SIXTH IN A SEVEN-PART SERIES

Album of the Era: 1990-1996

Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)

In the decade since Kurt Cobain’s death, Nirvana’s Nevermind seems to have gained almost unanimous recognition as the defining album of its generation. Its influence on today’s rock music is rivaled only by its cultural significance in the 90’s, when it served as the soundtrack of the angst-ridden, alienated youth. In retrospect, it’s easy to understand why Nevermind struck such a dramatic chord, but back in 1991, not everyone smelled the teen spirit.

“It still makes me laugh,” bassist Krist Novoselic once said, “thinking about the journalists who slagged Nevermind when it first came out. Because now they all say they loved it from the start.”

In fairness to those journalists, not even Nirvana themselves expected much success when they released the album, their first on a major label, in September of 1991. At that time, MC Hammer and hair metal bands were still topping the charts, leaving little room, or hope, for a grungy hard rock trio from Seattle.

Nonetheless, the album’s first single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” quickly emerged as a college radio hit, and on October 14th, the song’s now legendary video made its debut on MTV. For Generation X, this moment may have been their answer to the Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan. It provided a visual presence to match Cobain’s crunching guitar and mumble-to-roar vocal style, and eventually, it completely revolutionized the sounds and styles of the time.

Nevermind soon soared to the top of the charts, growing in popularity with the release of its second single, “Come As You Are.” The grunge movement had been born, and Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl were its reluctant poster boys. They had recorded an album that effectively killed hair metal and introduced the introspective, melodic nature of indie rock into the aggressive, power-chord world of punk.

This was a complex task at times, but producer Butch Vig was careful to maintain the band’s rawness, even as Cobain’s songwriting became more focused and conscious of its influences.

The soft/loud transitions in hit songs like “Lithium” and “In Bloom” are remindful of the Pixies, while the unorthodox ballads “Polly” and “Something in the Way” echo Cobain’s appreciation for offbeat bands like the Meat Puppets and The Vaselines. There are even nods to Black Flag and the Sex Pistols in the three-chord romps of “Territorial Pissings” and “On A Plain.”

The inspiration for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is particularly amusing, as Cobain stumbled upon the riff while attempting to play Boston’s classic rock hit, “More Than a Feeling.”

Clearly, Nirvana weren’t trying to reinvent rock n’ roll, but by merging the right elements from the past at the right point in history, they did just that.

In the end, Cobain’s tragic end only guaranteed his band’s immortality. And while fellow Seattle groups like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains released unique, highly influential albums in the 90’s, Nevermind remains the standard bearer for the alternative rock sound as we know it.