Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ca. April 5, 1994) was the lead singer and guitarist of the Seattle Grunge band, Nirvana. He served not only as the band's frontman, but as its "leader a

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ca. April 5, 1994) was the lead singer and guitarist of the Seattle Grunge band, Nirvana. He served not only as the band's frontman, but as its "leader and spiritual center" . With the band's success, Cobain became a major national and international celebrity, an uncomfortable position for someone who claimed to be "ill at ease with fame and ill-equipped to handle the responsibility that accompanies success" .

Cobain and Nirvana were highly influential, popularizing what came to be known as "grunge music." The arrival of Cobain's best known song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", marked the beginning of a dramatic shift of popular music away from the perceived superficiality of 1980s glam-metal, arena rock, and dance-pop that placed visual style over musical substance. The music media eventually awarded "Smells Like Teen Spirit" "anthem-of-a-generation" status , and, with it, Cobain ascended as the reluctant "spokesman" for Generation X.