Nevermind

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the German musician, see Sidney Nevermind .

Nevermind
Studio album by Nirvana
Publication (s)	September 24, 1991
recording	April 1990 May 2, 1991 - May 19, 1991
Label (s)	Geffen Records Sub Pop
Format (s)	LP , CD , MC , HDCD
Genre (s)	Grunge , alternative rock
Title (number)	13th
length	42:38
occupation	Kurt Cobain - guitar , vocals Krist Novoselic - bass Dave Grohl - drums , backing vocals
production	Butch Vig
Studio (s)	Smart Studios, Madison Sound City Studios, Van Nuys
chronology Bleach (1989) Nevermind Incesticide (1992)
Single releases September 10, 1991 smells like Teen Spirit March 2, 1992 Come as you are July 13, 1992 lithium November 30, 1992 In Bloom

Nevermind (German: Already well / forget it ) is the second studio album by the US rock band Nirvana . It was released on September 24, 1991 on the labels Geffen Records and Sub Pop . It has been sold around 30 million times worldwide, making it one of the world's best-selling music albums . In terms of the grunge genre, this makes it the most popular album.

The music magazine Rolling Stone ranks the album at number 17 of the 500 best albums of all time , making Nevermind the highest-ranked album from the 1990s.

success

With Nevermind, Nirvana pushed Michael Jackson from first place on the US album charts and achieved platinum status with the album in just a few weeks for one million records sold in the USA. The album celebrated worldwide success. The band from Seattle , previously only known in scene circles , gained worldwide recognition. This gave the band an unexpected confrontation with their music and lyrics far beyond the genre of music. As a result of this, Nirvana played a decisive role in a blatant change in values ​​in youth culture. A re-politicization took place, which was also expressed in the accompanying new lifestyle. Nevertheless, the youth movement, also known as Generation X , was seen as lacking in lust and disorientation.

As a result of the release of the album, bands like Pearl Jam , Smashing Pumpkins , Beck , Radiohead , Mudhoney , Melvins or Soundgarden opened the door and thus ushered in the music era of the 90s known as the grunge rock wave.

production

The first thing that the band's producer Butch Vig held in his hands was a recording of the song Smells Like Teen Spirit . “I couldn't hear anything. Only noise interrupted by a 'Hello, Hello', says Vig. That's why he heard the song live for the first time during the reproduction processes in the run-up to the recording: "The song knocked me off my stool." Cobain, who according to Vig hardly had the patience to repeat things, worked particularly hard on this song.

Vig exerted his influence on the production and rearranged the tracks on the album. He paved the way for a record that sounded like pop and represented a punk attitude of youthful noise and rebellion. He helped the band through targeted interventions in the arrangements to improve the dynamics of the songs. He put song pieces like the bridge in Smells Like Teen Spirit in the heart of the song in order to improve the energetic effect of the loud-quiet effect. Such a song structure with what Vig called the “stop-and-go method” was not very common in the early 1990s. Coming out of the chorus, one slipped into a quiet verse, broken up by guitar and vocals in the recurring, quick-tempered chorus.

The song structure was inspired by the Pixies , whose soulful dynamics Cobain was enthusiastic about. In Nevermind, for example, there is a simple formula that has not yet been used in the mainstream: sometimes gentle and calm, then loud and hard again.

style

The songwriter Cobain combined two opposites: the irrepressible rage of punk on the one hand, and the vulnerable sensitivity of pop on the other. Producer Butch Vig managed to capture and hold onto this talent. The typical Nirvana sound is rough, organic and partly bulky due to numerous feedbacks . Butch Vig refined this sound into a radio-compatible and finely honed album, which, thanks to the compatibility it created, appealed to a wide audience, even though the noise levels faded into the background.

Cover

The cover shows the four-month-old Spencer Elden (born February 7, 1991), who seems to be swimming naked towards a fish hook with a dollar bill hanging on it. The record company Geffen had an alternative cover made - for fear that the baby's easily visible penis could cause public displeasure. Cobain offered a compromise compatible with its values. Accordingly, Geffen should have attached a masking sticker. However, there should have been a message on it accusing those of pedophilia who are offended by the photo. The record company ended up choosing an uncensored release. The unused image is reproduced in Michael Azzerad's book Come as You Are .

Nirvana originally wanted to use a photo from the stock of a photo archive, but discarded this for cost reasons and entrusted the photographer Kirk Weddle with the task. Weddles friends Renata and Rick Elden allowed that her son for about 200 Spencer dollars could be photographed. The fish hook and line as well as the dollar bill were added to the picture afterwards. After Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love saw the photo, they agreed to go out to dinner with Spencer Elden if he was old enough.

Weird Al Yankovic parodied the Nevermind cover on the cover of his album Off the Deep End in 1992 . It shows Yankovic instead of the baby and a donut instead of the dollar bill. The album also includes a parody of the song Smells Like Teen Spirit called Smells Like Nirvana . There is also a parody with Bart Simpson , nude on a fishing hook with a Krusty swims dollars.

In 2001 Elden had himself photographed again for the same motif; The occasion was an article in Rolling Stone about Nevermind's appearance ten years earlier. Elden can also be seen on the cover of cEvin Key's 2003 album The Dragon Experience .

The inner booklet shows a picture of Cobain, on a monkey who looks into the camera with big eyes and who has a time bomb strapped to his back.

In August 2021, Spencer Elden filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against the band members, various record companies, graphic artists and other people, among others. for violating federal child pornography laws. He claims that decades of using the image have exploited him. He was criticized for having re-enacted the cover several times as a teenager and as an adult.

Track list

Guitar figure from Nirvana's title Come as You Are (1991, Nevermind )

With the exception of the marked exceptions, all songs were written by Kurt Cobain .

page 1

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Cobain, Krist Novoselic , Dave Grohl ) - 5:02
2. In Bloom - 4:15
3. Come as You Are - 3:39
4. Breed - 3:04
5. Lithium - 4:17
6. Polly - 2:56

Page 2

7. Territorial Pissings (Cobain, Chet Powers) - 2:23
8. Drain You - 3:45
9. Lounge Act - 2:37
10. Stay Away - 3:33
11. On a Plain - 3:17
12. Something in the Way - 3:51
13. Endless, Nameless (Cobain, Novoselic, Grohl) - 7:24

The hidden track Endless, Nameless follows Something in the Way at 13:52.

All songs except Polly were recorded in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys , California. Polly was recorded and revised back in April 1990 at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin .

Notes on individual songs

smells like Teen Spirit

→ Main article : Smells Like Teen Spirit

The song got its name from a deodorant called Teen Spirit . Cobain's friend Tobi Vail (drummer at Bikini Kill ) used this deodorant and so Cobain smelled of it himself. Kathleen Hanna , also at bikini Kill, "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" sprayed (engl. Kurt smells Teen Spirit ) to Cobains wall. Sales of the deodorant skyrocketed with the success of the September 1991 single.

The video clip for the song is the most played video on the music channel MTV.

In Bloom

→ Main article : In Bloom

Melody and chords from Nirvana's title In Bloom

After repeatedly oscillating between the tonic and the dead tonic parallel , the piece ends in the double dominant ( C major ) and then in the subdominant E flat major, here as a seventh chord (shown incorrectly in the picture).

In Bloom was the fourth and final single from the album and was released in November 1992. The video for this is in black and white and shows the band performing on a TV show, wearing suits and making a very well-groomed impression. The video clip parodies typical American evening programs from the 1960s, such as the Ed Sullivan Show . At the end of the concert, Nirvana smash their instruments.

Come as you are

→ Main article : Come as You Are

This song was the second single and was released in March 1992. The music video shows in different storylines first the performance of the song by Nirvana, then Kurt Cobain , who swings on a chandelier , as well as various individual images and scenes such as a revolver , a fertilization , a dog with a ruff climbing down a staircase, and the Scene that probably created the cover of the album, namely a baby swimming after a dollar bill on a fishing rod.

lithium

→ Main article : Lithium

Audio sample ^{? / i}

Guitar characters from Nirvana's title Lithium

Lithium was released as the third single in July 1992. It alternates hard, distorted power chords with a softer, mostly muffled guitar accompaniment.

Territorial pissings

At the beginning of the piece you can hear the chorus line from the song "Get Together" by the Youngbloods , a famous hit from the hippie era in 1969.

Drain you

In this song Kurt Cobain sings about his relationship problems. The song is characterized by the change between distortion and silent parts towards the end of the song.

Something in the way

Something in the Way consists of a monotonous alternation of two open fifths reinforced by the use of cellos . It is a very depressive piece, which lyrically cannot give the answer to the "what" problem.

Endless, Nameless (Hidden Track)

The CD version of the album contains the bonus track Endless, Nameless , which was also unofficially called Noise or The Noise Jam . It follows the last song after 10 minutes of silence and is therefore an example of a so-called hidden track . "Endless, Nameless" is a semi-improvised number that was recorded during a particularly exhausting day of recording. As was typical for live performances by Nirvana, this “experiment” ended with the instruments smashing; such as at the end of the MTV concert “Live & Loud”. This piece is not included on the first pressing of “Nevermind”.

Other contributors

• Chad Channing - drums with Polly (not listed in the credits)
• Kirk Canning - cello at Something in the Way
• Jeff Sheehan - Production Assistant
• Butch Vig - production , sound
• Andy Wallace - Mixing
• Howie Weinberg - Mastering
• Michael Lavine - illustrations
• Robert Fisher - CD artwork, art direction, design, cover design
• Craig Doubet - Production Assistant & Mix
• Kirk Weddle - illustrations

reception

source	valuation
All music
Rolling Stone
Spin
NME
Music Express
Laut.de

The Rolling Stone voted Nevermind 17th in 2003 and 6th of the 500 best albums of all time in 2020 and number 1 of the 100 best albums of the 1990s. It also reached # 1 on the 50 best grunge albums. Smells Like Teen Spirit ranks # 9 in the 500 Best Songs of All Time and # 1 in the 50 Best Songs of the Decade.

The New Musical Express ranks the album at number 11 of the 500 best albums of all time and even named Smells Like Teen Spirit the best song of all time.

In the selection of the 100 best albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork has Nevermind Platz 6, Smells Like Teen Spirit reached number 13 of the 200 best songs of the decade.

The magazine Time took Nevermind in the compilation of the top 100 albums and Smells Like Teen Spirit on the selection of the 100 best songs.

The magazine Spin chose Nevermind No. 1 on the 90 best albums of the decade, and ranked one of the 300 best albums from the period 1985 to, 2014.

Smells Like Teen Spirit ranks 7th out of the 700 best songs of all time in the selection of the German magazine Musikexpress .

The website Laut.de named Nevermind the best album of the 1990s.

Nevermind is one of the 1001 albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

In 2004 the album was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress due to "cultural, historical and aesthetic significance" .

In 2017, Smells Like Teen Spirit was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame , followed by Nevermind in 2018.

Chart placements and singles

Chart placements Explanation of the data

Singles

smells like Teen Spirit   DE 2 01/06/1992 (27 weeks)   AT 8th 02/09/1992 (12 weeks)   CH 6th 02/16/1992 (16 weeks)   UK 7th 11/30/1991 (16 weeks)   US 6th 12/07/1991 (20 weeks) Come as you are   DE 22nd 03/30/1992 (11 weeks)   AT 28 04/26/1992 (4 weeks)   CH 21 03/29/1992 (10 weeks)   UK 9 03/14/1992 (5 weeks)   US 32 03/21/1992 (18 weeks) lithium   UK 11 07/25/1992 (6 weeks)   US 64 08/08/1992 (9 weeks) In Bloom   UK 28 12/12/1992 (7 weeks)

Nevermind entered the German charts at number 76 on December 2, 1991, and reached the top position on January 27, 1992 at number 3, where it stayed for nine weeks before dropping to number 5. Overall, the album stayed in the top 100 for 122 weeks, of which 15 weeks in the top 10. In some other countries, the record reached the top position in the charts, including the USA, Canada and Sweden. It reached second place in Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, among others. Nevermind took 3rd place in the Netherlands, while it rose to 5th in Great Britain. The album lasted the longest with over 500 weeks in the US charts, which, however, have 200 places. In the German annual charts for 1992, the sound carrier was ranked 7th.

In 2005, a re-release of the album for one week managed to enter the German charts at number 91 and in 2011 a deluxe edition for the 20th anniversary of the album entered the charts at number 8 and was in the top 100 for seven weeks keep. Since then, the album has returned to the top 100 of the German album charts at irregular intervals.

Chart placements

ChartsChart placements	Top ranking	Weeks
Germany (GfK)	3 (... Where.)	...
Austria (Ö3)	2 (... Where.)	...
Switzerland (IFPI)	2 (... Where.)	...
United Kingdom (OCC)	5 (355 weeks)	355
United States (Billboard)	1 (... Where.)	...

Four singles were released from Nevermind , of which Smells Like Teen Spirit in particular became a worldwide hit and contributed significantly to the album's commercial success. The song, which was published two weeks before the album, rose to number 2 in the charts for three weeks in Germany in early 1992 and stayed in the top 100 for a total of 25 weeks, including 12 weeks in the top 10. In the USA, the song climbed up to Position 6 and received a platinum record for more than one million units sold .

The second release, Come as You Are, was also successful worldwide and reached 22nd place in the German charts, where it stayed in the Top 100 for eleven weeks.

The other two singles Lithium and In Bloom , on the other hand, could not place themselves in the German charts.

Sales figures and awards

To date, Nevermind has sold around 30 million times worldwide. For more than a million copies sold, it received a double platinum record in Germany . In the USA the album sold more than ten million times and was therefore awarded a diamond record . At the 1992 Grammy Awards , Nevermind was nominated for Best Alternative Album , but Out of Time by REM ultimately won

Overview:

country	gold	platinum	2 × platinum	4 × platinum	5 × platinum	10 × platinum
Germany awarded by IFPI	1992	1992	1998	-	-	-
Austria awarded by IFPI	March 18, 1992	February 15, 1993	-	-	-	-
Switzerland awarded by IFPI	1992	1992	-	-	-	-
United States awarded by RIAA	November 27, 1991	November 27, 1991	January 7, 1992	-	5th November 1993	March 24, 1999
United Kingdom awarded by BPI	January 1, 1992	June 1, 1992	May 1, 1993	22. July 2013	January 1, 2016	-

Country / Region	Awards for Mu-sik-ver-käu-fe (country / region, Award, Sales)	Sales
Argentina (CAPIF)	3 × platinum	120,000
Australia (ARIA)	5 × platinum	350,000
Belgium (BEA)	3 × platinum	150,000
Brazil (PMB)	platinum	250,000
Denmark (IFPI)	5 × platinum	100,000
Germany (BVMI)	2 × platinum	1,000,000
Finland (IFPI)	gold	46,830
France (SNEP)	diamond	1,000,000
Italy (FIMI)	3 × platinum	150,000
Japan (RIAJ)	3 × platinum	600,000
Canada (MC)	diamond	1,000,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	2 × gold	200,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	7 × platinum	105,000
Netherlands (NVPI)	platinum	100,000
Austria (IFPI)	platinum	50,000
Poland (ZPAV)	platinum	100,000
Portugal (AFP)	gold	7,500
Sweden (IFPI)	2 × platinum	200,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	platinum	50,000
Spain (Promusicae)	platinum	100,000
United States (RIAA)	diamond	10,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	6 × platinum	1,800,000
All in all	4 × gold 45 × platinum 3 × diamond	17,479,330

Main article: Nirvana / Music Sales Awards

Audio contributions

• 30 years of “Nevermind” by Nirvana , audio version , Klaus Walter in conversation with Andreas Müller , Deutschlandfunk Kultur Tonart January 13, 2021

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Web links

• Review of the album in Rolling Stone
• National Recording Registry (USA)

sources

1. ↑ billboard.com: 30 million sales worldwide
2. ↑ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Nirvana, 'Nevermind'. Rolling Stone, May 24, 2012, accessed April 16, 2014 . 
3. ^ Nardwuar vs. Nirvana - a Nardwuar interview from January 5, 1994;
4. ^ Nirvana: 10 years after Nevermind ( Memento of October 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) - Rolling Stone article
5. ^ Nirvana Baby Resurfaces - Rolling Stone .
6. ↑ Tom Tapp: Man Who Was Baby On Nirvana's Iconic 'Nevermind' Album Cover Sues Band, Claiming “Exploitation” . In: deadline.com from August 24, 2021.
7. ↑ https://losangeles.cbslocal.com
8. ↑ Nirvana sued by the baby from Nevermind's album cover . In: BBC News . August 25, 2021 ( bbc.com [accessed August 26, 2021]).
9. ↑ see also spiegel.de August 28, 2021: Why is the man who was the Nirvana baby complaining now of all times?
10. ↑ http://www.musik-sammler.de/media/452298
11. ↑ Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine on Allmusic (accessed November 25, 2019)
12. ↑ Review by Ira Robbins on Rolling Stone (accessed November 25, 2019)
13. ^ Review by Jon Dolan, in: Spin 08/2006, p. 78.
14. ↑ Review by Steve Lamacq on New Musical Express (archived) (accessed November 25, 2019)
15. ↑ Review by Michael Weilacher, in: Musikexpress 11/1991, edition 430, p. 102.
16. ↑ Review by Dominik Kraus on Laut.de (accessed November 25, 2019)
17. ↑ 500 Greatest Albums List (2003) on Rolling Stone (accessed August 13, 2021)
18. ↑ The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time on Rolling Stone (accessed August 13, 2021)
19. ↑ 100 Best Albums of the '90s on Rolling Stone (accessed November 25, 2019)
20. ↑ 50 Greatest Grunge Albums on Rolling Stone (accessed August 13, 2021)
21. ↑ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time on Rolling Stone (accessed November 25, 2019)
22. ↑ 50 Best Songs of the Nineties on Rolling Stone (accessed November 25, 2019)
23. ↑ The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time on New Musical Express (accessed November 25, 2019)
24. ↑ Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' tops NME's list of 500 greatest songs of all time on New Musical Express (accessed November 25, 2019)
25. ↑ Top 100 Albums of the 1990s on Pitchfork (accessed November 25, 2019)
26. ↑ The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s on Pitchfork (accessed November 25, 2019)
27. ↑ All-TIME 100 Albums on Time (accessed November 25, 2019)
28. ↑ All-TIME 100 songs on Time (accessed November 25, 2019)
29. ↑ The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014) on Spin (accessed November 26, 2019)
30. ↑ The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s, in: Spin 09/1999, pp. 114/115.
31. ↑ The 700 best songs of all time on Musikexpress (accessed November 25, 2019)
32. ↑ The best albums of the 90s on Laut.de (accessed November 26, 2019)
33. ↑ Complete National Recording Registry Listing on Library of Congress (accessed November 25, 2019)
34. ^ GRAMMY Hall of Fame
35. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
36. ↑ officialcharts.de: Chart tracking Nevermind
37. ↑ international chart tracking Nevermind
38. ↑ DE: Annual charts # 7
39. ↑ musicline.de: Re-publication 2005: # 91 ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
40. ↑ Deluxe Edition 2011: # 8 ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
41. ↑ musicline.de: Chart tracking Smells Like Teen Spirit ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
42. ↑ riaa.com: Smells Like Teen Spirit - Platinum
43. ↑ musicline.de: Singleinskopplungen ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
44. ↑ billboard.com: 30 million sales worldwide
45. ↑ ifpi: DE: 2x platinum
46. ↑ riaa: US: diamond
47. ↑ musikindustrie.de: gold / platinum database
48. ↑ ifpi.at: gold platinum
49. ↑ swisscharts.com: Awards
50. ↑ riaa.com: RIAA database
51. ↑ bpi.co.uk: Certified Award Search (English)