A 1991 sleeve of a naked baby underwater swimming towards a dollar bill on a fish-hook (1991)
Nevermind — the baby was Spencer Elden, who sued unsuccessfully decades later.
Popular music · Rock
Nirvana
1987–1994 · American (Aberdeen and Seattle, Washington)
Grunge; alternative rock's crossover into the mainstream
Nirvana were Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and, from 1990, Dave Grohl, a trio from Washington state who took the quiet-loud dynamic of American underground rock into the charts. Nevermind knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the American album chart in January 1992 and ended the reign of stadium metal almost overnight. Cobain's suicide in April 1994 closed the band after three studio albums.
How to spot them
- ▸Kurt Cobain (guitar and vocals), Krist Novoselic (bass), Dave Grohl (drums from 1990; five drummers preceded him, including Chad Channing)
- ▸Quiet verse, screamed chorus; left-handed Fender Mustangs and Jaguars destroyed at the end of sets
- ▸Sub Pop for the debut, then DGC/Geffen; Butch Vig produced Nevermind and Steve Albini recorded In Utero
- ▸Cobain's marriage to Courtney Love of Hole; the cardigan and the ripped jeans
- ▸Cobain joined the so-called 27 Club; Grohl went on to found the Foo Fighters
Songs & albums
A 1991 single whose title came from a deodorant marketed at teenage girls, misunderstood by its author as a compliment (1991)
'Smells Like Teen Spirit' — Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill scrawled the phrase on Cobain's wall.
A 1989 debut album on a Seattle independent label, recorded for a little over $600 (1989)
Bleach, on Sub Pop; the bill was paid by Jason Everman, who is credited on the sleeve though he does not play on it.
A 1993 third album deliberately made abrasive by an engineer who refused a producer credit, then partly remixed after label pressure (1993)
In Utero, recorded by Steve Albini; Scott Litt remixed 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies'.
A 1994 acoustic television session staged with lilies and candles, ending with a Lead Belly song howled at full voice (1994)
MTV Unplugged in New York, closing with 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night'; it won a Grammy in 1996.
A 1993 single about a woman with a low self-esteem, whose video features a crucified Father Christmas and a winged foetus (1993)
'Heart-Shaped Box' — the Anton Corbijn video won two MTV awards.
A 1992 single whose video parodies black-and-white 1960s variety television, the band in suits and then in frocks (1992)
'In Bloom' — the host introduces them as 'thoroughly all right and decent fellows'.
A 1992 compilation of B-sides, outtakes and BBC sessions, its title a pun on a pesticide (1992)
Incesticide — it includes 'Sliver' and 'Aneurysm'.
Quick-fire facts
- •Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, their first year of eligibility, by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
- •Nevermind displaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous at the top of the Billboard 200 in January 1992
- •Kurt Cobain died by suicide at his Seattle home on 5 April 1994, aged 27; his body was found on 8 April
- •At the 2014 induction, Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, St. Vincent and Lorde each sang a song in Cobain's place
- •Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters in 1994, playing every instrument on the first album himself
- •Krist Novoselic left music largely for political campaigning, chairing the electoral-reform group FairVote
- •Nevermind was produced by Butch Vig, who later formed Garbage
- •'Come as You Are' was nearly left off Nevermind for fear of a lawsuit over its similarity to Killing Joke's 'Eighties'
- •Nirvana's last concert was in Munich on 1 March 1994
- •Cobain kept a set of journals published in 2002; Montage of Heck (2015) was the first documentary authorised by his family
Drill it — 10 cards
1 / 10new card
Sources
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Nirvana — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee page
- Michael Azerrad — Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana