Kurt Cobain died by his own hand April 5.
The
alternative nation’s voice was suddenly, shockingly stilled. After three years of the most popular music being an agonized scream over heavy guitars, people wanted something shinier and more upbeat. But they didn’t want to lose the overamplified six-strings and acknowledgment that life was complicated and messy.
Dookie had that in spades. Now
grunge aside and finally dominated rock culture as it threatened to in 1977. A third of these records reflected pop-punk’s commercial ascendance.
Also, three of 1994’s best punk albums rang with resonances of death, despite all songs having been written (in some cases)