Maps of Music

Nevermind (1991)

Where the lyrics of Nevermind take you, and where it was really made.

The album cost only $65,000 to record, yet it sold more than 30 million copies, and its underwater baby cover is now among the most famous in popular music.

Key places

Where Nevermind was recorded (1991)

Recording site Sound City Studios — Nirvana recorded Nevermind at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in May and June 1991. The sessions were made on a budget of $65,000. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Nevermind: second studio album by American rock band Nirvana
• Released September 24, 1991 on DGC Records
• Produced by Butch Vig; a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's earlier work
• First Nirvana album to feature drummer Dave Grohl
• Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain
• Themes: social alienation and frustration, anti-establishment and feminist views, relationship issues
• Rooted in grunge and alternative rock, with acoustic ballads and punk-inspired hard rock

Background

• Planning began in early 1990 for Sub Pop, under the tentative title Sheep
• Butch Vig was chosen as producer on the suggestion of Sub Pop head Bruce Pavitt
• The band particularly liked Vig's work with Killdozer
• Recordings made at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in April 1990: eight songs, some later rerecorded for the album
• Drummer Chad Channing left after the tour; Grohl joined after the hardcore band Scream disbanded
• Sub Pop was having financial problems, so the band looked for a major label
• Nirvana signed with Geffen imprint DGC Records on recommendations from Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and their management company

Recording

• Recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in May and June 1991
• Budget of $65,000
• Vig's initial mixes were rejected; Andy Wallace was brought in to oversee the mixing
• Mastered by Howie Weinberg on August 2 at the Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California

Cover

• A naked baby swims underwater with a U.S. dollar bill on a fishhook just out of reach
• Photographed by Kirk Weddle; the baby was four-month-old Spencer Elden
• Geffen prepared an alternate cover without the infant's penis, but kept the original image in the end
• The cover has since been recognized as one of the most famous album covers in popular music

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Nirvana is an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987.
• Founded by Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar) and Krist Novoselic (bass).
• Went through several drummers, including Chad Channing, before Dave Grohl joined in 1990.

Members

• Kurt Cobain: lead vocals and guitar, principal songwriter.
• Krist Novoselic: bass.
• Dave Grohl: drums, joined in 1990.

Career

• Part of the Seattle grunge scene; debut album Bleach released on Sub Pop in 1989.
• Signed to DGC Records in 1990; Nevermind (1991) became a cultural phenomenon, credited with ending hair metal's popularity.
• In Utero (1993) topped the US and UK album charts.
• Cobain died in April 1994; the band disbanded that year.
• MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammys.
• One of the best-selling music artists of all time; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Early reviews were few, and many publications ignored the album
• Karen Schoemer of The New York Times praised it as more sophisticated and carefully produced than peer bands Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney
• Entertainment Weekly gave an A− rating; reviewer David Browne
• Spin gave a favorable review
• Select compared the band to Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, and Pixies
• Rolling Stone gave three out of five stars; reviewer Ira Robbins
• The Boston Globe, reviewer Steve Morse, was negative and called much of the album generic punk-pop
• Voted best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll
• Ranked number one on NME's Best Fifty LPs of 1991 in the United Kingdom

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums: number 17 in 2003, number 6 in the 2020 and 2023 revisions
• Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of the '90s: number one in 2019
• Time's The All-TIME 100 Albums list in 2006
• Added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2004
• Voted Most Overrated Album in the World in a 2005 BBC public poll
• Entertainment Weekly placed it 10th on its 2013 all-time list

Records

• Topped the Billboard 200 in January 1992
• RIAA certified gold and platinum in November 1991, Diamond in March 1999
• Canada: Diamond in March 2001 (1,000,000 units)
• United Kingdom: 9× platinum
• More than 30 million copies sold worldwide
• Three Grammy nominations, including Best Alternative Music Album
• 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Cobain called Weinberg and demanded he rectify the mistake after the hidden track 'Endless, Nameless' was accidentally left off the first pressings.
• The tentative title Sheep was an inside joke aimed at the people expected to buy the album.
• The back cover shows a rubber monkey in front of a collage that includes raw beef from a supermarket advertisement.
• A year later, 'Weird Al' Yankovic parodied the cover for his album Off the Deep End, replacing the baby with himself and the dollar with a donut.
• In August 2021, Spencer Elden filed a lawsuit against Weddle, Cobain's estate, Grohl, and Novoselic over the use of his likeness on the cover.
• Cobain's guitar setup included a 1969 Mustang, which he cited as his favorite due to its design flaws.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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