re: if Kurt Cobain wouldn't have suicided?

Vetter and Cornell were around but virtually unknown outside of Seattle prior to Temple of the Dog. That's what gave them the notioriety for their bands to blow up and become national.

Nirvana was already around and becoming popular. However, without those other "grunge" bands, Nirvana is essentially a band without a genre. They're an indie act instead of the bannermen of the new genre of "grunge". Nirvana just ends up being some random Seattle band that made a few catchy songs. They get nowhere near as big. What drove their popularity was that MTV declared grunge the new thing and pimped it over metal, mostly with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, STP, and Nirvana. Without those first 2 bands, there's not enough bands to promote to declare a new genre. Nirvana is just another late 80's indie punk band.

What would really be interesting is to see what would have happened to other "grunge" acts like Alice in Chains. Would they have been billed as metal? Would they have had the same success? What happens to the 80's metal acts that seemingly disappeared in 1991? Do they still remain in the public consciousness? Does MTv still abandon them?