of professionalism may be the origin of the term "grunge". The "Seattle scene" refers to a regional Pacific Northwest alternative music movement that was linked to the University of Washington in Seattle, and the Evergreen State College in Olympia. Evergreen

27018-423: Was enrolled in a junior high school wrestling team at the insistence of his father. He was a skilled wrestler but despised the experience. Because of the ridicule he endured from his teammates and coach, he allowed himself to be pinned in an attempt to sadden his father. Later, his father enlisted him in a Little League Baseball team, where Cobain would intentionally strike out to avoid playing. Cobain befriended

27189-516: Was evident from an early age, as he would draw his favorite characters from films and cartoons, such as the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Donald Duck , in his bedroom. He was encouraged by his grandmother, Iris Cobain, a professional artist. Cobain developed an interest in music at a young age. According to his aunt Mari, he began singing at the age of two. At age four, he started playing

27360-454: Was found dead in the greenhouse of his Seattle home at the age of 27 , with police concluding that he had died around three days earlier from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , alongside Nirvana bandmates Novoselic and Grohl, in their first year of eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included him on its lists of

27531-516: Was in stark contrast to the attention Cobain was used to receiving as an only boy, and he became resentful of his stepmother. Cobain's mother dated a man who was abusive; Cobain witnessed the domestic violence inflicted upon her, with one incident resulting in her being hospitalized with a broken arm. Wendy refused to press charges, remaining committed to the relationship. Cobain behaved insolently toward adults during this period and began bullying another boy at school. His father and Westeby took him to

27702-439: Was influenced by classic rock , and that "sludgy, dark, heavy bands" such as Soundgarden and Alice in Chains had a sinister metal tone. Grunge music has what has been called an "ugly" aesthetic, both in the roar of the distorted electric guitars and in the darker lyrical topics. This approach was chosen both to counter the "slick" elegant sound of the then-predominant mainstream rock and because grunge artists wanted to mirror

27873-481: Was just too lazy to shampoo", and Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman said, "This [clothing] is cheap, it's durable, and it's kind of timeless. It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80s." The flannel and "... cracked leatherette coats" in the grunge scene were part of the Pacific Northwest's thrift-shop aesthetic. Grunge fashion was very much an anti-fashion response and

28044-413: Was not gay, though they remained friends. According to Cobain, he used to spray paint "God Is Gay" on pickup trucks in the Aberdeen area. Police records show that Cobain was arrested for spray painting the phrase "ain't got no how watchamacallit" on vehicles. Cobain often drew during classes. When given a caricature assignment for an art course, Cobain drew Michael Jackson but was told by the teacher that

28215-538: Was often unwashed, greasy and "... matted [into a] sheep-dog mop". The lumberjack attire was a common sight in the thrift stores near Seattle for the low prices that musicians could afford. Grunge style consisted of ripped jeans, thermal underwear , Doc Martens boots or combat boots (often unlaced), band T-shirts , oversized knit sweaters , long and droopy skirts, ripped tights, Birkenstocks , hiking boots, and eco-friendly clothing made from recycled textiles or fair trade organic cotton. As well, since women in

28386-523: Was one of the most low-tech effects devices, the wah-wah pedal . Both "[Kim] Thayil and Alice in Chains ' Jerry Cantrell ... were great advocates of the wah wah pedal." Wah was also used by the Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jr . Grunge guitarists played loud, with Kurt Cobain's early guitar sound coming from an unusual set-up of four 800 watt PA system power amplifiers . Guitar feedback effects, in which

28557-401: Was particularly noted for his " head flips "). Dave Rimmer writes that with the revival of punk ideals of stripped-down music in the early 1990s, "for Cobain, and lots of kids like him, rock & roll ... threw down a dare: Can you be pure enough, day after day, year after year, to prove your authenticity, to live up to the music ... And if you can't, can you live with being a poseur , a phony,

28728-432: Was really into the fact that I was creative and into music. I don't think he'd ever played music with a girl before. He was super-inspiring and fun to play with." The musician Slim Moon described their sound as "like the minimal quiet pop songs that Olympia is known for. Both of them sang; it was really good." In 1992, Cobain contacted William S. Burroughs about a possible collaboration. Burroughs responded by sending him

28899-404: Was similar to the "outburst" of loud, heavily distorted electric guitar in tone and delivery; Kurt Cobain used a "gruff, slurred articulation and gritty timbre" and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam made use of a "wide, powerful vibrato " to show his "depth of expression." Layne Staley voiced lyrics with a "heaviness" and tremolo . In general, grunge singers used a "deeper vocal style" which matched

29070-428: Was to be perceived as a "Melvins rip-off". After their commercial success, the members of Nirvana would constantly talk about the Melvins' importance to them in the press. Cobain was an admirer of Jimi Hendrix , and said in reference to the growing media attention on the Seattle scene at the time, "I mean, we had Jimi Hendrix. Heck. What more do we want?". In a 1993 interview Cobain called Hendrix "a great musician and

29241-508: Was uncomfortable with this role. During his final years, Cobain struggled with a heroin addiction, stomach pain, and chronic depression. He also struggled with the personal and professional pressures of fame, and was often in the spotlight for his tumultuous marriage to fellow musician Courtney Love , with whom he had a daughter named Frances . In March 1994, he overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol , subsequently undergoing an intervention and detox program. On April 8, 1994, he

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