With new bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Nirvana appearing in the early 90s, all the music industry was upside down. Those Seattle bands were able to bring to the front a sound that was considered underground before. This music style mixing elements of punk rock and metal we would now call "grunge" would take out of the charts many hard rock bands with easy ballads, bands we have to admit that were not very hot for the last couple of years.

Even if Pearl Jam got a huge success with its excellent first album, Ten, it's Nirvana that set the new standards with its 2nd album, Nevermind, and particularly with the track "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with a video that broke all the records on MTV. That composition with the unforgettable guitar riff and melody is still as fun to hear, even after many years and hundreds of listenings. Kurt Cobain quickly became considered like a genius writing songs full of anger on a music going from metal to acoustic ballads. Without being a great guitarist in a technical way and without having the most powerful voice, he was able to deliver his compositions with a very special emotion.

When Cobain was creating a totally genius masterpiece, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, two excellent musicians, didn't have any choice but leaving the front stage to that true living legend. Unfortunately, Cobain would have many problems to deal with all the success and attention from the media. He was doing more and more hard drugs until he was found dead in 1994. He was only 27.

After the death of Cobain, it was impossible for the other 2 members to resume the Nirvana adventure without its soul. So, the band offered us only 3 real albums, but we have the feeling they did 10 albums when we realize their repertoire has almost nothing bad.

After Nirvana, many alternative artists were able to make their way to the charts and commercial radios. We even had to change the definition of the word "alternative" that was used before to talk about a music style outside mainstream standards. Thanks to Nirvana, alternative rock has become popular.

There are many bands that followed the Nirvana steps in the 90's. Many of them had the good sound and energy to replace them, but they had all the same problem: they didn't have a brilliant composer in the Kurt Cobain category, a genius we don't have the opportunity to meet very often...

Richard Dion