Smells like teen spirit: Rare Nirvana, Kurt Cobain photos, art, memorabilia in Seattle museum

October 16, 2024 | 11:07am

SEATTLE, USA — Besides being the birthplace of Boeing and Starbucks, Seattle has been a cradle for grunge rock, most notably, of rock bands Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Sound Garden, Hole, and Foo Fighters; and rock legends such as Chris Cornell and Jimi Hendrix.

But among the many bands and musicians from the city, arguably the most popular is the ‘90s punk rock band Nirvana and its frontman Kurt Cobain. Proof to this is an entire exhibit in Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop), dedicated to Nirvana alone.

Located just across the exhibition dedicated to Hendrix’s concert tours, the “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” exhibition was co-curated by Cobain’s bandmate and Nirvana co-founder Krist Anthony Novoselic, and contains the band members’ personal photos, letters, early demo tapes, musical instruments, clothes and other memorabilia.

Of note are:

• the band members’ photos when they were just starting to break out into the Seattle grunge scene in the late ‘80s; 
• Kurt’s actual school record, artworks, candid photos with wife and fellow rockstar Courtney Love and their baby; 
• the actual guitar Kurt used to play “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time in public; 
• the original photo of the highly-contested “Nevermind” album cover, with Kurt’s handwritten note on it;
• and a pink suitcase belonging to Kurt’s mother which the singer-composer used as an impromptu drums on his first-ever recording at 15 years old.

“This is the public and personal story of Nirvana… this is also the story of the underground music scene,” said the exhibit’s curator, Jacob McMurray of MoPop.

“For over the decade, underground bands have made inroads into the mainstream, but Nirvana was the final step in this process,” McMurray further said in his curator’s notes posted by the exhibit’s entrance. 

“With a single song (‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’), the barrier between underground and mainstream culture shattered. Nirvana was a band only for six years, but they changed music forever…”

Built in 2000, MoPop is housed in a metal building designed by Canadian-American architect and designer Frank Gehry. The museum is focused on its main pillars: fashion, film and music.

In the next six months, the museum is set to mark its 25th anniversary with exhibitions including the latest “Massive: The Power of Pop Culture” exhibit, which shows around 1% of the museum’s over 80,000 artifacts, including clothes worn by Rihanna, Beyonce and Michael Jackson, and the actual costumes and props used in popular franchises such as “Batman,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “The Ghostbusters,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter.” — Video by Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo; additional video editing by Anjilica Andaya

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Editor’s note: The tour to Seattle was hosted by Philippine Airlines to promote tourism in the area. At no stage does the host organization have a say on the stories generated from the coverage, interviews conducted, publication date and story treatment. Content is produced solely by Philstar.com following editorial guidelines.