Kurt Cobain reportedly disliked having Nirvana defined by the slow, heavy material on their debut album, Bleach. He singled out ‘Sifting’ and ‘Paper Cuts’ as tracks that caused listeners to overlook the band’s wider range, reinforcing his resistance to being labelled solely as a grunge act.

The article places these comments in the context of Cobain’s dissatisfaction with the polished sound of Nevermind and his subsequent effort to make In Utero less commercially refined. Cobain described Nirvana as drawing on influences including punk, pop, metal and bands such as the Melvins, arguing that the group could not be reduced to one genre.