Kurt Cobain was a musician who catapulted to fame as the lead singer and guitarist for the alternative rock band Nirvana in the early 1990s. He helped propel the new sound that was germinating in the Seattle, Washington area - a fusion of rock, punk and heavy metal music, into the mainstream, where it was labeled "grunge". Cobain was greatly influenced by an array of mainstream and alternative bands such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Pixies, and The Melvins - an underground Washington based band that he befriended and strove to emulate.

Cobain tapped into a generation of disaffected youths with angst-ridden lyrics that questioned societal values. He was thrust into the forefront of the grunge movement with the seemingly overnight success that came with the release of Nirvana's second album Nevermind in 1991 and the hugely successful single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was heralded as the anthem for the apathetic Generation X. But the already socially uncomfortable Cobain became increasingly distressed over the misinterpretation and commercialization of his music and retreated further into a world of depression and drugs. His marriage to fellow rocker Courtney Love in 1992 and the birth of their child Frances Bean, brought attention and scrutiny to his heavy drug use, and soon Cobain and Love were being compared to the self-destructive punk rock couple Sid and Nancy.

Kurt Cobain proved to be more than the quintessential reluctant star, when at the height of his fame in 1994, he shot himself and ended a life he described in his suicide note as being drained of enthusiasm, and filled with frustration, guilt and empathy for everyone. He is remembered as a profound songwriter and music legend who pioneered alternative rock music.