History Music / Nirvana

Nirvana was a {{grunge}} band formed in Aberdeen, Washington up in the [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]][[note]]'''not''' UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, as is commonly assumed, though Seattle is where they first hit it big[[/note]], regularly considered among the upper echelons of modern rock music as a whole for their work in popularizing and influencing the grunge and {{alternative rock}} scenes of TheNineties, most prominently with their smash hit 1991 album ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''.

Nirvana was one of the first bands many members of Generation Y got into, despite the band often being labeled a Generation X phenomenon -- which is also inaccurate in the sense that a much larger number of Gen-X'ers grew up with the HairMetal, flamboyant pop, and college rock that Nirvana ushered out in the early '90s.

* FilkSong: "Scentless Apprentice" was based on the novel ''Literature/{{Perfume}}''.
** "Floyd the Barber" is about if the characters of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' were perverted psychopaths.

* {{Corpsing}}: You can hear Kurt struggling to avoid laughing right before "Milk It"'s final chorus.

And for this gift, I feel blessed\\

And always will until the end.''
-->--'''"Smells Like Teen Spirit"'''

->''I'm worse at what I do best\\

Our little group has always been\\
And always will until the end''

* ContemptibleCover: ''Nevermind'''s classic "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg naked baby swimming after a dollar bill.]]"

** In general, this played a major role in Cobain becoming disillusioned with the public image and fame he received after the success of ''Nevermind''. He strongly felt that he and his message had been misinterpreted and that a lot of his fans admired him for being somebody he wasn't. An example of this could be how the lyrics of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" lead to him being named the "spokesman of a generation", even though he put little thought into them and considered them to be meaningless blather. Thus why he recorded ''In Utero'' with the intention of driving all of these same people away.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''In Utero'', compared to ''Nevermind''.\

* AlternativeRock

* TheBigGuy: Krist stands at a massive 6'7. Kurt and Dave were absolutely [[http://i.imgur.com/GHobI7M.jpg dwarfed]] by him.
* {{Bishonen}}: Kurt was seen by many as the grunge version of this trope.

* CelebrityIsOverrated: Kurt often spoke of how little fame changed his life for the better. He was still a depressed man coping with a lousy childhood (albeit one with a good sense of humor) and all it did was screw with his already unstable mind.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''In Utero'', compared to ''Nevermind''.
%% DeadArtistsAreBetter

* DownerEnding: Besides the band itself, both ''Nevermind'' and ''In Utero'' end with depressing songs.
* EleventhHourRanger: Pat joined the band so soon before Kurt's death that even most Foo Fighters fans don't know that he was in it (and he ''does'' appear in ''Unplugged in New York'').

* TheHeart: Krist served as this, particularly given his best friend Kurt was shy and at times hard to deal with.

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Kurt Cobain in the earlier years, one of the most dishevelled examples of the trope.

* OddFriendship: At the height of the backlash surrounding "Achy Breaky Heart". Cobain met and struck a friendship with country star Billy Ray Cyrus, quipping something like, "Congratulations on getting the whole world to hate you". This is ironic considering the backlash [[Music/MileyCyrus Cyrus' daughter]] (a Nirvana fan) received in 2012 from some rock purists for covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in concert. Krist Novoselic did defend and support Miley for her cover, though.

* SeriousBusiness:
** Music/KurtCobain has been posthumously deemed a rock god: The house where he died in Seattle, as well as several other former residences throughout Washington, have come to be considered holy ground by his fans, and the main road leading into his hometown of Aberdeen, bears a welcome sign reading: "Come As You Are" (despite the fact Kurt ''hated'' the town).
** Strongly related is fan reaction to a move Creator/{{Activision}} made with ''VideoGame/GuitarHero 5,'' where you could play as Cobain, and have him sing ''any song in the game.'' Not only did Courtney Love sue, and the surviving members of Nirvana declare that they wouldn't work with Activision ever again, but the fans went ''nuts''. This was in spite of Activision having done this numerous times before, to no complaint from artists and -- at best -- mild grudging from fans. [[note]] Love lost the lawsuit, because she gave Activision the go-ahead in the first place, by signing the contract stating that they could use his image for the game, meaning the lawsuit was a lost cause from the beginning. [[/note]]
** Kurt has also become canonized as a dour, tragic figure. He was, most of the time (especially when he wasn't smacked up on heroin), a smart, goofy music nerd, with a wicked sense of humor. He was also a huge fan of Music/ShonenKnife, who can be considered this band's [[TastesLikeDiabetes antithesis.]]
*** [[SubvertedTrope Despite all of this,]] Cobain is on record as saying he was tired of everyone taking him and the band so seriously all the time. While recording ''Nevermind'', he allegedly told Grohl, "Music comes first, lyrics come second," an approach he had taken even further on ''Bleach'' to the point that he said, "I don't hold any of those lyrics dear to me."

* StarvingArtist: Kurt was this for quite a while, and was not uncommon for him to sleep in other people's houses or his own car. Also, during their early days, the band had to spend the money earned from concerts in either the gasoline to get to the next gig or food -- [[DoingItForTheArt often preferring the former.]]

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally 5 to 7. Their softer songs, like "Something in the Way" and "Marigold", drop down to about 2 or 3, while "Endless, Nameless" is an 8, and might even go up to 9 if not for the quiet parts. A few ''In Utero'' songs ("Scentless Apprentice," "Tourette's", etc.) are also 8, as well a few songs from ''Bleach'' (most obviously "Negative Creep").

** The remaster of ''Nevermind'' is completely ruined by this.

* EverythingIs

Nirvana was a {{grunge}} band formed in Aberdeen, Washington up in the [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]][[note]]'''not''' UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, as is commonly assumed, though Seattle is where they first hit it big[[/note]], regularly considered among the upper echelons of modern rock music for their popularizing and influencing the grunge and AlternativeRock scenes of TheNineties, most prominently with their smash hit 1991 album ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''.

->"It's better to burn out than to fade away."
-->-- '''Music/KurtCobain''', quoting Music/NeilYoung in his suicide note.

Although the band disbanded following [[AuthorExistenceFailure Cobain's death]] in April 1994, the band still remained popular, releasing many compilation and live albums, and Grohl would go on to form Music/FooFighters, one of the most respected and successful alt-rock acts of the genre.

-->''Oh well, whatever, nevermind.''

->''"It's better to burn out than to fade away."''

-->-- '''Kurt Cobain''', quoting Music/NeilYoung, in his suicide note.

* 1989 - ''Music/{{Bleach}}''

!! Smells Like A Trope Spirit:

** Kurt saw a poster aiming to prevent AIDS by advocating needle sterilization with the slogan "Bleach your works." Thus he decided to do that, naming his album ''Music/{{Bleach}}.''

* {{Mondegreen}}: [[Creator/SamRaimi "RAIMI! RAIMI! RAIMI! RAIMI!"]] (from "Rape Me").
** "Lounge Act": Is it "'til it's fucking gone"... Or "jealous fucking God"?
** Cobain had a habit of mushing his words together when he sang, lending himself easily to this trope. (It also inspired the Weird Al parody song "Smells Like Nirvana".)
** A common one from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" itself: "I feel stupid and contagious" can be confused as "acting stupid is contagious".
** Kurt once said on the topic of journalists interpreting his lyrics: "Why the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate Freudian evaluation of my lyrics when 90% of the time they transcribe them incorrectly?"
*** Another reason why it's hard to nail down the lyrics to Nirvana songs is that they tended to change from performance to performance. Cobain himself would change the lyrics to songs after they had been recorded, most notably "Smells Like Teen Spirit:" "Our little group" was changed to "our little tribe." Nearly every live performance of the song reflects this change.
*** And that's to say nothing of the myriad of demo and other versions released since Cobain's death...
** In "Floyd the Barber", "I'm ashamed" sounds like "I must shave".

** The infamous Top Of The Tops performance. The band were expecting to perform live, but the show's producers told them that they'd be miming to a backing track - except for Kurt who was expected to sing live. In protest the band turned in a deliberately terrible performance, with Kurt singing Smells like Teen Spirit in the style of a bored lounge room singer and the rest of the band not even bothering to pretend to mime to the backing track.

Nirvana was one of the first bands many members of Generation Y got into, despite the band often being labeled a Generation X phenomenon -- which is also inaccurate in the sense that a much larger number of Gen-X'ers grew up with the HairMetal and flamboyant pop that Nirvana ushered out in the early '90s.