“I’d tell people, You don’t understand, life as we know it is going to change.” Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Josh Homme, Melissa auf der Maur, Stone Gossard and Chris Cornell on Nirvana’s Nevermind, the record that revolutionised the ’90s
Released on 24 September 1991, Nirvana’s second album, Nevermind, radically reshaped popular music and helped bring alternative rock into the mainstream. The article recalls how musicians and industry figures recognised the record’s unusual power, even though Nirvana themselves initially considered “Smells Like Teen Spirit” merely an album track rather than a likely hit.
Producer Butch Vig’s earlier work with Smashing Pumpkins led to his involvement with Nirvana, whose main instruction was to make the album sound “heavy”. Billy Corgan remembered hearing “Teen Spirit” before its release and immediately viewing it as a classic, while Dave Grohl expected “In Bloom” or “Lithium” to succeed; Josh Homme similarly recalled assuming the song was too good to receive widespread exposure, before its rapid breakthrough proved him wrong.
- Nevermind transformed alternative rock and 1990s popular music.
- “Smells Like Teen Spirit” became an unexpectedly defining hit.
- Butch Vig produced the album after working with Smashing Pumpkins.