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Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 1992: Nirvana
Nirvana is Billboard's Greatest Pop Star of 1992 for how the band moved pop's center towards grunge and alternative rock in the early '90s.
Whether they wanted to, singer Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and whirling dervish drummer Dave Grohl achieved the rarest of things with Nevermind: a singular work that turned the entire music (and fashion) business on its head in the (relative) blink of an eye. Despite his obvious love for the Beatles and massive hooks, Cobain was a reluctant musical savant and tortured poet, whose chronic drug issues and painful shyness belied an uncanny ability to twist his morose lyrics and melodies into somehow hummable songs. The force of Nirvana’s peerlessly unlikely success story was massive enough to quickly open the doors for bands like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains to become household names, to make Seattle one of the country’s cultural epicenters (as seen in that year’s Cameron Crowe-directed, grunge-heavy rom-com Singles), and to briefly turn MTV and even top 40 radio into alt-rock’s province.
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