Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20 1967 ? c. April 5 1994), was an American musician who served as lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Seattle-based rock band Nirvana before committing suicide at his Seattle home in 1994.

Cobain formed Nirvana in 1987 with Krist Novoselic in their hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. Within two years, the band became a fixture of the burgeoning Seattle grunge scene. In 1991, the arrival of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" marked the beginning of a dramatic shift of popular rock music away from the dominant genres of the 1980s (glam metal, arena rock,...