Nevermind: Glorious Grunge Synergy
By Nick M.W
One evening in the fall of 1991, when I was but a wee lad playing in my bedroom and listening to music, four unfamiliar low-E power chords strummed through the modest speakers of my Sanyo radio/cassette player. These chords would forever change the way I listened to and thought about music. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was cupid’s arrow shot straight through my little heart. Back then, I didn’t understand anything about the music, the lyrics, or the band. It would be another year, with some guidance from my older brother, when I would begin to piece together my own deeper understanding of Kurt Cobain’s lyrics and the impact Nirvana was having on pop culture.
In hindsight, Nevermind was a “generation-defining” album that “tilted the world on its axis.” In the moment, September of ’91, Nirvana’s sophomore album was a revelation. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was ubiquitous; it played on every radio station, from KROQ to KIIS FM. The music video was an MTV darling. They must have looped it to play every hour, for 24 hours (not a fact). Nirvana appeared on SNL in January ’92 (and again the next year, the first band to get invited to play twice in that show’s history). They were on the cover of every rock music magazine in print. Weird Al even parodied them. That’s when you know you made it. However, the true measure of success in my world was that my mom hated Nirvana, or at least hated my obsession with them. Even though she had that sentiment (“you just don’t get it, mom!), she could relate to the fervor around the band because she experienced something similar with The Beatles at around the same age I was during Nirvana’s peak years. She talked a lot of shit about them, and was right that Nirvana wouldn’t be around for long, but she completely missed the mark about their lasting impact on music.
Nirvana was the Cronus among the Seattle titans of grunge — Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. You could argue that they were not the most talented of the bunch, but they were the heart and soul of grunge music. Kurt Cobain was unwilling to be the figurehead, but he was a genius in this genre; a true artist in every sense, and it’s no coincidence that the scene died when he did. I certainly walked away from grunge music not long after his suicide, primarily because I couldn’t listen to any of that music without feeling sick from such a tremendous loss. It’s still impossible to listen to Nirvana without memory of Kurt’s tragic suicide spinning in my head.
Today, 30 years after Nevermind debuted, the album remains a work of perfection. Although it’s not my favorite Nirvana album — that would be Unplugged —Nevermind reflects the incredible amount of work and skill that Kurt, Krist, and Dave poured into creating an album that melded together elements of indie rock, punk rock, and metal. They serendipitously captured the vibe of rebellious twenty-something Gen Xers and pre-teen Millennials with an album that roars with Pacific Northwest thunder and caused a tectonic shift in the sound of rock music.
They say it’s better to burn out than fade away. Either way, legends remain forever.
Standout Tracks
“Smells Like Teen Spirit”
The song that introduced Nirvana to the world, it’s arguably their signature song, and it’s one of their biggest hits (surprisingly “You Know You’re Right” spent six more weeks at #1 than “Smells Like Teen Spirit”). It’s iconic, and it’s still a banger 30 years later.
“Polly”
Despite leaning on distortion and thunderous percussion in many of their songs, I think Nirvana’s best moments were when they went acoustic.
“Territorial Pissings”
A blitzkrieg anthem against homophobes, misogynists, and racists.
