History Trivia / Nirvana

** In ''Live at Reading'', the band went into a hilariously bad rendition of Music/{{Boston}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XIGon2RjY "More Than A Feeling"]] to {{lampshade}} [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong the similarity between the song's chorus and "Smells Like Teen Spirit".]]

** In ''Live At Reading'', the band went into a hilariously bad rendition of Music/{{Boston}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XIGon2RjY "More Than A Feeling"]] to {{lampshade}} [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong the similarity between the song's chorus and "Smells Like Teen Spirit".]]

** In 1993, the band wanted to enlist a second guitarist for live shows, and chose Pat Smear, who toured with the band and appeared on ''MTV Unplugged in New York''. [[http://loudwire.com/dave-grohl-names-guitarists-nirvana-considered-recruiting-before-pat-smear/ According to]] Music/DaveGrohl, they also considered asking [[Music/{{Mudhoney}} Steve Turner]] or [[Music/{{Melvins}} Buzz Osbourne]], but "didn’t want to break up Music/{{Mudhoney}} or the Music/{{Melvins}}". Aside from potentially splitting up the aforementioned groups (or just forcing them to work around Nirvana's touring schedule), this also could have affected Music/FooFighters: It's possible Pat Smear wouldn't have ended up in the band if he hadn't already worked with Music/DaveGrohl.

* DoingItForTheArt: When recording ''Music/InUtero'', Music/SteveAlbini indulged Kurt's dream of capturing a lot of ambient noise from a tiny recording space. They not only miked the amps and drum kit, but also the walls, ceiling, and floor with duct tape. Balancing this tone achieved the dark, claustrophobic sound Kurt was chasing in his mind and that turned out to be antithetical to what Geffen Records wanted.

* GenreKiller: As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows put it, Nirvana killed a lot of careers. Nirvana's explosion onto the mainstream and the ushering in an era dominated by AlternativeRock pretty much killed any of the "slicker" styles of music that were predominant in the previous decade, namely hair- and glam-metal and dance pop. (The Music/MilliVanilli lip-synching incident had happened less than two years prior, sending the message that pop music had officially become as synthetic as it'd ever be and that it was time for more earthy styles of music. This also led to the rise of GangstaRap.) The band's breakthrough also killed off pretty much any alternative band that wasn't grunge, though some of the bigger acts from the '80s like Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{REM}}, Music/{{The Cure|Band}}, Music/DepecheMode and Music/NewOrder managed to hang on. Kurt Cobain's suicide was considered the beginning of the end of {{Grunge}} in turn.

* 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.

** The band was scheduled to headline the Lollapalooza 1994 festival, but on April 4, 1994, the band pulled out of the festival amid rumors that the band were on the verge of breaking up. But only 4 days later, Cobain killed himself, ending any chance for them to perform as the band broke up.

** Live guitarist [[PunnyName Pat Smear]] got his BreakupBreakout in this band, (he was previously the guitarist of Music/TheGerms before their lead singer committed suicide via heroin overdose) until Cobain's death. Amazingly, he managed to get a ''second'' one when Dave Grohl brought him on to play with the Music/FooFighters, whom he still plays with to this day.

** The video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" suffered from a clash between lead vocalist Kurt Cobain and the video's director Samuel Bayer. Bayer wanted to have a video full of attractive women and a high glossy production, Cobain demanded the women in the video look more average and the video have a dirty, gritty tinge to it. If you've ever asked yourself why the riot in the video looked so realistic, it's because the audience really ''was'' rioting. Despite efforts from the director and crew to settle them down, they started tearing the set apart. This ended up doing the video a favor, as it made everything look authentic, but it was a nightmare for the crew and the band. Drummer Dave Grohl recalled the situation as a giant headache. Once filming was done, Bayer insisted on showing more footage of the janitor than of Cobain. Cobain had to have a record executive force control out of Bayer's hands to change this. The video proved to be massively popular and almost single-handedly ushered in the alternative age of popular music.

* ''[[Trivia/BleachAlbum Bleach]]''

* ''Trivia/{{Incesticide}}''

* BlackSheepHit: "Aneurysm" from ''Music/{{Incesticide}}''. The song was only a BSide and later was ranked in third place for best Music/{{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.

* 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 "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SNhYrUnUCg Lithium]]", and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen intended to record an entire album of Cobain's material]] before his death put the kibosh on it.
** One of the cartoon bands on ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' was called Nirvana.
** Confusingly, Nirvana sort of ended up calling two unrelated songs "Verse Chorus Verse" -- one was an outtake from 1991, the other was their contribution to the 1993 compilation ''No Alternative''. {{Fanon}} started dictating that the 1991 song was the real "Verse Chorus Verse" and the 1993 song was "Sappy" (a known WorkingTitle), and this was essentially made canon by the track-listing to the box set ''With The Lights Out'', which featured both songs. ''Verse Chorus Verse'' was also a proposed name for a DistinctDoubleAlbum that would consist of their MTV Unplugged performance and various electric live material... but the concept eventually evolved into being two separate live albums released a few years apart, ''MTV Unplugged In New York'' and ''From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah''.
** There existed a short-lived DeathMetal band from Sweden also called Nirvana, who only released a few demos before breaking up. They had to change their name to Nirvana 2002 to avoid confusion.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Kurt said he was "gay in spirit" and "probably could be bisexual", and "If I wouldn't have found Music/{{Courtney|Love}}, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle." However he also once had a homosexual male friend who tried to kiss him, but Kurt backed away and told his friend he was not gay but would still be friends with him.

** 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 [[WereStillRelevantDammit trying to stay relevant in the '90s]].

** ''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 roughly based on what the electric disc of ''Verse Chorus Verse'' would have been like - notably, the ''Wishkah'' track-list excluded any songs that were also performed on ''Unplugged'' (except for a version of "Polly").

** ''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 did release ''From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah'', which was a collection of live performances selected by Dave and Krist - so chances are the non-''Unplugged'' portion of ''Verse Chorus Verse'' would have been very similar.

** Confusingly, Nirvana sort of ended up calling two unrelated songs "Verse Chorus Verse" -- one was an outtake from 1991, the other was their contribution to the 1993 compilation ''No Alternative''. {{Fanon}} started dictating that the 1991 song was the real "Verse Chorus Verse" and the 1993 song was "Sappy" (a known WorkingTitle), and this was essentially made canon by the track-listing to the box set ''With The Lights Out'', which featured both songs.

** 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.

* GenreKiller: As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows put it, Nirvana killed a lot of careers. Nirvana's explosion onto the mainstream and the ushering in an era dominated by AlternativeRock pretty much killed any of the "slicker" styles of music that were predominant in the previous decade, namely hair- and glam-metal and dance pop. (The Music/MilliVanilli lip-synching incident had happened less than two years prior, sending the message that pop music had officially become as synthetic as it'd ever be and that it was time for more earthy styles of music. This also led to the rise of GangstaRap.) The band's breakthrough also killed off pretty much any alternative band that wasn't grunge, though some of the bigger acts from the '80s like Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{REM}}, Music/TheCure, Music/DepecheMode and Music/NewOrder managed to hang on. Kurt Cobain's suicide was considered the beginning of the end of {{Grunge}} in turn.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: Cobain 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. His band put out only three studio albums.

** 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 60's novelty song "The Name Game".

** While working on ''Music/{{Bleach|Album}}'', the band had been experimenting with Drop D tuning. Before recording "Blew", Krist Novoselic had forgotten that he'd left his bass in drop D, so he re-tuned it as though it was in standard tuning to begin with, ending up recording his part in drop C#. This was the take that was used for the album because it just sounded cooler.

* DoingItForTheArt: When recording ''Music/InUtero'', Music/SteveAlbini indulged Kurt's dream of capturing a lot of ambient noise from a tiny recording space. They not only miked the amps and drum kit, but also the walls, ceiling, and floor with duct tape. Balancing this tone achieved the dark, claustrophobic sound Kurt was chasing in his mind.

** Guitarist Jason Everman, who was credited on ''Bleach'' despite not playing on it because he financed the sessions. Initially hired to lessen the guitar load on Kurt Cobain, he was fired due to his temperament. He later joined Music/{{Soundgarden}} for a little while before joining the military.

* Chad Channing, the band's second longest running drummer before Dave Grohl himself. He quit due to creative differences with Cobain and Novoselic and frustration at his lack of input in the songwriting process.

** Chad Channing, the band's original drummer who was kicked out before they recorded any demos due to his unmanageable behavior.