'Nevermind" Turns 20

On September 24, 1991, DCG Records released Nirvana's sophomore album, 'Nevermind'.  There was little fanfare.  Practically zero publicity for the album.  In fact, the label only expected fans of their first album, 'Bleach' to purchase 'Nevermind'.  Only 46,000 copies of the album were made, 35,000 of those shipped to the UK, where their debut had proven more successful.

Though their sound had been alive and well in the Pacific Northwest for the better part of a decade, it was still new to the world.  Pearl Jam had just released their debut album 'Ten', three weeks prior.  The nation was infatuated with pop music.  Color Me Badd had the number one single in the country with 'I Adore Mi Amor'.  They had just taken the spot after Bryan Adams held it for seven weeks with '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You'.  The mixture of hard rock and punk, which would later be referred to as "grunge" by the media, was wholly unfamiliar to the American masses.

'Smells Like Teen Spirit' eventually made it to the airwaves.  Then the video premiered on MTV's '120 Minutes' (remember that show?).  The response was so overwhelming, the video received regular daytime rotation on the network, which, for a rock video, was unheard of at that time.

In January 2002, Nirvana unseated Michael Jackson at the top of the Billboard charts.  It has gone on to sell over 20 million copies.

If you look at the music industry today, the Billboard charts are much like what they were 20 years ago.  The top 10 this week is dominated by Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, LMFAO and Maroon 5.  People say that history is cyclical.  That the world is due for another "Nirvana occurrence".  Some critics believe that it will never happen again.  Well, not at the scale of what we saw in '91, at least.

With the over saturation of pop music, rock acts today have to work double time just to keep up.  Not to mention the fact that today they're openly competing with television as well, when you look at shows like 'American Idol' and 'The X Factor'.  Also, the 16-24 demographic of 1991 appears to be much different than the same of 2011.  In 1991, we were angsty (Yes.  It's a word.  I checked.).  We were disenfranchised, and frankly, I think we were more intelligent.  Today's teenagers wouldn't get the irony or the sarcasm in something like 'Nevermind'.  Hell, they probably don't even get the title.

Anyhow, enough with the "get off of my lawn" bit.  I'm starting to feel old, now.  Here is one of my favorite tracks on the album.  As someone who has lived with depression and anxiety for much of my life, and for a short time prescribed Lithium, I've always thought this song did a great job at sort of talking about mental illness from the perspective of someone that has it.

Remembering Kurt

Seventeen years ago yesterday, Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home; the victim of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  

Kurt with daughter, Frances Bean

For my generation, it was our "John Lennon moment".  A voice for everything that was inside of us, as fucked up as that voice was, had unexpectedly left.  Looking back, maybe not so unexpectedly.  

Long before his death, Courtney and Kurt were media fodder when it came to their heroin use.  No one knew the true depths of Kurt's addiction until years later, when the biographies and the VH1 'Behind The Music' specials would air.  At the time, we knew nothing of the multiple overdoses or failed suicide attempts.  We saw a rock star, and someone who acted, in public, the way that we would think a disenfranchised, brooding musician with a "fuck it" attitude should act. 

Unless you were the most ardent of Nirvana fans, you likely knew very little of Cobain's undiagnosed stomach problems.  Few outside his inner circle discussed the details surrounding the facts that he could very rarely, even when sober, keep any food down.  Or, how he often would use heroin as a way of self medicating to alleviate unbearable stomach pain.  This later led to untreated depression and body dysmorphic disorder, as a result of his gaunt appearance.  He essentially became a poster boy for being troubled and suicidal, and the world let him end it.

Within months of his death, the death of the grunge genre followed.  Vedder, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, and the rest of the megastars from the Seattle area from the early 90s had become monumentally ineffectual.  The following couple of years saw the emergence and popularity of the "imitator" bands like Bush, Silverchair, and Stone Temple Pilots, but, for the most part, the remainder of the decade showed a complete 180 in the public's taste in music.  Listeners now preferred jam bands and hippie rock;  a trend that would continue until the early part of the next decade.

In October of 2002, after a lawsuit was settled between the remaining members of Nirvana and the heroin and Oxy laced Yoko Ono of our generation, Courtney Love, an agreement was made to release a locked away final Nirvana single.  'You Know You're Right' had it's original vocals and lead guitar recorded in studio by Cobain just 10 weeks before his death.  Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl later came in and recorded their roles.  Eight and a half years after Kurt Cobain's suicide, and after the demise of the "Seattle sound", the song debuted at number one on the rock charts.  Frankly, it sounded ahead of anything on the radio at that time.....in 2002.

So, what of Kurt's legacy?  What legacy?  In 2007, VH1 called 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' the "Greatest Song of the 90s".  It was two places ahead of the Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way' (#3), and five spots ahead of Sir Mix-A-Lot's 'Baby Got Back' (#6).  

Kurt became a playable character in the video game 'Guitar Hero 5'.  Once you unlock him as a character, though, he sings not only the Nirvana songs, but all of the other songs on the game as well.  So, if you've ever wanted to see an animated Kurt Cobain sing No Doubt, Coldplay, or Stevie Wonder, this may be the game for you.

Unlike Yoko, Courtney Love hasn't done much to preserve Kurt's legacy.  In the seventeen years since his death, the world has more to remember Courtney Love about than her husband.  She has focused more on her acting career, her music career, and trying to keep her name out of the tabloids.  Then again, Kurt wasn't John Lennon.  Kurt was damaged, perhaps beyond the point of repair.  He wasn't preaching peace and love and "Imagine", he chanted "I'm not gonna crack".  Regrettably, he did.