Alternative
Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear collected the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday 27 September at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The prize, which honours an artist’s legacy as a music video innovator, was handed to them by Public Enemy’s Chuck D, after a montage of Nirvana’s videos and archive footage of Kurt Cobain.
Novoselic spoke for all three. “The ideas for those videos, all grew out of the vision of one of the greatest artists of all time, Kurt Cobain. Kurt was one of one,” he said. “None of us could have imagined that our band, our sound or our aesthetic would mean so much to so many people. But ultimately, the music had a life of its own.”
Nirvana shot seven videos before Cobain’s death in 1994, among them “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Come As You Are”, “In Bloom” and “Heart-Shaped Box”. Three of those clips — “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “In Bloom” and “Heart-Shaped Box” — won Best Alternative Video at the VMAs three years running, in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
They are the tenth band to receive the Video Vanguard, after The Beatles (1984), Bon Jovi (1991), Guns N’ Roses (1992), the Rolling Stones (1994), R.E.M. (1995), Beastie Boys (1998), Red Hot Chili Peppers (2000), U2 (2001) and Duran Duran (2003). No band had won it in twenty-three years. The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video had premiered on 29 September 1991, on a late-night show on the same channel now giving them the award.
Text by Marçal Bonastre