Nevermind (6) is the second studio album by the American band Nirvana, released in September 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana’s first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band’s prior work. Recording took place at Sound City Studios in VAn Nuys, California, and Smart Studios in Madison. Wisconsin in May and June 1991, with mastering being completed in August of that year at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California.
Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain, the album is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. Thematically, it includes anti-establishment views, anti-sexism, frustration, alienation and troubled love inspired by Cobain’s broken relationship with Bikini Kill’s Tobi Vail. Contrary to the popular hedonistic themes of drugs and aex at the time, writers have observed that Nevermind re-invigorated sensitivity to mainstream rock. According to Cobain, the sound of the album was influenced by bands such as Pixies and REM. While the album is considered a cornerstone of the grunge genre, it is noted for its musical diversity, which includes acoustic ballads and punk inspired hard rock.
The album cover shows a naked baby boy, Spencer Elden, swimming underwater with a U.S. dollar bill on a fishhook, in front of him, just out of his reach. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with Grohl. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen’s art director Robert Fisher. Fisher found some stock footage of underwater births, but they were too graphic for the record company to use. Instead, Fisher sent a photographer, Kirk Weddle, to a pool for babies to take pictures. Five shots resulted and the band settled on the image of four-month-old Spencer Elden, the son of a friend of Weddle. The cover has since been recognized as one of the most famous album covers in pop music. A few months after the original baby shot, Weddle also photographed the entire band underwater for a promotional poster.
Nevermind became an unexpected critical and commercial success, charting highly on charts across the world. By January 1992, it reached number one on the US Billboard and was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. The lead single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” reached the top 10 of the US Billboard and went on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Its video was also heavily rotated on MTV. Three other successful singles were released: “Come As You Are”, “Lithium”, and “In Bloom”. The album was voted the best album of the year in Pazz & Jop critics’ poll, while “Smells Like Teen Spirit” also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls. The album also garnered the band three Grammy Awards nominations.
Nevermind and its singles’ success propelled Nirvana to being widely regarded as the biggest band in the world, with Cobain being dubbed by critics as the “voice of his generation”. The album brought grunge and alternative rock to a mainstream audience while ending the dominance of hair metal, drawing similarities to the early 1960s British Invasion of American popular music. It is also often credited with initiating a resurgence of interest in punk culture among teenagers and young adults of Generation X. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best seling albums of all time. In March 1999, it was certified Diamond by the RIAA. Among the most acclaimed and influential albums in the history of music, it was added to the National Rocording Registry in 2004 as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important”, and is frequently ranked on lists of the greatest albums of all time.
