Kurt Cobain, singer, songwriter, band leader: born Aberdeen, Washington 1967; married 1992 Courtney Love (one

daughter); died Seattle c7 April 1994.

NO ONE more exactly personified America's 'slacker' generation than Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's leader and songwriter.

With its 1991 album, "Nevermind," Nirvana put alternative rock, the noisy, icon-smashing spawn of punk rock, into the commercial mainstream. The album sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide, knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the popular music charts and established an anthem for a generation with the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
the fury in Cobain's vocals and lyrics forced out the pain in his soul that drugs are so often used to suppress. As befitted children of their mass-media era, it was not only an underground, snowballing word-of-mouth buzz but also the ceaseless support of the cable and satellite television channel MTV that led to Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, released in 1991, selling over 10 million copies. Great rock 'n' roll invariably incorporates some form of tribal youth movement; as the spearhead of the Seattle scene, Nirvana became the inspiration for 'grunge'