History Trivia / Nirvana

** "Talk To Me" was a song they occasionally performed live between 1991 and 1992, notable for its catchy NewWaveMusic-influenced rhythm. The band never brought it to the studio themselves, but Music/{{Hole}} attempted a studio version, and Kurt also tried to get Music/IggyPop to record it. Iggy would later explain that although was a fan of Nirvana, he had to turn it down because he was only interested in performing his own original material.

** ''Unplugged In New York'' was originally going to be part of a DistinctDoubleAlbum called ''Verse Chorus Verse'' - one disc would be the ''Unplugged'' performance in full, the other would be a compilation of other live performances as chosen by the band themselves - soon after Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic decided putting together a compilation so soon after Kurt's death would be too emotionally taxing for them, so ''Verse Chorus Verse'' was canceled and only the ''Unplugged'' portion was released. A few years later, they released ''From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah'', a LiveAlbum with the songs and performances chosen by Dave and Krist and roughly based on what the electric disc of ''Verse Chorus Verse'' would have been like - notably, the ''Wishkah'' track-list excludes any songs that were also performed on ''Unplugged'' except for a version of "Polly".

** Amusingly, "Scentless Apprentice" was called "Chuck Chuck Fo Fuck" (and a few variations thereof) before it had proper lyrics: The song's rhythm reminded the band of the '60s novelty song "The Name Game".

* ''Trivia/{{Nevermind}}''

** Kurt eventually got so fed up with the excessive focus on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from ''Music/{{Nevermind}}'' that he would purposely trick and antagonize crowds at some of the shows, if they insisted that the band play the song. Most often, he would play the intro to "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and go right into "Rape Me" (with a similar opening riff) instead.

** Twice on ''Music/{{Nevermind}}'' regarding the cover artwork. The first was a more positive example, with Kurt being talked out of using a very graphic image of a water birth, complete with blood and placenta, in favor of the now-famous "naked baby" photo. However, there were concerned about the head of the baby's penis being visible. Kurt fought to keep it visible and when the label suggesting putting a sticker on the outer casing so as not to offend record-store shoppers, Kurt said he'd only agree if the sticker said "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."

** ''Music/{{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 ''Music/{{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.

** As mentioned previously on the page ''Nevermind'' was originally going to be called ''Sheep'', and Cobain wanted do do "boy" and "girl" versions of the album with different songs appearing depending on which version you had.

** It has been noted that Nirvana's explosive success did this to many of the rock musicians of TheEighties, setting off a paradigm shift that left many of those artists feeling like relics unless they were able to either reinvent themselves or otherwise find a way to fit in with the times. ''Film/TheWrestler'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND1_Sc17SGE a famous scene]] where Randy and Pam, both fans of '80s HairMetal, blame Nirvana for "ruining" rock music, and WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows, while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fu40YANO1M covering]] Music/BillyIdol's ''Cyberpunk'' on his ''Trainwreckords'' series about creator-killing albums, notes that the words "Nirvana killed my career" can sum up the trajectory of a great many '80s artists trying to stay relevant in the '90s.
*** Todd would say this about many rock bands from the late '80s and early '90s in his "One-Hit Wonderland" series, particularly Australian alt-rock band Music/MidnightOil and late hair metal band Music/MrBig.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: Cobain helped define the image of rock in the early '90s, and set the stage for the rock scene in the next decade. He died at age 27, and his band put out only three studio albums.

* SequelFirst: ''Bleach'' only saw a wide international release after the massive success of follow-up ''Nevermind''.
* ShortLivedBigImpact: Cobain helped define the image of rock the late '80s and early '90s, and set the stage for the rock scene in the next decade. He died at age 27, and his band put out only three studio albums.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: Cobain helped define the image of rock the late '80s and early '90s, and set the stage for the rock scene in the next decade. He died at age 27. His band put out only three studio albums.

** While Music/DaveGrohl's next band Music/FooFighters is generally acknowledged not to have had as much cultural impact as ''Nirvana,'' for him personally, it was a breakout from being virtually anonymous as "just the drummer" in the background to the leader and FaceOfTheBand of one of the most popular, commercially successful and critically acclaimed rock bands of the late '90s and early 21st century.