Nirvana was a successful an innovative grunge alternative rock band that was formed in 1987 in Aberdeen, Washington by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard, that later would be replaced by Dave Grohl in 1990.
Cobain and Novoselic organized the band in 1985 after their mutual admiration for a local underground metal band called The Melvins, whose members were influenced by Black Sabbath and Cheap Trick. In the early stage, Nirvana played with names such as Pen Cap Chew, Skid Row, and Ted Ed Fred.
As Nirvana, they debuted in early 1988 signing a record deal to a Seattle independent records label which released their heavily hard rock influence first EP that year, followed by their debut album "Bleach" in 1989.
Although, this album only sold 6,000 copies, in 1991, it went multi-platinum selling over 4 million copies worldwide, but meanwhile Nirvana took another musical direction and signed to Geffen Record for the release of their new album "Nevermind" in September 1991.
In early 1992, "Nevermind" produced Nirvana's international and most representative song hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit", a totally grunge ballad that replaced Michael Jackson in both Billboard's albums and top ten singles charts.
Nirvana's huge success opened a spot for other Seattle's grunge bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, all of them gaining exposure along with radio and television airplay.
The band was awarded with a MTV Music Video Awards as Best New Artist in 1992, ranked number 6 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists Of Hard Rock, and was included as band number 27 in Rolling Stone Magazine's Greatest Artists of All Time.
Nirvana’s third and final album "In Utero" was released on 1993, meaning a controversial step back to hard rock. Nirvana succeeded and was invited to a MTV Unplugged later that year.
In 1994, Nirvana began a European tour that was suspended in Germany due to Kurt Cobain's alcohol and drug abuse. He stayed at the hospital promising get into rehabilitation, but he escaped from the clinic and took a plane back to Seattle.
Despite Nirvana being one of the bands leading the so-called Generation X, the band came to an abrupt end when Cobain was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound to his head on April 5, 1994.
