September 24th 1991. The day music changed as we know it, when the Aberdeen, Washington trio Nirvana released their critically acclaimed album Nevermind. In '91 I was two years and into Sesame Street, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Terminator. While Nirvana's music had little effect on me at this age, my earliest recollection of hearing them was at the age of four on our local alternative rock station called the Nerve (This station is now long gone has since become a classic rock station). And any knowledge of the Nirvana had been from their singles "Smells Like Teen Spirit", 'Come As You Are", "Lithium", "In Bloom", "Heart-Shaped Box", "All Apologies" and "Rape Me". But what those road trips with my parents to the store, and hearing those songs played on the radio had were one that began to cultivate my knowledge of music later on in life.
While Nevermind has had more of an effect on me later in my life, for those who were in their teenage years and early twenties in September of ’91 this is an album that means a whole lot more to them. Kurt Cobain's lyrics (and smells like teen spirit in general) gave these kids and young adults a voice. It showed that generation x was a demographic that had long been overlooked and ignored by the baby boomer generation. Nevermind managed to transform punk rock into a mainstream commodity for the 90's MTV generation - and soon after bands like Bush and STP following in Nirvana's footsteps and further pushing the grunge rock sound.
But I digress to be completely honest here the first time that I actually picked up Nevermind wasn't until I was a freshmen in high school I was about fourteen or fifteen years old and felt like I didn't belong to any particular group in high school. For me Nevermind was my escape, I only had a few friends freshmen year and was really shy and awkward around girls but lets be honest who isn't at fourteen and fifteen. Nevermind showed me that it was ok to be different, in essence it's what caused me to grow my hair out during my high school years, which when there aren't a lot of guys in your high school with long hair people start seeing you as interesting.
The effects that Nevermind had on my freshmen caused me to rebel in my own way yet at the same time allow me to open up more to people. It wasn't until this past year (roughly seven years) that I would pick up Nevermind again. This time around I paid more attention to how each song was performed and who Cobain was trying to sound like. When Cobain wrote Nevermind one of the more obvious influences is the Pixies, Cobain's vocal delivery is similar to Black Francis' even the way the plays has a Pixies feel to it. Other influences that are less noticeable are Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and to some extent even Dinosaur Jr. But the effects that Nevermind has had on music, as a whole has been huge. When you look at Weezer's early records Weezer (1994) and Pinkerton (1996) you hear how great of an impact Nevermind had on Rivers Cuomo, to bands like Pavement, Cap'n Jazz even to some extent Titus Andronicus. For an album that honestly didn't have hopes of making it, it most certainly has and while Cobain's death in 94 marked the end for Nirvana, the bands legacy and the impact that Cobain has made within popular culture is one that continues to live on.
The songs on Nevermind express the feelings of young man who honestly felt as though he didn’t belong with the rest of the world, even at times predicting that the impact that this record was going to have on music as a whole. This being clearly stated in Smells like Teen Spirit “I’m worse at what I do best /and for this gift I feel blessed/our little group has always been/and always will until the end” It seems as though Cobain had a premonition of the success that would come from this album and is possibly warning their fan base of his future demise. By the time you get to ambiguous lyrics of “Something in The Way” you’re left wondering what is Cobain singing about here? Is he describing how bands sell out and become pawns to record labels that destroy artistical merit and only care about profits? Or is Cobain indicating his internal demons are preventing him from achieving the happiness he craves. These answers however will forever remain a mystery; the deep meaning behind Kurt Cobain’s lyrics will forever be left up to the interpretation of his followers. As Nevermind’s 20th Anniversary comes and goes the only thing that remains is the impact that this album had on changing music, and the effects that instant fame had on an individual who didn’t want anything to do with it.
