Nirvana accepts MTV Video Vanguard Award at Video Music Awards

It was as good a time as any for a victory smoke.

The surviving members of Nirvana took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards to accept the Video Vanguard Award, one of the show’s most prestigious honors. Over the years, the lifetime achievement prize in the music video world has been given to music icons like David Bowie, Madonna and Michael Jackson, and on Sunday it was the Aberdeen rockers’ turn.

Flanked by Dave Grohl and a cigarette-sparking Pat Smear, Nirvana co-founder and bassist Krist Novoselić did the talking, doling out the appropriate thank yous before taking a quick stroll down memory lane.

“This award brings back so many memories of making those videos. We saw the dystopian pep rally with anarchist cheerleaders, our version of an Ed Sullivan’s TV appearance, performing in a ‘Wizard of Oz’-like field of poppies and so many more,” Novoselić said.

Nirvana’s relatively brief but momentous run in the limelight came at the height of the MTV era, when music videos were synonymous with the culture-shaping songs they accompanied. Images like that “dystopian pep rally” from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video or the darkly psychedelic poppy fields dreamed up for “Heart-Shaped Box” helped aesthetically define the grunge movement and became forever imprinted on pop culture.

In his short acceptance speech, Novoselić was quick to credit his late bandmate, Kurt Cobain, whom he called “one of the greatest artists of all time,” for coming up with the concepts. 

“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. It charted its own course. Nirvana continues to resonate so deeply because people are still hungry for authenticity, for something real, something uncompromising, something that tells you it’s just OK to come as you are. Kurt would have loved that legacy.”

Other big winners of the night included Taylor Swift, who became the most awarded artist in VMA history, and Madonna, who took him the artist of the year award.