Nirvana's album Nevermind was their debut album signed to their new major record label Geffen. It was released in 1991and only had about 46 000 copies made however in the UK there were 35 000 copies made this shows that the album producers saw bigger success for nirvana in the UK then in America this was supported by Nirvanas first album bleach having a lot more success in the UK. Compared to Radiohead and Lady Gaga nirvana could only get global through television appearances and tours as they did not have the added exposure of the Internet. When appearing on TV shows they were often rebellious and didn't play by the rules this created a lot of press about the band and the majority of their success was from word of mouth. Their first UK TV appearance was on Top of the Pops promoting their most successful song 'Smells like teen spirit' however they made a joke of the performance but this created an appeal for the audience and wanted to see them again and enjoyed the care free attitude the band represented. Although these TV appearances causes a lot of controversy and talk nirvana had to do many TV appearances all over the world to become global this is why it took 5 months to reach number 1 however for artists now such as lady gaga with a wide Internet fan base it goes straight to the top upon release and with in the first week of its release she sold 1.1million copies. In November of 1991 Nirvana began their European tour to promote their Nevermind album release they relied heavily on touring to get recognition from all areas of the world, however artists like Radiohead already had a mass of success and lots of internet exposure meaning they didn't need to tour for people to hear their music. This raises the argument would Nirvana be more successfully global if the Internet was available for them? one could argue they would because comparing youtube views from both Nirvanas' ' Smells like teen spirit' and Lady Gaga's 'Born this way' Nirvana have about 20 000 000 more views then lady gaga, most of lady gaga's success comes from her Internet fan-base.
Radiohead released their 8th album King of Limbs in 2011 with out any record label. The album was first made available on the 18th of February for download copy only in the first week of releases there were 69 000 copies downloaded. The album debuted at number 7 on the UK charts but the alum never reached number 1 where as both Nirvana and Lady Gaga did.
