“We just played in the underground circuit: the genre closest to Kurt Cobain’s heart
Genre was not something that kept the members of Nirvana up at night.
As is so often the case within the music world, the band never really paid much heed to the labels that were attached to them, whether those be grunge, alternative rock, punk, or anything in between. Even still, Kurt Cobain certainly had his preferred scenes.
Going right back to his pre-Nirvana days, when Cobain was just another high school kid in Aberdeen, Washington, the songwriter always boasted an extensive and rather intricate music taste. At a time when even the most dedicated of music aficionados had never encountered names like The Vaselines or The Raincoats, they featured heavily in Cobain’s listening habits. It was only a matter of time before he found a home in the blossoming grunge scene of nearby Seattle, commencing his journey to Nirvana.
Grunge, like virtually all DIY music scenes, was a vast amalgamation of styles and influences, although its key cultural touchstones revolved around the city’s longstanding DIY punk and hardcore scene. It was through those sparsely populated, ramshackled gigs that groups like Green River first formed, and eventually morphed into the grunge titans of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney. Rather quickly, though, grunge grew its own identity, with its own distinct sound, ethos, and, perhaps most regrettably, fashion.
Nirvana were at the forefront of that bold new era in rock and roll during the early 1990s, playing an essential role in giving Seattle’s DIY scene some long-overdue mainstream exposure with the smash-hit success of Nevermind in 1991. Nevertheless, the band rarely – if ever – referred to themselves as being a ‘grunge band’. In many instances, in fact, neither the music press nor the band themselves quite knew where on the musical landscape they fitted.
During one interview from the height of their early success, a rather sleep-deprived Nirvana were asked about their allegiance to punk rock and whether they viewed themselves as a punk outfit. In response, Cobain declared, “I don’t think we’ve ever been labelled as punk rock in the first place, we just played in the underground circuit.”
“We like punk rock more than any other style of music, so, yeah, we’re punk.”
Kurt Cobain
It is no surprise that Cobain felt such an affinity for the punk landscape. It was, after all, his first love, and throughout Nirvana’s tenure, the band always adhered to a discernible punk ethos, doing things their own way and refusing to bow down to the pressures of commercialism.
Although their sound wasn’t always in keeping with the punk sounds still dominating America’s underground, it would be ridiculous to suggest that an abrasive, adrenaline-shot of a track like ‘Territorial Pissings’ bore no resemblance to the punk landscape.
What’s more, the attitude of Cobain was heavily inspired by the punk heroes he had idolised during his youth. Even when the band were at the peak of their mainstream success, playing on primetime television, they consistently subverted expectations and rebelled against the mainstream, in many cases refusing to play the specific song that they were meant to be promoting.
Whatever genre best fits the Nirvana sound, Kurt Cobain’s love of punk reigned supreme throughout their tenure.
