If any contemporary rock star looked slated for premature oblivion, it was Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. The guitarist, singer and songwriter had a history of heroin abuse, and had only just recovered from a drug and alcohol overdose which landed him in the American Hospital in Rome last month. Consequently, 21 dates on Nirvana's European tour had to be rescheduled. Yet the twist is that his death was apparently suicide, through a shotgun blast to the head at home in Seattle.
Nirvana shot to global fame with their album Nevermind (1991) and its single, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nobody familiar with the band's earlier work could have predicted that they would make it on such a grand scale. The three-piece was formed in the obscure logging town of Aberdeen, about 100 miles from Seattle. 'It was musically and culturally dead, like living in Siberia,' commented the bass player Chris Novoselic. Eager for escape, the band sent a demonstration tape to the fashionable Seattle record label Sub Pop. The disc cost $600 to record.
It was enough to prompt a bidding war for Nirvana among the major record labels. The band eventually chose to sign with Geffen, which had accrued some semi-alternative credibility by being the home of Guns N'Roses and the New York veteran noise-terrorists Sonic Youth. The new deal gave Nirvana financial security, but the crucial factor in the success of Nevermind was its producer, Butch Vig. Vig was able to soup up Nirvana's violent, primitive rock songs with a beefy recorded sound that emphasised their crude dynamics, and offered just enough melodic clues for listeners to cling on to.
Nirvana's timing was impeccable. America's so-called slacker generation was seeking its own sound and style, and Nirvana fitted the bill. Behind the violent sound of their music, Cobain wrote lyrics which expressed a sense of vulnerability and alienation. Nirvana became the spearhead of the Seattle-based grunge movement, which spawned a swarm of successful rock bands including Pearl Jam, who became the focus of Cobain 's resentment, since he viewed them as a corporate cash-in on the outsider-stance of which Nirvana claimed to be the true guardians.
Despite the success of last year's album, In Utero, it is impossible to say how long Nirvana's success could have endured, but Cobain 's death can only be viewed as a waste. Referring to the fraternity of dead rockers like Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison, Cobain 's mother, Wendy O'Connor, commented: 'I told him not to join that stupid club.' He was in no state to listen.