In 1987, Nirvana was born, blindsiding the end of the century and sending it into an unexpected punky tailspin. The worldwide phenomenon saw a rocketing career, international hits, hordes of fans, through to a tragic epilogue. Kurt Cobain’s assault on the genre may have been so arresting as for it to never recover. If Nirvana was not the last band in the history of rock, it was certainly its ultimate generational hurrah.

Whether you love or hate them, there’s a before and an after Nirvana. Before, alternative rock—or independent rock, or underground rock (the labels are abundant!)—was blacklisted by the gatekeeping bosses, reserved for the elite and relegated by record dealers to the back shelves. It might find its way as far as the specialist stores, which were frequented exclusively by savvy hipsters and unfortunately out of range of the mainstream audience. Indie rock was truly indie in 1987! Such was the scene, before Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl showed up…

Nirvana’s success was by no means immediate. First and foremost, they were fascinated with rock ‘n’ roll of every shape and colour: pop from the Beatles, hard rock from Led Zeppelin, metal from Black Sabbath, rock from the Replacements, punk from the Stooges, hardcore from Black Flag, and, above all, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü and the Pixies. The latter was the absolute in Cobain’s eyes. “I connected with that band so heavily. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard. I should have been in that band — or at least in a Pixies cover band, that would’ve been enough for me.” The three long haired youths from the rainy State of Washington tried to find their feet for a few months under various names (Fecal Matter, Stiff Woodies) before becoming Nirvana.

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