So I’m sitting here, listening to "In Bloom". It’s one of my favourite Nirvana songs, and it’s been nearly a decade since I heard it for the very first time, crouched beside a battered CD player in a messy bedroom. I’d been loaned a scratched copy of Nevermind by a school friend that afternoon. I’d started high school a couple of weeks before.
   
I was eleven years old. Kurt Cobain had been dead over six years by then. I didn’t know about Nirvana, or grunge, or alternative rock in general. I didn’t know about quiet verses and loud choruses, didn’t know that one man who was racked with insecurity and a drug addiction had changed the world while I was in play school.
   
For some of you reading this, you’ll know all about Nirvana. My decade of knowledge - and let’s face it, hero worship - will not be anything new. But for some of you, this might be completely new. Sure, you’ll have seen "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on TV - a dusty homage to a time before fringes - but you might be quite new to Nirvana and Kurt Cobain.
   
You may not care.
  
Here’s why you should.
   
Kurt Cobain was born on the 20th of February 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington. Now, more than forty years later, the sign marking the town of his birth bears one of his most famous lyrics. He grew up in what’s now known as Twilight country, but before sparkly vampires roamed those parts, Washington state was home to a failing logging industry and a thriving punk scene. Kurt Cobain’s parents divorced when he was seven years old, and the course of his life changed. His relationship with his parents deteriorated to the point where he was shuttled between other members of his family. He didn’t graduate from high school. He moved into his first house in 1986 and began travelling to Olympia to attend rock shows.
   
Kurt Cobain met future Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic in the practice space of The Melvins. He’d been given a guitar by his uncle for his 14th birthday and was eager to form a band of his own. His musical influences ranged from The Beatles to Black Flag and beyond.
   
Nirvana officially formed in 1985, but didn’t pick the name that would soon be splashed across every music magazine in the world until March 1988. They released their first album, Bleach, a year later on Sub Pop Records. I was two. The album was not a mainstream smash and was recorded for the princely sum of $606, but for those listening hard enough, tracks like "About A Girl" hinted at a sound that would make Kurt Cobain the icon of his generation.
   
Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl joined Nirvana in April, 1990. The band had become disillusioned with current drummer Chad Channing (who’s probably kicking himself now) during the Smart Studio recording sessions they’d recently completed with Butch Vig at the helm. The Smart Studio sessions marked a change in Nirvana’s sound - something dark, breathless, sarcastic and enthusiastic. After signing with DGC Records, Nirvana and Butch Vig embarked on a now legendary journey.
   
Nevermind was released on the 24th of September, 1991. DGC Records expected it to shift around 250,000 copies in total, but they hadn’t bargained on one thing - "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Nirvana’s breakthrough single received heavy airplay on MTV, and by December, 1991 Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week.
  
On the 11th of January, 1992, the world changed.
   
Nevermind knocked Michael Jackson’s Dangerous off the Billboard number 1 spot. Nirvana had broken through, and Kurt Cobain was well on his way to becoming one of the most important rock frontmen that ever lived.
   
The rest, they say, is history and a well documented history at that. I only intended this piece to be a brief introduction to Nirvana, but as always, I’m rambling and we’ve got another six days worth of material for you.
   
In seven days, it’ll be exactly fifteen years since Kurt Cobain died and nearly a decade since I discovered him. Over the next six days, we’ll be charting out his incredible career and the unbelievable impact he’s had on music since his untimely death. If Nirvana is new to you, I hope you enjoy finding out about the band that changed everything for our scene. Listen harder to your favourite bands this week, and maybe you’ll hear the echoes of Kurt and Nirvana. If this is well chartered territory for you, I hope you enjoy looking back on one of rock’s best bands as much as I have.