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Anti-acne patches have become a go-to method for eliminating zits quickly and painlessly with clinical studies finding that a pimple solution can reduce healing time by 40%, according to WorldMetrics.org. Plus, the site adds that 95% of dermatologists believe pimple patches are effective for mild to moderate acne. Hero Cosmetic’s Mighty Patches were one of the first iterations of the skincare product to gain attention along with Starface’s gen-Z-approved patches (beloved by stars like Justin Bieber), but now ZitSticka has entered the chat and it’s promising to be an acne “killa.”

Touching and picking at your acne is a quick way to lead to scabbing, bleeding and, in serious cases, scarring. ZitSticka Killa patches help dissuade you from touching your pimples by providing a barrier that’ll protect your clogged pores, while helping to draw out oils and pus. Unlike common pimple patches, ZitSticka’s version is designed with micro darts that’ll penetrate your skin and infuse healing ingredients into even your deepest pimples.

Amazon and Ulta are offering the ZitSticka Killa acne patches for up to 15%, which you can snag online below.

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ZitSticka Killa Acne Patches

$21.24 $24.99 15% off

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These Killa patches come in packs of four, eight, 12 and 20 depending on how often you plan on using the skincare product. The above deal saves you 15% on a pack of eight. That brings the price down to less than $3 per pimple patch.

Each patch comes with 24 micro darts filled with hydrocolloid to help penetrate acne under the skin’s surface. The product aims to work within two hours and has already been purchased by 2,000 Amazon shoppers this month.


TikTok has praised the skincare essential’s capabilities with more than 26 million searches for the term “ZitSticka Killa before and after.” If you’re more prone to cystic acne, most TikTokers find the ZitSticka to be the best acne patches as it penetrates the skin deeper than traditional flat versions. To see the pimple patch in action, user @cystur posted a review of the product showing a before and after that has gathered close to 10,000 views.

“Let’s dissolve my giant pimple,” the text says in the video.

Pimples that have a whitehead may find more immediate results with flat pimple patches like the bestselling Mighty Patches. Since the pimple already has surfaced to the top of your skin, the ingredients like hydrocolloid will draw out all the “gunk” and leave you with a flat surface instead of a raised bump.

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Hero Cosmetics Mighty Patch

$7.19 $8.99 20% off

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$9.57 $11.89 20% off

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$11.95 $21.99 46% off

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More than 100,000 Amazon shoppers have purchased the No. 1 bestseller for its ability to quickly draw out pus and oils from clogged pores. The brand recommends cleaning your skin before placing the patch on and keeping it on for at least six hours. You can choose from a variety of packs including 24, 36 or 72 pimple patches.


New York-based Mount Sinai dermatologist Whitney Bowe considers both brands her favorite for combatting pimples. In a TikTok, Bowe describes how using hydrocolloid has been used by derms for “decades” to help heal open wounds as the ingredient helps absorb excess fluid and create a moist environment that’s ideal for healing.

“I’m a huge fan of these for pimples because if you think about it a pimple is almost like a wound in many ways,” she says in the video.

For more product recommendations, check out ShopBillboard‘s roundups of the best dermatologist-recommended sunscreens, setting spray and beauty products celebs love.

Green Day are on the hunt for extras to star in their upcoming film.

Dubbed New Years Rev, the film was announced last week (Feb. 10) with Live Nation revealing the new comedy is being developed by Lee Kirk alongside Green Day themselves. Production is currently underway in Oklahoma City, and a casting call has now been put out for an upcoming concert scene.

According to the call by Oklahoma’s Freihofer Casting, producers are seeking “punks, emo, hardcore, alternative and rocker young adults, aged 18-30” for a multi-day shoot which will see them appearing “as attendees of a pop-up rock show” in an outdoor location.

Interested applicants have been promised there will be “live music, skateboarding and a rowdy good time,” with a $101.50 per diem promised. One day of the four-day shoot will be for a “rain and mud fight” event, with extras offered an additional $25 when they get wet and muddy.

Further details for the role specify that producers are searching for “punks, rockers, goths, alternative, or emo young adults. The type of person who would roll up on a secret outdoor concert out on someone’s land.”

Though a release date for the forthcoming film has not yet been announced, the coming-of-age story has confirmed Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust to star. The story sees their characters heading to Los Angeles under the false impression that they’ll be opening for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. Per a press release, the plot is inspired by the Californian punk trio and their years of living in a tour van.

“Van days rule. You will drive all night on no sleep then play a show for 10 kids in a basement of a friend of a friend’s house 50 miles east of anywhere you’ve ever heard of,” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a press statement. “But you’ll do it again the next day, and the one after that. Because you’re doing it with your bandmates who become your family and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever known. It’s electric. Let the music and mischief ensue.”

While specifics of the scenes the casting call is recruiting for remain unclear, inspiration being taken from Green Day’s career suggests the “rain and mud fight” event may be a retelling of their infamous Woodstock 1994 performance. 

Taking place in upstate New York in August of that year in support of February’s breakthrough album Dookie, the concert featured Green Day appearing before a rain-soaked crowd who swiftly began hurling mud at the band. The pay-per-view broadcast of the concert raised the profile of Green Day on a global scale, and in 2019 a recording of the show was issued for Record Store Day.

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus is hitting the road this April, though this time he’ll be promoting his new book instead of a new record.

The bassist and vocalist of the enduring Californian pop-punk band announced in late 2024 that he would be releasing his forthcoming memoir, Fahrenheit-182, on April 8. Co-authored with Los Angeles-based journalist and author Dan Ozzi, the book takes an in-depth look at Hoppus’ storied life, detailing his childhood in the ‘80s, a formative obsession with punk rock, skateboards and MTV, and how it all led towards his co-founding Blink-182 in August 1992.

“Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark’s public battle and triumph over cancer, Fahrenheit-182 is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going,” a description reads.

“This book has everything,” Hoppus himself said in a promotional clip for the book. “A young man, born in the California desert, joins a punk rock band and goes on to conquer the world! It’s got skateboarding! It’s got punk rock clubs! It’s got ’90s music! But that’s not all! Pre-order now and we’ll throw in with no extra cost to you: Anxiety! Depression! Band breakups! Loss of self! Suicidal thoughts and ideation! And of course everyone’s favorite: cancer! This shit gets dark.”

Now, Hoppus will be taking the book to the people, announcing a seven-date tour which will see him in conversation with a moderator as he discusses its writing and contents, and pairs it all with his trademark humor. The tour launches in New York City on April 9, and visits Somerville, MA; Washington D.C.; Philadelphia and Chicago, before wrapping up with two dates in California as he visits El Cajon and Los Angeles.

Tickets for Hoppus’ tour are on sale as of Feb. 21, with the musician urging audiences to buy up to ensure they “don’t miss out on all the small things.”

Hoppus’ tour comes following a busy couple of years for Blink-182 which saw them touring the world in support of their ninth studio album, One More Time…. The record was their third to peak atop the Billboard 200, and their first to feature co-founding guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge since his 2022 return, having split with the group for a second time seven years earlier.

This week also saw Hoppus announce the impending auction of a rare Banksy artwork that he acquired in 2011. The painting will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on March 4, and is expected to sell for up to $6.3 million.

Mark Hoppus 2025 Book Tour Dates

April 9 – Brooklyn Paramount, New York, NY
April 10 – Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA
April 12 – The 9:30 Club, Washington D.C.
April 13 – The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA
April 16 – Park West, Chicago, IL
April 18 – The Magnolia, El Cajon, CA
April 20 – The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA

An attorney for The 1975 says frontman Matt Healy and his bandmates cannot be held responsible for the cancellation of the July 2023 Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur, which was shut down by authorities after Healy kissed one of his male bandmates on stage, violating the country’s ban on same-sex relationships.

As a result of the kiss, the festival, organized by production and entertainment company Future Sound Asia, was forced to close after the first night of what was supposed to be a three-night run. According to reports, lawyers for Future Sound Asia have argued in a lawsuit that the band breached their performance contract for the event and are liable for £1.9 million in losses.

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But in a hearing on Wednesday (Feb. 19) in the country’s High Court, according to The Independent, The 1975’s attorney, Edmund Cullen, called the claim an “illegitimate, artificial and incoherent” extortion attempt “to pin liability on individuals” instead of the band’s touring company The 1975 Productions, which holds the contract with the festival. Cullen said the court should drop the claims against the individual members of the band and go after its limited partnership company instead. During the hearing, Cullen reportedly added that Future Sound Asia’s claims are “really quite bizarre.”

“The allegations of breaches of a duty of care are not breaches of a duty of care at all,” Cullen told the court, according to The Independent. “They are breaches of Malaysian statutes and guidelines. That is why this claim is completely artificial against my clients.”

Andrew Burns, an attorney for the festival organizer, reportedly argued in a written submission that the band “deliberately behaved in a way to challenge and provoke the Malaysian authorities.” He accused the band, which first performed at the festival in 2016, of bringing a bottle of wine on stage and performing a “second-rate set of songs” to “punish and upset the Malaysian audience and authorities.”He added that The 1975 was paid $350,000 for the one-hour performance, while the festival endured “substantial losses.”

Burns added that the Malaysian government originally refused to let the band perform but changed course after Healy allegedly agreed to follow local laws.

A ruling in the hearing is expected in the coming days.

A private funeral service for Murder Inc. co-founder Irv Gotti was held Wednesday (Feb. 19) at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York.

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Among those in attendance, according to TMZ, were Murder Inc. artists Ja Rule, Ashanti, Lloyd, Charli Baltimore and Vita. Also at the service, in addition to Gotti’s family, were Jay-Z (sitting in the front row), Gayle King, Fat Joe, industry executive Steve Stoute, music video/film director Hype Williams, fellow director Benny Boom and radio personality/podcaster Angie Martinez.

An emotional Ja Rule gave the eulogy, a clip of which appeared on X. “I won’t take up any more time,” said the rapper as he stood before the mourners. “I just want to say Irv, I love you. Everyone in this room loves you. You touched everybody in your own way and everybody has their moments of that with you. We’re all here in celebration of your life because it will live on forever. I love you my brother; see you when I get there.”

Gotti died on Feb. 5 at the age of 54 after suffering a stroke. In the wake of his success in helping to bring DMX to Def Jam, Gotti and his brother Chris co-founded Murder Inc. Records — titled after the crime syndicate of the same name — in 1998. As an imprint of the pioneering hip-hop label, Murder Inc. signed rapper Ja Rule as its flagship artist. Gotti also discovered and signed teenage singer and future R&B star Ashanti.

Over the course of his career as an executive and creative, Gotti logged producer credits on 28 charting Billboard Hot 100 hits from Ja Rule, Ashanti, DMX, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Fat Joe and Ye.

Kansas frontman Ronnie Platt revealed on Saturday (Feb. 15) that he’s been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

He took to his social media, writing, “For all of you asking, Tuesday [February 11] I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer but before everyone gets all excited, it has a 99% survival rate, it has not spread. It’s contained to my thyroid. I just have to have my thyroid removed. Go through some rehab time and be right back in the saddle.”

Platt concluded by asking fans for “positive thoughts and prayers,” adding, “As it has been put to me, this is just a bump in the road and will be behind me very soon! So everyone please CARRY ON!”

The vocalist took over as lead singer of Kansas back in 2014, replacing Steve Walsh. He appeared on the group’s last two albums, 2016’s The Prelude Implicit and 2020’s The Absence of Presence.

Kansas celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2023. In a Billboard interview, drummer Phil Ehart opened up about the group’s changing members over the years. “There’s a small paragraph on the cover of our first album that says, ‘Kansas is a band.’ It’s not Kansas featuring somebody or certain people. When Kansas plays, it sounds like Kansas,” he explained. “If there’s a bit of rotating of members under the moniker of Kansas, then so be it. So this time Kansas is going to be Steve Morse playing guitar — boy, what a great addition he was. Or David Ragsdale on violin. Or Ronnie Platt coming in, or Billy Greer on bass. There has been a lot of different people coming and going, but it’s all under the auspices of the band. We go out and do what we do best, which is write and play Kansas music.”

Read the full interview here.

The honorees for the Country Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2025 were revealed Wednesday (Feb. 19) during CRS Honors as part of the Country Radio Seminar, which is happening in downtown Nashville Feb. 19-21.

This year’s radio category honorees are Ginny “Rogers” Brophey, Clay Hunnicutt and Gregg Swedberg. Honorees in the on-air personality category are Big D & Bubba, Mary McCoy and Rowdy Yates.

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The honorees will be feted during the Country Radio Hall of Fame Induction and Dinner set for July 21 at the Virgin Hotel Nashville.

The Country Radio Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made a significant and enduring impact on the industry, with inductees being recognized in the categories of on-air personality (honoring the achievements of on-air talent), and radio (honoring professionals behind the scenes in programming, management and sales). To qualify, potential honorees must have worked in the radio industry for at least 20 years, with 15 years in the country format.

Big D & Bubba first joined forces in 1996 at WTGE in Baton Rouge, La., and launched their self-syndicated morning show three years later. They have been honored by the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. In 2014, they formed their own company, Silverfish, which continues to be the duo’s radio home, extending to 97 radio stations and partnering with 71 broadcast companies. Since 2011, the duo have been heard on the Armed Forces Radio Network each morning.

McCoy has been drawing in radio listeners in Conroe, Tex., for more than seven decades, a feat that has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. Her radio career launched in 1951 when she joined KMCO-AM in Conroe. In the early 1990s, McCoy was one of the first voices heard on KVST-FM, a new radio station in Conroe. She has since played country music on K-STAR Country 99.7 for more than 30 years. McCoy is currently heard six days a week with on-air co-host Larry Galla. She was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2010 and was part of the 2024 National Radio Hall of Fame class.

This year, Yates celebrates four decades working in radio. His career launched in Denton, Tex., in the mid-1980s, after which he ascended to dual programming/on-air roles in College Station, Tex., and Oklahoma City, Okla., before rising to roles at KIKK and KILT in Houston as well as KVOO in Tulsa, Okla. In 2004, Yates surged into nationally syndicated radio with an eight-year run hosting Country Gold. Since 2013, he’s owned, operated and worked as a host on Syndicated Media LLC Houston, and since 2019, he’s served as operations manager/PM for RFC Media/Suite Radio Houston, for country radio formats The Brand and The Legend. He also hosts The Rowdy Ride Home. Yates has been honored by the Academy of Country Music and the CRS-Country Aircheck Awards and is a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

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Brophey has worked in the radio industry for more than 40 years, with roles at WBOS, WKLB and WBWL. Since 2022, she has worked as brand manager/air talent/content creator at Townsquare Media’s WOKQ/Dover/Portsmouth. During her time at WBWL, Brophey joined the Country Cares radiothon program benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research, which earned her the “St. Jude Radio Partner of the Year” honor in 2019. Her St. Jude commitment included nine years of service on the St. Jude Radio Advisory Board. Brophey has been honored by the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, as well as by the CRS/Country Aircheck Awards and the New Hampshire Broadcasters Association.

Hunnicutt has earned significant success in the radio and label sides of the business. He started at WUSY/Chattanooga, where he served in roles including production director, imaging director, assistant program director and ultimately program director. He then worked as program director of WGAR/Cleveland, director of programming for Clear Channel’s five-station cluster in Nashville, and held day-to-day program director responsibilities for WSIX. Hunnicutt later took on a similar role for iHeart/Atlanta with country station WUBL, before taking on a series of corporate roles for iHeart, including executive vp of programming for the company’s major markets. At iHeart, he went on to serve as vp/brand manager of country programming for the company’s 143 country stations, as well as vp/GM of iHeartMedia’s national programming platforms. He’s been honored on Billboard‘s Power 31 list and named one of Radio Ink‘s top 50 programmers, and has served on the boards for the CMA, ACM and Country Radio Broadcasters. He also is a member of Leadership Music’s class of 2005. Later in his career, Hunnicutt started Big Loud Records as president, helping to launch the careers of Morgan Wallen, Hardy and more. He subsequently served as GM at Big Machine Records and most recently served as executive vp of label operations for all of Big Machine Label Group’s imprints.

Swedberg has spent 34 years programming at KEEY (K102) in Minneapolis, Minn. He was named K102 program director in 1992, then rose to operations manager, senior vp/programming, regional senior vp/programming and national country format coordinator for the station’s parent company iHeartRadio. Swedberg was previously a board member for the Country Radio Broadcasters and has been a member of Radio Ink’s most influential country program directors every year since 2000. KEEY has won multiple station of the year honors from the ACM and CMA. Several personalities on K102 have also been honored by both organizations during Swedberg’s time as program director.

Billboard reacts to A$AP Rocky’s not guilty verdict, Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ album, Kendrick Lamar makes Hip-Hop history following his Super Bowl Halftime performance and more!

Carl Lamarre: 

Yo, yo. What’s going on, y’all and welcome to a fresh episode of Billboard Unfiltered,gentlemen, we are live, and in fact happy to be here. 

Kyle Denis:

So happy to be here. 

Carl Lamarre:

Here with my brothers. 

Kyle Denis:

You feeling better? 

Carl Lamarre: 

I’m feeling a lot better.

Trevor Anderson:

Yeah, yeah. You were IR for a couple of weeks. 

Carl lamarre: 

IR three weeks the bug got my brother Damien, so Dame, feel better, my brother, we’re gonna try to hold it down. It is gonna be a very busy, busy show. A lot to cover. First up, brother, A$AP Rocky, they try to charge me, but I’m not guilty.

Trevor Anderson:

We can work with that. We can put a little, you know, sheet on that, get it out on SoundCloud.

Carl Lamarre:

A$AP Rocky, if you guys did not hear, was found not guilty after, an alleged shooting incident that took place in 2021 in November of him allegedly shooting his one time friend A$AP Relli. He was facing two felony counts of a firearm. If convicted, would have been facing 24 years the maximum. And yesterday, we got the news around seven o’clock/ four Pacific that he was found not guilty. It’s gonna be a meme now, the way he ran over to Rihanna and just, literally just jumped over the railing. 

Keep watching for more!

Blink-182 co-founder Mark Hoppus is setting his sights on the art world, with the musician set to auction off his rare Banksy artwork.

The artwork, titled Crude Oil (Vettriano), was hand-painted by the anonymous English street artist in 2005 and will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on March 4. The painting is valued rather highly, attracting a sales estimate of up to £5 million, or $6.3 million.

Originally created for Banksy’s 2005 exhibit Crude Oils, the painting is itself a recreation of the 1992 artwork The Singing Butler by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano. Hoppus would later acquire the piece in 2011.

As part of the exhibition (which was described as “A Gallery of Re-Mixed Master-Pieces, Vandalism, and Vermin” and featured works based off artists such as Andy Warhol and Edward Hopper), the original was altered to include a “sinking oil liner and two men in hazmat suits wheeling a barrel of toxic waste”. 

“We loved this painting since the moment we saw it,” said Hoppus in a statement. “Unmistakably Banksy, but different. We bought it because we loved it. It’s borne witness to our family over these past dozen years. It hung over the table in London where we ate breakfast and our son did his homework. It hung in our living room in Los Angeles. It’s seen laughter and tears and parties and arguments.”

“This isn’t just an iconic Banksy, it is a Banksy that has been treasured by music legend, Mark Hoppus, who fell for this work for its rebellious spirit, raw edge and unfiltered expression—the fundamentals that also shaped Mark’s world: Punk culture,” Sotheby’s Europe chairman Oliver Barker said in a statement. 

“Street art and Punk Rock share the same vocabulary—they speak to the outsider, the rebel and the overlooked. Both movements were born from the margins. They challenge authority and rewrite the rules, a fundamental trait shared by Mark and Banksy. Now, by sharing Crude Oil (Vettriano) with the world, Mark will open others’ eyes to the true power art can have; to spark conversation and challenge the way we see the world around us.”

Remaining anonymous over his three decades of activity, Banksy’s artwork has become as iconic as it is divisive, with his creations adorning the walls of art galleries and album covers in equal measure. In 2021, his Love is in the Bin artwork sold for a record £18,582,000 (valued at $23,442,885 today), with the work itself having gained notoriety for its self-destruction upon its initial sale in 2018. 

Hoppus says a portion of the funds raised by the sale will go towards charities and funds aiding those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, including the California Fire Foundation, the Child Life Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Cedars Sinai Hematology Oncology Research.

Crude Oil (Vettriano) is currently on display at Sotheby’s in New York until Thursday (Feb. 20), and will then be on display in London from Feb. 26 until March 4.

The journals of late Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley will be collected in an upcoming book, with This Angry Pen to be released in November.

The 176-page volume will be officially released on Nov. 11 via publisher Weldon Owen, with its full title reading This Angry Pen: The Lost Journals of Layne Staley. According to a description of the book on the website of distributors Simon & Schuster, the book collects “handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes” and more.

“For the first time, this stunning collection unveils the deeply personal and creative side of the legendary Alice in Chains frontman,” it continues. “Through never-before-seen poetry, raw handwritten lyrics, intimate scribblings, and heartfelt notes, Layne’s inner thoughts and emotions come to life, offering a glimpse into the mind of a musical genius who defined a generation.”

Staley began his musical journey in the ‘80s, performing in glam bands in the Seattle area such as Sleze, which changed its name in 1986 to Alice N’ Chains. 

In 1987, Staley – along with guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney – formed a new band and renamed it Alice in Chains. The group would soon become one of the most influential grunge rock outfits of the ‘90s, with their 1995 self-titled album peaking atop the Billboard 200.

In addition to performing and recording with supergroups Mad Season and Class of ‘99 through the decade, Staley became largely reclusive in the latter half of the ‘90s, battling depression and drug addiction during those years. In April 17, 2002, Staley’s body was found in his Seattle apartment, with an autopsy ruling his death as an accidental overdose of cocaine and heroin from two weeks prior.

Alice in Chains would later reform in 2005, with vocalist William DuVall joining the following year. The band have since released three studio albums, with 2018’s Rainier Fog serving as their last record to date.

“Through Layne’s scribblings and heartfelt musings are a window into the emotional depths of a man who gave so much of himself to his art and his fans, even as he struggled with his own battles,” the description for This Angry Pen continued. “For fans new and old, this is an opportunity to connect with Layne’s artistry and humanity in a way that’s never been possible before. His story, told through his own words, creations, and the lives he forever changed, is a testament to the enduring power of music, art, and the human spirit.”

The publication of This Angry Pen also draws some comparisons to the 2002 book Journals, which collected the drawings and writings of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Nirvana and Alice in Chains – along with fellow Seattle contemporaries Pearl Jam and Soundgarden – were often considered to make up the ‘Big Four’ of grunge music. Reaction to Cobain’s Journals was mixed upon its release, with Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean expressing her regret over its publication in 2018.