- Nevermind · 1991
- Nevermind (30th Anniversary Edition Super Deluxe) · 1991
- In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition) · 1993
- Nevermind · 1991
- MTV Unplugged In New York (Live Acoustic) · 1994
- Nevermind (30th Anniversary Edition Super Deluxe) · 1991
- Nevermind (30th Anniversary Edition Super Deluxe) · 1991
- Bleach · 1989
- In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition) · 1993
- Nevermind · 1991
- In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition) · 1993
- Nevermind · 1991
- Nevermind · 1991
Essential Albums
- Drummer Dave Grohl once said that the metaphor that kept coming up while Nirvana was recording Nevermind was children’s music. Listen and you can hear it: the sing-song melodies, the simple performances, the way it feels direct but also a little haunted. For however much the band are framed as ambassadors for generational angst, what makes Nevermind special isn’t its rage, but its innocence. Of course they wanted to tear down the culture that came before it: It was often misogynistic and cruel. But in its place, they wanted to build something equitable and new. “I’m so horny/That’s okay, my will is good,” Cobain sings on “Lithium”. It’s funny. It’s dumb. It’s simple. It’s wise. And it hits like a bolt of lightning: His will, it is good. Even as an outsider, Cobain was an outsider—he drew influence from The Beatles just as much as he did Black Sabbath. And as much as the band helped bring punk and underground rock into the mainstream, Nevermind is a tirelessly complex piece of music—not in the way that prog rock is, but in the way folk art can be: an expression that draws on something familiar in ways that feel alien and intuitive. Anyone who has ever tried to pick up a guitar and play these songs realises that the punk maxim of needing just three chords is inapplicable: Here are songs that expand on it, progressing in ways that don’t make sense until they do. Still, they never present themselves as more than ordinary. Where once stood the sex god in his leather pants now stands a beflannelled caveman, banging away on his cool new rock (“Territorial Pissings”, “Stay Away”); where once was the glossy power ballad is now something fragile and raw (“Polly”, “Something in the Way”). The old guard was still kicking: Both Metallica’s Black Album and Guns N’ Roses’ two-volume Use Your Illusion famously came out within weeks of Nevermind, selling millions while drawing the sort of critical curiosity that big rock bands hadn’t had in years. But Nevermind cut a Rubicon. Kip Winger, of the hair-metal band Winger, remembers seeing the course-setting video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and thinking he was finished. And not only did Nevermind go on to sell about as well as Metallica and Use Your Illusion, for a brief moment in early 1992, it even displaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous as the best-selling album in the United States. A publicist for Sub Pop (the band’s first label) once said that the thing that made Nirvana stand out in Seattle at the start was that girls liked them—not, you figure, just because Cobain was one of the first male rock stars to say he was a feminist, but because he was one of the first male rock stars who didn’t seem turned on by power. As radical as it seemed at the time, the beauty of Nevermind was simple: Anyone could come, just as they are.
Artist Playlists
- The trio created a singular mix of punk angst, hard rock fuzz and perfect pop hooks.
- Their revolution was indeed televised.
- Grab the mic and sing along with some of their biggest hits.
- Grunge grows up—and gets introspective.
Live Albums
Compilations
More To Hear
- Alternative culture became pop culture.
- Words from artists impacted by Nirvana’s lead singer.
- How “Smells Like Teen Spirit” packed a punch in 1991.
- Strombo looks at the lasting influence of the Nirvana frontman.
- Producer Butch Vig and Strombo celebrate Nirvana’s LP turning 30.
More To See
About Nirvana
The insolent opening chords to Nirvana’s 1991 single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” were no mere guitar riff—this was a ticking time bomb, triggering an explosion that instantly changed the face of pop culture and sent shockwaves that are still being felt to this day. The lead-off track to the Seattle-based trio’s second album, Nevermind, didn’t just send the grungy sound of the Pacific Northwest underground crashing into the mainstream, it prompted rock radio stations to flip their formats to alternative almost overnight, turned thrift-store flannel into a must-have fashion accessory, and sent the music industry scouring indie scenes from coast to coast in search of the next leftfield crossover act. It’s a fate few would’ve bet on when the Aberdeen, Washington-formed group dropped their 1989 debut, Bleach, which positioned them as a baby-brother band to grunge kingpins Mudhoney. But amid the corroded jangle of “About a Girl,” singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain betrayed a Lennon-esque melodic sensibility at odds with prevailing DIY-punk orthodoxies. After Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic replaced drummer Chad Channing with Bonham-esque basher Dave Grohl, the group moved from Seattle’s Sub Pop imprint to major label DGC, which released Nevermind, a record that fused ‘60s pop hooks, ‘70s hard-rock heft, ‘80s post-hardcore noise, and eternal teen angst into what would become the definitive sound of the ‘90s. The staggering success of Nevermind, which symbolically knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the Billboard charts in January 1992—turned Cobain into the sort of massively influential figure that could convert suburban kids into socially conscious punks and get obscure artists major record deals by virtue of wearing their t-shirt. But his tumultuous marriage to Hole frontwoman Courtney Love also made him a prime target for the tabloids. That pressure-cooker experience could be felt all over Nevermind’s caustic 1993 follow-up, In Utero, as raw and furious a record that’s ever debuted at No. 1—however, the album also showcased Cobain’s growth as a songwriter on the graceful finale “All Apologies”. That song would prove to be not just the album’s send-off, but his own: In April 1994, Cobain died by suicide at age 27. Of course, an icon of this magnitude never really dies: Nirvana remains a pervasive influence on 21st century indie rock artists like Courtney Barnett and Ty Segall, while Grohl’s Foo Fighters continue to stake out a space for tuneful heavy rock at the top of the charts. But Cobain has also become a towering figure in modern hip-hop, as both a model of non-compromise name-checked by marquee MCs such as Kendrick Lamar and JAY-Z, and a tragic-figure archetype for SoundCloud-bred emo-rappers like Lil Peep and Juice WRLD, who, like their hero, turned their subculture into a pop phenomenon and left this world far too soon.
- ORIGIN
- Aberdeen, WA, United States
- FORMED
- January 1987
- GENRE
- Alternative