The Forever 27 Club

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 ? c. April 5, 1994) was an American songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Nirvana.

With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's second album Nevermind (1991), Nirvana entered into the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also gained wider audiences, and as a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-middle 1990s. Nirvana became considered as the "flagship band" of "Generation X", and Cobain, as its frontman, found himself anointed by the media as the generation's "spokesman."Azerrad, Michael. "Inside the Heart and Mind of Nirvana." Rolling Stone. April 16, 1992. Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed his focus on the band's music, believing the band's message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, challenging the band's audience with its third studio album In Utero (1993).

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with drug addiction, illness and depression, his fame and public image, as well as the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death have become a topic of fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, sold over twenty-five million albums in the US alone, and over fifty million worldwide.Armstrong, Mark. [http://new.music.yahoo.com/nirvana/news/nirvana-tops-50-million-mark-in-worldwide-sales-journals-number-one--12064388 "Nirvana Tops 50 Million Mark In Worldwide Sales, 'Journals' Number One"]. Yahoo! Music. November 17, 2002. Retriev...

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942Charles R. Cross, Room Full Of Mirrors: A Biography Of Jimi Hendrix, 2005. Page 8. ? September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators in the industry, and one of the most important and influential musicians of his era across a range of genres. After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Hendrix often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.

Hendrix was one of the musicians who popularized the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends and use of legato based around the pentatonic scale. He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Albert King, and Elmore James,Blues CD, MCA, sleeve notes by Jeff Hannusch, p. 2.A Film About Jimi Hendrix deluxe ed. DVD, Warner Bros. sp. feat: From The Ukelele to the Strat, Faye Pridgeon Interview. rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, as well as by some modern jazz.Mary Willix, voices from home 195, pages 28, 38, 73. In 1966, Hendrix, who played and recorded with Little Richard's band from 1964 to 1965, was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice."White (2003), p. 125-128, 131-132, 163, 228

Carlos Santana has suggested that Hendrix's music may have been influenced by his partly Native American heritage. As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects for rock recording.

Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd...

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 ? October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.