Nirvana

Alternative music was shackled to specialty sections of record stores before Nirvana, and major labels considered it, at most, a tax write-off. Nirvana popularized punk, post-punk, and indie rock. Their sound was equal parts Black Sabbath and Cheap Trick. They covered Vaseline's songs, they revived new wave cuts by Devo. Kurt Cobain relentlessly pushed his favorite bands - whether it was the art punk of the Raincoats or the country-fried hardcore of the Meat Puppets. After the band's second album, 1991's Nevermind, nothing was ever quite the same.

Nirvana was formed in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1985 by Kurt Cobain & Chris Novoselic . Debut album Bleach sold 35,000 copies and became a hit on college radio. The band went on to record four albums, including 'Smile' and 'Blind Melvins' 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' climbed into the American Top Ten. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe inducted the band. Joan Jett and Kim Gordon sang during the induction performance.