Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967, Aberdeen, Washington - April 5, 1994, Seattle, Washington) is an American rock musician, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. He is best known as the founder and leader of the rock band Nirvana.
In the mid-1980s, Cobain began to get involved in punk rock, and in 1987, together with Krist Novoselic, he formed the group Nirvana. After signing an agreement with the indie label Sub Pop, Nirvana released their debut album, Bleach. On the wave of interest in Seattle rock music, the group signed a record deal with DGC Records.
Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, was released in 1991 and brought Cobain worldwide fame. The song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a hit, and the album itself rose to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. The Seattle alternative rock style was called "grunge" and became the most popular rock music trend of the first half of the 1990s. Cobain was called the "voice of a generation" because of his rebellious image, catchy music and sincere lyrics that expressed the emotions of teenagers of that time.
The flip side of Cobain's fame was his depression and heroin addiction. After marrying rock singer Courtney Love and having a child, music faded into the background for him. As part of Nirvana, the musician managed to release a collection of rare songs Incesticide (1992) and the album In Utero (1993), but due to health problems he had to interrupt the tour. After several futile attempts to recover from drug addiction on April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
Cobain is considered one of the key musicians of the grunge scene and is listed among the 100 greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2014, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Nirvana.