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I really haven't had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I'd rather tell a story about somebody else.

-Kurt Cobain

On April 8, 1994, a generation was in morning. For days, their king had been dead. Some woke up, and for days, months-years-, thinking to day was another day when they got up. And he didn’t. Their lives were touched by him and the music he made. They could relate to him in ways they couldn’t with others. In this essay, I intend to prove that Kurt Cobain was one of the greatest and most influential musicians because of the awards his band won, people who he inspired and the legacy he left.
First I will discuss that the awards Cobain won make him an influential musician. One example deals with a Grammy he won. In 1996 Cobain won a Grammy for his album “MTV Unplugged In New York” (http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/kurt_cobain/index.shtml). He got it 2 years after Nirvana disbanded and he was dead. It’s already a huge enough accomplishment to get one when you and your band are around, but after is unheard of after not really existing anymore.
Another award Cobain won that proves his was a great and influential musician deals with their MTV video music award in 1994 for the video “heart-shaped box”. The award is for bands breaking into the world and becoming more and more known . I know its pretty easy for a band to win one, but seriously, they were non-exestint by then.
The last example I have is the american music award for Favorite New Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist in 1992. Although the band became a band in 1987, they wern't well known until the 90's. It's the first award they won, which I assume was awesome. They beat out FireHouse and Alice in Chains, some well known and love bands of our time.

Many people and bands were inspired by Nirvana, from Blink 182 to Placebo. One band, from Ireland, called therapy? burst on the scene after hearing Nirvana albums. Outlasting the band that made them, they took Kurt's words to heart. Therapy?'s sound has changed from album to ablum, in a way most imagine Kurt would've done.
My second example is Eleven, which form in 1990 in L.A. In 1994 the drummer, Jack Irons, left the band for Peral Jam a band that itslef, influenced Nirvana. A year after Kurt's suicide, the band released it's final album and broke up until 2005, with it's 5th album.
For the final example of a band influenced by Kurt, I have the Muffs. Starting as garage/metal band Pandora in the 80's, they broke up and reformed as the Muffs in 1991. Suffering two of the founding members leaving over creative differences, the band foredged on, still making music now.

If anything proves you influence, it's how people treat your legacy. Kurt's death caused millions of people to rant online about how he was murdered, showing facts and quotes about the death. Their is a website dedicated to a petion for the seattle police force to re-open his case. More the a decade after his death, people still scream 'Courtney did it!' whenever a new Nirvana product that has her name attached comes out. Others don't have this. Where's the scilencing of Jimi Hendrix articles? Any for Jim Morrison? No, because Kurt left his fallowers no one or way to cope, the others did.
Another hint of his legacy can be summed up in one word: songs. Cher wrote a song about his after his death. I am serious. Hundreds of other songs were written about him from Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution('Here's to life') to Badly Drawn Boy('You were right') and Fall Out Boy('27') to the Floors('Jesus Lived 6 Years Longer Than Kurt Cobain '). Weather or not they had knew him or even heard his music prior to his death, muscians were shaken to their core by his suicide.
The final example of Kurt's legacy i'll present is movies and books. The most well known book pulblished after Kurt's death is 'Heavier then Heaven' by Charles R. Cross. The book was made of bits and pieces from over 400 interveiws of people who knew Kurt at some point. A 1998 documentary called 'Kurt & Cortney' explored weather or not Kurt killed himslef, coming to the conclusion that it was suicide, not murder. Even a movie(which may or maynot star Robert Pattinson)is rumored to be in the works.
Through weeks of reasearch, scowering the internet for realiable facts, i have a conclusion to my essay. I belive i have proven that awards won, bands influenced and the legacy that remains, that Kurt Donald Cobain was one of the most influencial musicans of all time. No matter what you listen to, a piece of greats like kurt is in a note or a lyric has been, at least slightly, by the grunge pioner. He was truly influencial.