The Commercialization of Nirvana

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The Commercialization of Nirvana In 1987, three small town guys from Aberdeen, Washington created an indie rock band named Nirvana: Kurt Cobain, David Grohl, and Christ Novoselic (Erlewine). Little did these band mates know that about five years later they would become rock legends. Coming from a quaint town like Aberdeen, they did not expect fame or fortune. All they wanted was to stay under the radar of popular music and be accepted by the underground indie fan base. Cobain actually detested hitting the Billboard charts, however, after his death in 1994, Nirvana become a worldwide rock legend who became commercialized to fit the mainstream (Erlewine). One year after the band was formed, they released their first single “Love Buzz” which did not get that much attention (Erlewine). A year later, their first album “Bleach” was released (Erlewine). Even though neither one of these hit the billboard 200 nor “attracted” any major label companies, Nirvana was satisfied with what they had accomplished; they had become very popular among college students and the British weekly press by selling 35,000 copies of their unique, indie style music (Erlewine). With a small following, Nirvana took the world by storm with their second album “Nevermind” at the end of 1989 with several hits (Erlewine). On January 11, 1992, the sensation “Smells like Teen Spirit” reached number six on the billboard 100 (Top 100 Hits of 1992). It also made the top ten songs in Britain (Erlewine). Not expecting this outcome, the publishing company sold out of the initial 50,000 copies of the album and had to quickly produce more to meet the demands (Erlewine). When all was said and done, the album had become triple platinum (Erlewine). About this time in his career, Cobain hit his downward spiral. After hitting fame, he married his girlfriend Courtney Love, member of the band Hole

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