Nirvana is an American rock band from Aberdeen, Washington. With their hit "Smells like Teen Spirit" from their 1991 album Nevermind, Nirvana came out of the underground together to bring forth the alternative rock style known as grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also became popular, making grunge the dominant music style on radio stations and music television in the early to mid-1990s.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain began to be referred to by the media as "The Representative of a Generation", with the "Leading Band" for the "X-Generation" (as teenagers were called at the time). Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention he was receiving, so he focused on the band's music, which was meant to test Nirvana's audience, on his third album, In Utero. While Nirvana's status as a mainstream group was waning, their core fanbase fell in love with the band's darker and less polished and superficial side in the months following the release of In Utero, especially after 1993. Nirvana's performance on MTV Unplugged.

Nirvana's brief existence ended in 1994 with the death of frontman Kurt Cobain, but the group's popularity remained. 8 years after Cobain's death, the song "You know You're right", recorded two months before Cobain's death, climbed to the top of the charts around the world. Since Nirvana's debut, the band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. Nevermind sold 10 million copies in the United States alone.