How Nevermind Changed the World

Because this article is so inherently tied to music and musical changes and trends, I've laced it with links to tracks on Spotify. To get the full sense of some of the ideas I'm writing about, please do take full advantage of the links!

Twenty years ago this month the music world was turned upside-down. On 10 September 1991 a band from Seattle released the first single off their second album. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' would become one of the most important songs in the history of pop music. And two weeks later on 24 September, the full bombshell was dropped in the form of a bright blue photograph of a baby and a dollar bill. Nevermind was definitely one of those defining moments which clearly divides the world into 'before' and 'after'.

What more can be said about Nevermind which hasn't already been said? Quite a bit, in fact, I believe. Well, perhaps it's been said before, but it probably hasn't been said outside of niche music circles. And so I've tried to compile some of the major threads that have gone in and out of discussions about Nevermind as well as provide some new insights. There's two main threads to this article: 1) the hype surrounding Nevermind is completely warranted; 2) nevertheless, everything you know about it is wrong.

Come As You Are

It should first be said that I am in no way a Nirvana fanboy, nor do I view them through the rose-colored glasses of childhood reminiscence. I was only just beginning 2nd Grade when Nevermind was released, but I was all but completely closed off to all popular music in those years. I vaguely remember knowing about a band named Nirvana (and I seem to remember thinking how 'un-wholesome' of a name it was), and I remember fellow students later wearing Kurt Cobain commemorative t-shirts in middle school after he had died. So though I lived during the time when Nirvana made its huge splash, the ripples took a very long time to reach me.

Even now, Nirvana doesn't receive any more play in my music library than any other band. In fact, it receives far less play than most bands. (Except, of course, in the past month, as I've been researching and writing this article!)

I say this in order to assert that my perspective on Nirvana is entirely objective — or at least as much so as can be hoped for. So you can know that when I say that Nevermind is one of the most important albums ever released, I may be exaggerating a tad, but it's not because of any personal attachment or meaning.

In Bloom

With those disclaimers out of the way, I now feel I can safely say it: Nevermind is one of the most important albums ever released. It may even be the most important album, though it would be foolish to nominate any one album in the 60-year history of the album format for that position.

In order to understand why Nevermind had the impact it did, one needs to first understand where popular music was in the late 80s and up through 1991. In the late 80s, the Billboard Hot 100, which tracks top singles in both radioplay and store sales, was dominated by... well... 80s music: Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Rick Astley, Fine Young Cannibals, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Steve Winwood, &c. By the time 1990 and 1991 rolled around, some of the 90s trends started to emerge, including early hip hop from MC Hammer, the next wave of boy bands as ushered in by New Kids on the Block, and the Eurodance of C + C Music Factory.

Even on the rock music charts, the flavor was distinctively of the late classic rock variety: Robert Plant, Tom Petty, U2, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, &c. That is, it was still a polished product with soaring guitar solos and such.

But all the while alternative music was rustling in the undergrowth. The first real sign of its impending emergence was Billboard's creation in late 1988 of the Modern Rock chart, which tracked the genre. Among its early chart-toppers were R.E.M., The Cure, The B-52's, and XTC. While these were all certainly alternative bands, these were also all veteran bands, each dating back to the early 80s. The successful bands were tried and true, much as with the popular charts.

All in all, the music scene was relatively stable. (One might say it was stale, rather than stable, but I'm not so sure I want to make that qualitative judgment.) To be sure, there were trends that would come and go with small scenes here and there. As mentioned above, boy bands were about to make a return, and hip hop was finally emerging into the pop charts after over a decade on the streets. And alternative music was also on a slow steady rise, with a number of college radio staples signing to major labels: R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Pixies, and The Replacements. But the changes and evolution in music had been slow and steady for several years.

Nirvana and Nevermind would change all of that. The album and its lead single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' exploded onto the scene and radically changed the course of music. This past year the 1992 music documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke was restored and released on DVD. The title perfectly captures why Nevermind was important.

Nirvana was the modern form of punk; or rather, one of the modern forms of punk. When Nevermind crashed onto the scene in late 1991, punk had not been a force in music since the mid-70s, and even then, it had been but a minor force. Here and there a band would crossover in a big way, such as when The Clash's Combat Rock reached #7 on the Billboard 200, but that was the exception rather than the rule.

As the 70s wore on, punk died and morphed into post-punk; post-punk eventually morphed into alternative music, which included myriad sub-genres: hardcore punk (Black Flag), jangle pop (R.E.M.), gothic rock (The Cure), dream pop (Cocteau Twins), twee pop (The Field Mice), early noise pop (Dinosaur Jr.), cowpunk (Meat Puppets), grunge (Mudhoney), and loads of other sub-genres. All of these shared a number of things in common: they were amalgamations of the punk DIY ethic, the experimentalism of post-punk, and a fusing of diverse influences.

In 1991, alternative music and the culture at large finally rendezvoused. In 1991 punk broke. It didn't quite sound and look like the punk music that the Sex Pistols had played back in 1977, but it was punk in its evolved form. Nirvana knew this: the title of their second album Nevermind was a tribute to the Sex Pistol's 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. What Nirvana didn't know was how much of an impact their album would have.

The record studios weren't prepared for the impact either. To date Nirvana had released one album in 1989 — Bleach — a supporting single, and a non-album single in 1990. In recording their first album, Nirvana followed in the DIY ethic of the alternative scene: it cost the band only $606.17 to record and was release #34 on Sub Pop, an small independent label dedicated to the Seattle music scene. The success of these early releases was not insigificant — for an alternative group. It was at least enough for the group to sign an extension with Sub Pop and re-enter the studios for a follow-up.

In 1990, after early demos of the group's follow-up to Bleach circulated, major label DGC Records bought Nirvana's contract from Sub Pop at the behest of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, a band recently signed to the label. DGC hoped that Nirvana would be able to ride the coattails of their new label-mates. With a bit of luck, DGC hoped, Nirvana would be able to match the success of Sonic Youth's latest record, Goo, which had reached #96 on the Billboard 200.

The rest, as they say, is history. Its success did not come quickly, however. The album was released on 24 September 1991 to little fanfare. It languished for a few weeks until the music video for lead single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' aired on MTV. The video first premiered, as would be expected, on MTV's late-night alternative show 120 Minutes, but it proved so popular that it quickly began to enter daytime rotation. Shortly thereafter, on 12 October 1991, Nevermind premiered on the Billboard 200 at #40. By 27 November 1991, it had shipped a million units and been certified platinum — something Goo certainly hadn't achieved. And by 11 January 1992, the album had topped the charts, rather symbolically displacing Michael Jackson's Dangerous. The album had achieved success beyond Nirvana's or DGC's wildest dreams.

Breed

As unexpected as the album's success was, that isn't the whole story. After all, fellow alternative band R.E.M. had reached #1 with Out of Time earlier in 1991. But R.E.M. was R.E.M. Though their jangle pop was certainly alternative music, their album's success was propelled by the mandolin-supported 'Losing My Religion' and the orchestral 'Shiny Happy People'. It was another thing entirely for Nirvana's album to be as successful on the backs of singles such as 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Come As You Are', and 'Lithium'. Other alternative acts' success had also been the product of many years of building a back catalog, gradually building up to success. R.E.M.'s first #1 album was their 7th; by 1991 they were journeymen musicians. Nirvana's success was sudden.

Nirvana's breakout was different from other alternative successes, because it had immediate and extensive cultural impact. No one was shaving his head in imitation of Michael Stipe's look in the wake of R.E.M.'s success. But boys everywhere did start to imitate Kurt Cobain's flannel shirts. R.E.M. were the geeks in school that people nonetheless accepted. Nirvana were the guys people wanted to be.

But the real impact was the music. While other alternative bands had surely paved the way for the breakthrough in 1991, Nirvana was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was a rather heavy straw by itself, though. After all, if music as hard and abrasive as Nevermind could top the charts, then everything which the underground scene could offer was theoretically open game. And that's exactly what happened. The harder alternative groups began to see instant success after 1992.

Soundgarden, whose 1989 major label debut Louder Than Love had charted at #108, saw their 1994 album Superunknown hit #1. The Smashing Pumpkins' 1991 debut Gish had barely cracked the charts at #198, but their 1993 follow-up Siamese Dream hit #10. Even Sonic Youth, who represented the far left wing of the alternative wave, witnessed their 1994 album Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star hit #34; five years earlier Daydream Nation, largely considered their breakthrough, hadn't even charted.

Nevermind meant that the entire alternative scene was here to stay. The breakout success meant that alternative music wasn't doomed to only leak through with 'radio-friendly' hits here and there, while remaining largely underground. It's been said that Nevermind was the album that finally convinced mall record stores to add an alternative section to their floorplan. What that means is that many of the iconic alternative bands of the 1990s, even though they had very little in common with Nirvana musically, owe their success to the re-adjustment of the music industry to a broader, more alternative-minded catalog. This would include bands such as Gin Blossoms, Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, Blind Melon, Alanis Morissette, Radiohead, &c. — all bands which probably would not have been given a second look years earlier.

Even more particular to the 'grunge' music of Nirvana and its Seattle compatriots (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) was the reaction to and against it, as it succeeded on its own terms. As the years progressed, the aesthetic became more polished, evolving into post-grunge. On the other side of the pond, the British music scene, not at all comprehending the angst and mood of the genre, reacted by developing Britpop, giving rise to Blur, Oasis, Pulp, &c. As Noel Gallagher said in a recent interview, 'I didn't realize it at the time, but Definitely Maybe and Nevermind are kind of of the same thing: pop songs with distorted guitars. Which brings us to the second part of this article.

Something in the Way

For all the accolades it receives, Nevermind often receives them for the wrong reasons. Yes, it was an important album. Yes, it was a breakthrough for alternative music. Yes, it changed the direction of music in the last decade of the 20th century. But there are a number of misconceptions about the album in the public mind.

The most prominent misconception about Nevermind that needs to be cleared up is that it is the preeminent grunge album. It isn't. It can't be, because it isn't grunge. In 1992 Kurt was photographed wearing a shirt that read grunge is dead. The shirt was right. At the time it was seen as an ironic statement for the media darling of grunge to make — and there admittedly still is some irony to the statement — but it was a true statement. Not only was Nirvana making a departure from grunge, but it did so by embracing pop music.

In the late 80s, grunge had become a sort of catch-all term for 'music from Seattle'. Part of the problem is that in some senses, grunge was indeed isolated to Seattle. Part of the misunderstanding comes from the geographical orientation of 80s alternative music. Each city had its own underground scene, which was relatively isolated from other scenes. New York had noise; Minneapolis had melodic punk; Los Angeles had the Paisley Underground; Athens, GA had jangle pop; Manchester, UK had Madchester; and Seattle had grunge.

Because of Seattle's geographical remoteness from other scenes, it was a more isolated scene than most of the others. Few alternative bands bothered to tour the far northwest, and few Seattle bands toured extensively outside the region. The result was a genre of music which extensively reflected Seattle. Known for averaging 152 rainy days each year and averaging 3.7 hours of sunlight for much of the year, 'the Seattle sound' was a sludgy, distorted noise: a mix of hardcore punk and heavy metal, equal parts Black Flag and Black Sabbath. As we'll discover, Nevermind was a slight departure from that sound.

The first grunge releases were Green River's EPs Come On Down and Dry As a Bone. Emblematic of the early sound of grunge is 'P.C.C.' and 'Baby Takes'. There's a couple things to notice on these tracks. The first is the relative tempo of each song. The drums keep a fairly regular rhythm, carrying along what is almost like a dirge. This is a direct result of the sludgy influence that the Melvins had, as heard on 'At a Crawl'.

But the tempo of Green River is less important than the monotony of the tracks. It's hard to trace out verses and choruses, much less determine where the repeated phrases begin and end. The only break to the pacing is Stone Gossard's solo section in each song. But listen to each song, paying close attention to the rhythms: the drums, the solid, thumping bass line (the bass tone is also quite representative of grunge music), the strum patterns. It doesn't take long to realize that the composition is pretty minimalist. That isn't to say that there isn't any depth; on the contrary, some of the instrumental interplay is quite developed. But most of the complexity is flourish, rather than the song's basics.

The next band to listen to is Mudhoney, a band which formed by some of the members of Green River after that band dissolved. 'Touch Me I'm Sick' is the lead track from their first release and is representative of their output. There are two things to recognize here. The first is the heavy use of distortion. It's something we almost overlook these days, but that's only because of the influence of Seattle bands. But the distortion is unmistakable here. It's especially marked during the solo at 1:25. Even Green River used a relatively clean effect for their solos.

The second element is again the monotony. With the exception of a short bridge, the same riff is repeated throughout the song. And this is accompanied by repetition in all of the rhythm instruments. Many of these same elements can be found in the early tracks by Soundgarden, another formative grunge band: e.g., Hunted Down, their first single.

This brings us to where grunge was at by the time Nirvana released their first album Bleach. So how does that album compare? Quite nicely, in fact. Listen to the supporting single, 'Blew'. Notice all of the key elements: relatively slow tempo; monotonous sound; the steady, thundering bass and its tone; heavy guitar distortion.

The one big difference to notice is the very distinct difference between verse and chorus. When the band reaches the chorus at 0:45, you immediately recognize it as such. You recognize it not just as a section change, but as the chorus. This was Nirvana's main contribution to grunge: conventional pop sensibilities.

For all its grunginess, Bleach already started to show that Nirvana was moving away from the grunge scene. The third song on the album, 'About a Girl', immediately shows that Nirvana was after something more. The song starts out with a simple, clean guitar. Clean! No distortion! And the featured drum-kit piece is the hi-hat! And is that a tambourine entering at 1:20??

This all was virtually unheard of in Seattle in those days. Now compare the version on Bleach to the unplugged version that Nirvana would play 5 years later. They're virtually indistinguishable. Granted, the monotony is still there, betraying the grunge roots, but so much else has changed in this one song. It's no surprise that 'About a Girl' was the song which would best survive in concert setlists, as Nirvana underwent its stylistic revolution.

So where was Nirvana picking up this 'pop sound', if it wasn't present in Seattle. According to Cobain, it first came from Liverpool, specifically the album Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles' second US album. Featured on that album were 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', 'All My Loving', 'I Saw Her Standing There', and others. While Cobain's melodies and harmonies were not anywhere near as intricate or innovative as The Beatles' were in 1963, the influence is there. In addition to the elements we've already discussed in the previous paragraph, the key change as 'About a Girl' enters the chorus is quite peculiar and Beatles-esque. In fact, the chorus progression destabilizes the entire song — for the better. But perhaps most importantly, 'About a Girl' has the structure of a pop song. It's a clear verse-chorus-verse-solo/bridge-chorus, with distinct melodies and harmonies for each part.

By the time Nirvana starting laying down tracks for Nevermind, Cobain had a new influence — this time from the alternative scene. But rather than coming from his native Seattle, this influence came from all the way across the country in Boston: the Pixies. The Pixies' influence is, in my opinion, the prime reason why Nirvana made the splash it did with Nevermind. The Pixies had perfected — almost to cliché — the loud-quiet-loud dynamics of the verse-chorus-verse structure.

Listen again to the Nirvana and Beatles tracks above. Though you can easily recognize the verses and choruses, it's for harmonic reasons. The chord progressions change, and the one is more notably chorus-like and the other more verse-like.

Now listen to 'Gigantic' by the Pixies. Can you distinguish the verse and chorus and known which is which? Of course you can. But it's not for harmonic reasons. The chord progression doesn't change throughout the entire song. The bass plays the same four measure riff over and over; and when the guitar comes in, it's merely playing power chords based on the bass notes. So how can you tell the difference between verse and chorus? Because of the dynamics: the verse is quiet and the chorus is loud. The same goes for 'Tame' and any number of other Pixies songs.

Having heard that, now compare to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It's probably not going to surprise you a bit when I now say that Cobain has employed exactly the same technique. The chord progression is exactly the same throughout the song. The change that signals you, 'It's chorus time!' is the dynamics. You'll find the same strategy employed on 'Come As You Are', 'Lithium', and 'In Bloom' — the four singles off of Nevermind.

There's one last word to be said about 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. The song is in F minor with a bass line that anticipates a conventional i–iv–III–VI chord progression. But that anticipation is disrupted by the fact that Cobain doesn't quite play pure power chords, instead strumming strings that shouldn't normally be played. The result is that the song varies between the actual progression and a progression that sounds like I–IV–♭III–♭VI. If you aren't familiar with chord notation, suffice it to say that this accounts for the song sounding off-kilter, like it's about to lose its wheels at any moment. This is precisely the sort of harmonic complexity you'd expect from The Beatles. The difference is here it's subtle, rather than center-stage — not immediately noticeable, but still having an effect. The result is that Nevermind ends up being not so much a grunge album as a combination Beatles/Pixies album with heavy distortion.

The reason I go to lengths to explain all of this music theory is because it's vital to understanding exactly how far afield Nirvana had gone from their grunge roots. By the time Nevermind was released, the only thing grunge about Nirvana was that they were from Seattle and used distortion on their guitars. In truth Nirvana was no longer grunge. Perhaps they had been a few years earlier, but not in 1991. Instead they had diversified their influences beyond the heavy sounds of grunge. Their follow-up album, In Utero, would witness even further progression, as they experimented further with song structure, effects, and studio trickery.

Nevertheless, Nirvana's success in the mainstream ushered in grunge along with the rest of the alternative scene. Including Pearl Jam. Who isn't grunge either. But that's for another article...