At the start of their career, Nirvana was far from popular
and had few actual fans. "They may gatecrash the mainstream a couple of
years later but at this point of time Nirvana are just another bunch of mad
eyed hopefuls crammed into the back of a van looking for escape from their dull
lives.” (John Robb) During many of their early performances the audience would
leave halfway through the set. To spice up their performances that were quickly
going downhill, they would destroy their instruments at the end of the shows. “The
bass player shoves his bass guitar through the venue’s roof, the vocalist dives
backwards through the drums, the kit collapses and the drummer looks nervous.
The amps get pushed over and the guitars are mashed into the floor. It’s either
a thrilling moment of pop art auto destruction or the instinctive act of a band
that is genuinely walking along the edge.” (John Robb) This left no chance for
an encore which was something they didn't enjoy anyways.
Their first album, 'Bleach', was released in June of 1989, though
it was first recorded in December of 1988. The songwriter, Kurt Cobain, felt
pressured while coming up with the songs for this album because he wanted to
stick with the grunge style favored by his record company. The album did gather
some press attention during their 1989 tour and a few people began to start
getting interested by this up and coming band. “They were in that curious place
where they were press hip but the people haven’t come yet.” (John Robb) Since
not many people actually bought the album, it failed to chart in the U.S during
its original release.
Their debut single of 1988 was "Love Buzz", shown in the above video, which was actually a single by a Dutch Rock band know as Shocking Blue. Nirvana slightly mixed the song up in order to make it their own and have it on their 'Bleach' album. Another more popular song on the album was "About a Girl", which is in the video below. It was the third song on their 'Bleach' album and it was also
the first song on MTV’s Unplugged in New York album during 1994. Kurt created the song after listening to the Beatles as a way to introduce some pop into Nirvana's generally grunge sound.
Kurt Cobain, the master behind Nirvana, once said in an
interview, "I write poems for myself and I write poetry that gets torn
apart and becomes songs. I have a lot of respect for words, the power of
words." Cobain was a one of a kind musician who brought a lot of new
techniques into play. He created chord sequences that were mainly power chords
and his songs combined pop hooks with dissonant guitar rhythms. Many of his
songs feature major shifts in dynamics in which it changes quickly from quiet
verses to loud choruses. Kurt Cobain was truly an inspiration for many and his
songs related to most young teens going through tough times. He once said that “If
chasing cool is important to you, you're an idiot! What can you say about
people who wait to be told what to like, what to do and how to do it? It's like
apathy in action.”
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Robb, John. "Nirvana Changed Rock Music Forever, an Eye Witness Account." Louder Than War. Louder Than War, 31 Dec. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://louderthanwar.com/nirvana/>.Andrick, Frank. "Nirvana: Kurt Cobain." Artistwd.com. Joyzine, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/music/nirvana/nirvana>.
Di Perna, Alan. "The Making of Nevermind." Burntout. Harris Publications, Inc, 1995. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.burntout.com/nirvana/articles/article5.html>.