Most people have heard of the band Nirvana and its hits such as Smells Like Teen Spirit or Rape Me. However, some people might pass them off as just the latest in a long line of bands to appear, sing a song or two, then disappear in favor of another band, especially since lead singer Kurt Cobain died last year.

In reality, though, band members Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl had an extreme influence on today's youth before Cobain's suicide.

Recently, 20 Indianapolis kids responded to a Children's Express invitation requesting that fans of Nirvana give us a call. Nine of these fans explained how the band has affected them as the anniversary of Cobain's death approaches.

GROUP'S APPEAL

EMILY ROBERTS, 15: I think a lot of people found something different in the music. Some liked the lyrics. Some liked the heavy beats and the riffs and the rhythms. But everyone found something different that they liked about it and so it just made it really popular.

DANIELLE POE, 13: It was like a breath of fresh air from the old stuff, you know, that you had listened to. And with this breath of fresh air, all these new ideas just come in.

RYAN BOFF, 12: Your parents hated it so you liked it.

CHRISTINA ALLEN, 13: I like it because it was very sincere. It was, like, written for me.

GEORGE MILBERGER, 14: For me, it was basically the music. It was just the power chords and the riffs that get in your head. (The music) was like a boost. It just kind of slapped you and woke you up to, like, what was going on.

It just gives you something to look forward to, I guess, because I was pretty boring before then.

LAUREN RINEN, 14: It helped me more (to) understand myself. I could relate to what they were saying, at least some of the things. It kind of made me understand myself more.

KURT McKAIN, 15: A lot more people are into alternative and punk rock music because of the band. Before them, it was all metal or just crap in general.

PARENTS' REACTIONS

KURT: My parents hate them. They absolutely hate (the music). They keep saying it. It makes me like it more.

JANEL EARLS, 13: My parents think I'm weird because I like Nirvana a lot. They just always think I'm in a black mood or something, so they treat me with disrespect.

KURT: My parents just think, "Oh, he was a druggie. . . . Why would you want to look up to him or why would you want to listen to that?" It's all negative (but the music is) really not negative. It's just that's the way grown-ups perceive it.

LES JAHNKE 15: My parents are happy as long I don't do (drugs) and I keep myself alive.

JANEL: It's like they have their hero, like John Lennon or someone like that who died, and they don't want to let go of it.

LYRICS

KURT: All (Nirvana's) songs had strong meanings against problems like racism, sexism and all those different problems that are America. I mean, none of them were violent, even though . . . the music was violent. They were all really peaceful songs. They were, like, happy songs with sad lyrics. . . .

If you really listened to the lyrics, they could depress you.

GEORGE: I guess over the entire time I knew about Nirvana, the way I looked at the lyrics went through three stages. One was before he killed himself, and that was pretty normal. Second, probably about the month after he killed himself, it was like a deep shock and you read a lot into them and they just seemed to, like, get to you a lot more. And third, it's, like, everything just kind of falls into perspective and it's freaky.

EMILY: All Apologies was, like, their last big hit before he died, and that kind of scared me, too. It sounded like he was just apologizing for his entire life, and it made me think a lot about life and a lot about his lyrics and how tormented he really was.

COBAIN'S SUICIDE

EMILY: I stayed home from school the day that he got into a coma, he fell into a coma from the overdose. I did kind of expect (him to kill himself) in the back of my mind but I was trying not to believe it.

CHRISTINA: I think he was a good person but kind of selfish.

EMILY: I don't think he could have found another way out of it because, I don't know, if he didn't succeed in killing himself that time he was going to do it again and again and again.

You know, I guess what I was led to believe that at first when he slipped into that coma, I thought, "Oh, it was just an accident," but it seemed very much planned by him after I thought about it. I realized he would stop at nothing to get basically what he wanted.

LAUREN: I was shocked at first that he would do such a thing. He had a gift that not many people get, you know, being able to write music that, you know, a lot of people love and enjoy listening to all the time.

KURT: I just pulled away from everything, stopped worrying about everything.

JANEL: I just started listening to them more. . . . I kind of withdrew for a while, and then my friends kind of helped me back.

KURT: Lots of people thought he was, like, this really bad person, he's just a druggie and he doesn't care about anything. He really was totally opposite of that.

GROUP'S INFLUENCE

JANEL: It's made me think about everything like what he's sang about. It made me notice people more and how they act. I become kinda hateful towards some people because of the kind of people they are, by the way they act. It's changed my life because I'm happier sometimes.

KURT: Well, before I really got into Nirvana I was, like, a jock. Let's play basketball. After that it was, like, you can ask anyone. I stay home, play my guitar and sleep. . . .

I really didn't care about music at all until I got into them, and now it's, like, everything (I do). I hate the people more that pick on people. I hate them totally more.

JANEL: It got me into music a lot and I really appreciate music now.

GEORGE: You might adore them; you might follow them, but don't mimic them. You might want to learn to play their music, but you don't want to live their lives.

DRUGS

EMILY: Kurt Cobain's alleged drug problems haven't influenced me one way or another. Even if I admire a person, that doesn't mean I'm just going to follow them whatever stupid thing they do.

KURT: His heroin use was, well, to get a buzz, but it was really meant for his stomach problem which he had. . . . I mean I believe that he took it for the buzz. I mean I'm sure that he did that. But there is a reason behind taking it.

JANEL: He just said that he couldn't stand pain, so that's why he did heroin.

LES: A lot of the singers and people in the band, they do the drugs. I mean Kurt Cobain, he wasn't perfect.

JANEL: He said that he was reaching out, but everyone just kind of shrugged their shoulders and shrugged him off or whatever.

COBAIN'S WIDOW, COURTNEY LOVE

RYAN: I think Courtney Love killed him. They're still saying that she put him in a coma because he was drunk and then she pumped him full of drugs and stuff. I guess she couldn't take his fame, and she would be put second behind him.

EMILY: Courtney Love is one of my heroes personally because of all the things she's gone through. But I think she lengthened his life, and so did his child, Frances Bean Cobain.

LES: I think she lengthened it because he was, like, in love with her so much.

CHRISTINA: I don't think Courtney and Frances made his life longer or shorter, but I think they made it better while he was alive.

NIRVANA WITHOUT COBAIN

RYAN: Kurt Cobain kind of made the whole Nirvana thing go, and it wouldn't seem right without him.

JANEL: No one else would sound like Kurt.

LES: I mean, you cannot replace him and continue in the same name and, like, do the same things that they were doing. (You can't) just hire another lead singer, I mean, 'cause it won't be the same.

EFFECT ON GENERATION

EMILY: I don't think anyone should be a poster child for (our) generation because that's like somebody's putting a label on us, and we're all different, especially this generation.

JANEL: We'll remember him. I mean, I don't know about our kids.

EMILY: I think he is a legend, but I don't think he really wanted to be. I don't think dying young has anything to do with being a legend.

He's a legend in my mind because I'm sure I'm going to bore my kids with listening to old CDs like my parents did with Elvis and John Lennon to me.

KURT: It's almost just like Jimi (Hendrix). . . . He won't be forgotten. I mean like my shirt says, "Gone, but not forgotten," especially by our generation.

EDITED BY: Aaron Shackelford, 16, Matt White, 16, and Allison Mikkalo, 14.