Contract between Nirvana and Sub Pop Records, 1989

This seven-page contract typewritten in black ink and completed with handwritten blue ink on white paper was created between Nirvana and Sub Pop Records in 1989. This contract was Nirvana’s first record deal and the first legal agreement ever issued by Sub Pop. It outlines a three-record deal, with the band receiving advances of $600 (to reimburse the band for out-of-pocket expenses), $12,000, and $24,000. When Nirvana signed with DGC Records on January 1, 1991, the new label had to buy out this Sub Pop contract. 

The modest success of their first single, “Love Buzz,” provided Nirvana with the leverage to negotiate a new deal before the release of their first full-length album, Bleach.  

Pavitt founded Sub Pop Records in Olympia, Washington in 1986. After relocating to Seattle and taking on business partner, Jonathan Poneman (b. 1959), Pavitt promoted local Punk bands in innovative ways including the Sub Pop Single of the Month Club, a subscription service that sent out album singles from up-and-coming bands. The record label eventually became synonymous with the Grunge music scene.  

With the release of Nevermind on September 24, 1991, and the constant MTV rotation of the single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana became the face of the once underground genre of Grunge and suddenly made Seattle and the Pacific Northwest the epicenter of popular music culture in the early 1990s. 

By the end of 1991, Nevermind was selling over 400,000 copies per week and by January 1992, the album was #1 on the Billboard 200 Top Albums chart. Nirvana’s success paved the way for bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, and others who soon followed. By all accounts, 1992 was the year of Grunge, and that year Nirvana undertook two tours; Cobain married Courtney Love (b. 1964) of the band Hole; Cobain’s and Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, was born; and the band headlined the Reading Festival.  Despite difficulties with drug use, Cobain continued to perform throughout 1993 and the beginning of 1994, when Nirvana had to cut their European tour short due to his overdose in Rome, Italy. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found in his Seattle home, dead by suicide. He was 27 years old.  

Despite his tragic death which lead to Nirvana disbanding, Nirvana and the Grunge genre have made an indelible mark on popular music that resonates to this day.