History Music / Nirvana

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: About a 5 or 6. Their softer stuff is usually a 2 or 3. On the other hand, "Endless, Nameless" is an 8, and might even go up to 9 if not for the quiet parts.

* IDontKnowMortalKombat: Krist [[http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2008/12/old_songs_on_a_new_screen.php fumbled]] when playing ''In Bloom'' on ''RockBand 2''.

** ''Bleach'' [[note]]''[[NamesTheSame No]]'', not ''[[Manga/{{Bleach}} that]]'' one.[[/note]] (1989)

* [[AuthorExistenceFailure Artist Existence Failure]]: Cobain, who AteHisGun.

* BlackSheepHit: "Aneurysm", the song was only a BSide and later was ranked in third place for best Nirvana song, right under "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Heart Shaped Box".
** Made all the more impressive since it was the final track on the Smells Like Teen Spirit single and the final track on their 15 song compilation album released in 1992.
* {{Bowdlerization}} The version of ''In Utero'' sold in WalMart changes the title of "Rape Me" to "Waif Me" and alters the artwork on the back. It's still the same inside, though.

* CoverVersion: Besides the ones below, some others were recorded live (or as demos) and have surfaced on compilations, B-sides and [=EPs=] (mostly ''With the Lights Out'') -- "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick" by Music/LedZeppelin, "They Hung Him on a Cross", "Grey Goose" and "Ain't It a Shame", also by Leadbelly, "Here She Comes Now" by The VelvetUnderground, "D-7" and "Return of the Rat" by The Wipers, "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks, "Do You Love Me?" by {{KISS}}, "The Money Will Roll Right In" by Fang, and "The End" by TheDoors.

* CreatorBreakdown: ''In Utero''.

* InTheStyleOf: Cobain once stated that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was deliberate attempt to write a [[ThePixies Pixies]] song.
** "About a Girl" was his crack at an early era {{Beatles}} tune, and more generally, he wanted ''In Utero'' to be his ''Sergeant Pepper's''.

* LyricalColdOpen : "Pennyroyal Tea"

* {{Misblamed}}: Courtney didn't exactly help Kurt's state of mind, but she wasn't solely responsible for getting him hooked on heroin; that was mostly down to Kurt's "self-medicating" for the stomach problems he had suffered for most of his life. The Charles Cross biography suggests, however, that it was the reverse -- it was ''Kurt'' who got ''Courtney'' back onto heroin.

* NamesTheSame: "Nirvana" was also the name of a psychedelic band formed in the [=UK=] in TheSixties. The elder Nirvana sued over the name and settled out of court, to the effect that both groups were allowed to continue using the name. The earlier band even recorded a cover of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SNhYrUnUCg&feature=related Lithium]]", and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen intended to record an entire album of Cobain's material]] before his death put the kibosh on it.
** This might be sacrilege, but one of the cartoon bands on Jem and the Holograms was called Nirvana.

* NonAppearingTitle: Considering songs such as "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle", perfectly [[JustifiedTrope justifiable]].

* PromotedFanboy: Cobain always made sure to plug his favorite bands in interviews and several of them (Meat Puppets, The Melvins, The Vaselines and ShonenKnife, just to name a few) got major label record deals just because Cobain said he liked them. Nirvana also got a record contract thanks to the support of SonicYouth, a band they were all big fans of and quickly befriended afterwards.

** Even Kurt's suicide note, as quoted above, was a shoutout to the godfather of grunge, NeilYoung.

** "Smells like Teen Spirit" smells like {{Boston}}'s "More Than a Feeling"

* ThrowItIn: While recording ''Bleach'', the band had been experimenting with Drop D tuning. Krist Novoselic accidentally left his bass in Drop D before recording "Blew", and this was the take that was used for the album because it just sounded cooler.
** ''Nevermind'' has two mistakes that were left in: on "Polly", Kurt accidentally starts the "Polly says" verse [[FourMoreMeasures too early]], pauses, and then re-starts on the right spot. This became a sort of AscendedGlitch, even appearing on the faster "(New Wave) Polly" version from ''Incesticide''. During double-tracking for "Come As You Are", he similarly sang "And I don't have a gun" before the last "memoria, memoria" section was over, but saved the mistake.

* WordSaladLyrics: Kurt himself lampshaded this in "On a Plain", with the line ''What the hell am I trying to say?''. Then again, that is a song about writer's block...

* AwardSnub: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 1992 Grammy's. It lost the award to the unplugged version of [[EricClapton Layla]].

** Kurt was an open bisexual who spoke constantly about the evils of homophobia and general bigotry through his lyrics and interviews. This Troper has it in her mind that "everyone is gay" was making an intentionally shocking comparison between human beings who enjoy the company of the same sex and human beings who don't.

** "Heart Shaped Box" sounds like {{Radiohead}}'s "My Iron Lung"
*** Inaccurate. "My Iron Lung" came out a year after Nirvana's song.

* ConspiracyTheory: Several surround the circumstances of Cobain's death. Especially suspicious are A) He had enough heroin in his system to kill a horse, and he had shot up twice. Even a hardened addict like Cobain shouldn't have been coherent enough to administer the second dose, let alone pull off the suicide without help. B) There were no fingerprints on the shotgun he used. Zero, zip, none.

->''It's better to burn out than to fade away.''
-->-'''Kurt Cobain''', quoting NeilYoung, in his suicide note

A rock band coming from Aberdeen, Washington -- not {{Seattle}}, as is commonly assumed, though Seattle is where they first hit it big -- up in the [[TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]], Nirvana became the breakthrough in alternative rock with their smash hit album ''Nevermind'' in the early [[TheNineties 1990s]]. The trio of Music/KurtCobain (guitar, lead singer, lead songwriter), Krist Novoselic (bass) and Music/DaveGrohl (drums) would become the face of the {{grunge}} movement of the '90s; the group is most well known for the songs "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are", "Heart Shaped Box", and "You Know You're Right". Nirvana was one of the first bands many people of the current generation got into, and thus, their music is often considered to be in the upper echelons of influential rock music. Even after [[TooGoodToLast the death]] of Cobain, the band still continued to remain popular, releasing many compilation albums. After the group split up, drummer Dave Grohl formed the band known as the Music/FooFighters, who have gone on to be one of the most respected and successful alternative rock bands in history.

* CoverVersion: Besides the ones below, some others were recorded live (or as demos) and have surfaced on compilations, B-sides and [=EPs=] (mostly ''With the Lights Out'') -- "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick" by LedZeppelin, "They Hung Him on a Cross", "Grey Goose" and "Ain't It a Shame", also by Leadbelly, "Here She Comes Now" by The VelvetUnderground, "D-7" and "Return of the Rat" by The Wipers, "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks, "Do You Love Me?" by {{KISS}}, "The Money Will Roll Right In" by Fang, and "The End" by TheDoors.

* WordSaladLyrics: Kurt himself lampshaded this in "On a Plain", with the line ''What the hell am I trying to say?''. Then again, that is a song about writer's block...

** "Heart Shaped Box" sounds like Radiohead's "My Iron Lung"

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The main riff in "Breed" soings a-lot like Link Wray's "Run Chicken Run"

** ''Bleach'' [[note]]''[[NamesTheSame No]], not ''[[Manga/{{Bleach}} that]]'' one.[[/note]] (1989)

** ''Bleach'' [[note]]''[[NamesTheSame No]], not ''[[Manga/Bleach that]]'' one.[[/note]] (1989)

** ''Bleach'' (1989)

** '' In Utero'' (1993)

** Again while not an outright one, ''In Utero'' is mostly about Cobain's CreatorBreakdown and dealing with his new found fame.

** "About a Girl" was his crack at an early era {{Beatles}} tune, and more generally, he wanted ''In Utero'' to be his ''Sergeant Pepper's''.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: He helped define the image of rock the late 80's and early 90's, and set the stage for the rock scene in the next decade. He died at age 27.

* ThrowItIn: While recording ''Bleach'', the band had been experimenting with Drop D tuning. Krist Novoselic accidentally left his bass in Drop D before recording "Blew", and this was the take that was used for the album because it just sounded cooler.

* TheUnintelligible: KurtCobain allowed WeirdAl to parody "Smells Like Teen Spirit" because it would be about the IndecipherableLyrics due to Kurt's singing.
* UnpluggedVersion: Nirvana's performance on ''MTV Unplugged'' contains several of these. Pretty much any pop culture TV show featuring the band will feature the clip of Cobain singing "All in all is all we are" from the UnpluggedVersion of "All Apologies."

* WordSaladLyrics: Kurt himself lampshaded this in "On a Plain", with the line ''What the hell am I trying to say?''. Then again, that is a song about writer's block...

* PrecisionFStrike: From Lounge Act: "'til it's '''fucking''' gone."

* YokoOhNo: Courtney Love again.