Music Listening & Discussion: Nirvana's Nevermind (1991)

Nothing was ever quite the same after Nirvana. The band's second album, 1991's Nevermind, revolutionized popular music by bringing alternative rock above ground, introducing mainstream audiences to sounds and concepts that had previously existed only in shadowy record store corners and on low-frequency college radio airwaves. Nevermind's noisy, dissonant guitar rock, mumbled or howled surrealistic lyrics, and generally angsty punk attitudes were unlikely candidates for chart success, but the band undercut their grungy songs with enough pop melodicism to create a sound unlike anything average listeners had ever heard before, striking at the exact right moment to become an unprecedented success.

Since Nirvana were rooted in an indie aesthetic but loved pop music, they fought their stardom while courting it, becoming some of the most notorious anti-rock stars in history. They consciously attempted to shed their audience with 1993's abrasive, Steve Albini-produced third album In Utero, but vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Kurt Cobain's growing mental health and substance abuse issues led to his death by suicide in 1994. Though Nirvana's story was cut tragically short, their legacy stands as one of the most influential in rock & roll history.

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New series! At each session, we'll get together to listen to and discuss some of the greatest and most important and influential albums of all time. After each track, we'll pause for a short conversation where we can share our thoughts, reflections, or what the music has meant to us personally.

I'll have lyrics up on Zoom's screen share.

We'll begin with one of the greatest of the greatest, Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind.

Potential future listening sessions:

• Radiohead
• Joni Mitchell
• Bob Dylan
• Bruce Springsteen
• Neil Young
• Wilco
• The Clash
• Sufjan Stevens
• Lauryn Hill
• The Velvet Underground
• Madonna
• Aphex Twin
• Talking Heads
• Alanis Morissette
• Prince
• ETC...