Nirvana's 'Nevermind' brought punk (and grunge) to the mainstream

Nirvana's 'Nevermind' brought punk to the mainstream

The Seattle band’s second record, its first on a major label, went to number one four months after it was released in 1991. At one point, it was selling 300,000 copies a week. The band’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain, believed in punk’s countercultural aims and felt deeply conflicted about success.

How 'Nevermind' realigned the music industry

Nirvana's breakout album inspired other major labels to hunt for similarly loud, countercultural bands. That led to a fascinating period in popular music that found defiantly anticommercial indie acts like the Melvins, the Butthole Surfers, and Ween (among many, many others) suddenly offered lucrative contracts.

The news feature that broke grunge

The Sub Pop label paid for journalist Everett True, then writing for Melody Maker, to fly to the sleepy northwestern city to check out the scene, which was breeding a curious mix of punk rock and heavy metal. The gambit worked. "The most vibrant, kicking music scene encompassed in one city for at least 10 years," Everett wrote.

Why Neil Young is sometimes called 'the godfather of grunge'

The legendary singer-songwriter's work with his band Crazy Horse, especially "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Ragged Glory," married infectious melodies with overpowering guitars, a formula that many grunge acts would replicate. Young would go on to perform with Pearl Jam (like in the performance of "Rockin' in the Free World" below) and record the 1995 album "Mirror Ball" with them.

The story behind Nirvana's expulsion from their own record release party

The band wasn't interested in schmoozing with the industry types who occupied the "Nevermind" release event at Seattle's Re-bar. So, the band snuck in their own whiskey and started a food fight in the venue before being tossed by security.

According to Kurt Cobain, Wipers invented grunge

Wipers began in Portland, Oregon in 1977, playing a form of punk rock that sounded darker and heavier than their contemporaries in New York, California, and England. The band remained an underground secret for years, influencing countless artists, including Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. "What more can I say about them?" he said in an interview. "They started Seattle grunge rock in Portland, 1977."

'Grunge' was initially used as an insult

The first known use of "grunge" to describe music is believed to be by Mark Arm, a Seattle scenester, who mocked his own band by writing, "Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!" By 1987, it'd caught on as a more earnest descriptor for a sludgy mix of punk and metal: Sub Pop Records cofounder Bruce Pavitt described the band Green River as "ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation."

The best grunge albums of the 1990s

The best way to understand the music is to immerse yourself in it. This list compiles the definitive albums from the subgenre's peak period, featuring records from the big names associated with the scene (such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden) alongside less obvious picks that released grunge-adjacent classics (including Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, and PJ Harvey).

The Marc Jacobs grunge fashion collection

After Nirvana's breakthrough, the grunge aesthetic became a marketable commodity. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs created a collection for Perry Ellis that featured grunge fashion, incorporating thrift store clothing typically worn by grunge bands onto the runway, accompanied by the music of Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Jacobs sent samples of the collection to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, but the couple burned them. "We were punkers," Love said in 2010, "we didn't like that kind of thing."

How Kurt Cobain was influenced by the Beats

Fresh off the success of Nirvana's "Nevermind," band frontman Kurt Cobain reached out to his literary idol, the Beat writer William S. Burroughs, suggesting a collaboration. The correspondence led to "The 'Priest' They Called Him," a hard-to-find recording featuring Burroughs reading a story and Cobain on dissonant guitar.

The movie soundtrack that helped mainstream grunge

Cameron Crowe's 1992 film "Singles" coincided with the mainstream grunge explosion. The romantic comedy takes place in Seattle's music scene, making it a perfect Hollywood product for the time. It also featured cameos from some of the scene's stars, including Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.

The Velvet Underground is often considered a starting point for punk rock

The band blended Warhol’s Pop Art with Beat poetry, early rock ‘n’ roll and the European avant-garde, creating a sound that was often chaotic, noisy and abrasive. The band’s debut album, “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” sold poorly, but (supposedly) everyone who purchased a copy started a band.

Explore key locations in Kurt Cobain's life with this interactive map

The "Grungeology" project maps out key moments, influences, and impacts of Cobain's life in and around Grays Harbor County. Click through the map's many historical spots and learn how Nirvana's band leader navigated his hometown as his fame and music grew.

​Why heroin became associated with the grunge world

The drug was popular with several Seattle acts in the early 1990s, with artists like Hole's Courtney Love even publicizing her use in a magazine profile. A 1992 New York Times story on Seattle said the city's principal drugs were "espresso, beer, and heroin."

Bad Brains sped up punk, creating hardcore

Punk was already fast, but Washington’s Bad Brains pushed the tempo even further, creating music that would come to be known as hardcore, influencing acts like Minor Threat, Nirvana, and countless others. The band was hardly one-dimensional. Their self-titled debut bounced between blistering hardcore and slow-burning reggae about Rastafarianism.

Kurt Cobain's cardigan is the most expensive sweater ever sold at auction

Cobain wore the green button-up during Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" performance. It hasn't been washed since then and has several stains as well as a cigarette burn. It sold for $334K in 2019. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

How Kurt Cobain's suicide changed the media

Public health experts feared that the suicide of a high-profile figure, especially for young people, would lead to a rise in suicides across the country. The opposite turned out to be true: Suicide rates decreased. Specialists suggest that's due to the way Cobain's death was covered, with news organizations largely avoiding glorification and including crisis hotline information.

Why one country legend embraced punk rock

Dwight Yoakam was among the most popular country music acts of the 1980s, praised for his upbeat rockabilly and neo-Bakersfield sound. In this interview, Yoakam explains why he left the Midwest for California and began playing in punk clubs, including with an iteration of the legendary LA punk outfit X.

'Purple Rain' was a massive hit, in theaters and on radio

The semi-autobiographical film featured a first-time director and an amateur cast, yet it became a box-office hit, grossing over $70M. Likewise, the accompanying album was a huge success, with four songs reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was a watershed moment for Prince, who became a bona fide pop superstar.

The Ramones' debut album went gold 38 years after it was released

The 1976 album from the influential New York band featured classic tracks like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Beat on the Brat.” That didn’t translate to sales, though, at least not for many decades: The album didn’t sell more than 500,000 copies (earning gold certification) until 2014.

The '90s riotgrrrl movement brought female-fronted bands to the front

The movement—which pushed back on punk’s misogyny and argued for a countercultural form of third-wave feminism—began in self-published magazines before taking root in bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. The scene’s music and ethos can still be found in contemporary acts like Olivia Rodrigo.

'Nebraska' was a sharp pivot inspired by proto-punk band Suicide

After "Born to Run," Springsteen's songwriting turned darker on subsequent albums "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River," as he began exploring the harsher realities of adulthood and working-class life, but "Nebraska" was his most gothic, featuring haunted songs partially inspired by the abrasive proto-punk duo Suicide.

The Shaggs weren't good musicians, but they still made a classic

In 1969, the three sisters recorded "Philosophy of the World"; only 100 copies were publicly distributed. The record became a cult classic thanks to its strange backstory (their father forced them into playing music) and the band's amateurism. Critic Lester Bangs wrote, "They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock'n'roll's ever been about from day one."

Bob Newhart was the first comedian to have a chart-topping album

In 1960, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” reached the top of the Billboard charts and stayed there for 14 weeks. A few months later, a sequel, “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!,” was released. Both records occupied the top two spots for 30 weeks, a record that stood until 1991, when Guns ‘n’ Roses released their “Use Your Illusion” albums.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

A fun analysis of Radiohead's depressive song 'Creep'

Radiohead is a highly acclaimed English rock band founded in 1985. The band has sold more than 30 million albums, and their nine full-length albums are critically appreciated. This episode of One Song goes deep into the band's very first single and by far most-listened-to hit: "Creep," a slacker anthem filled with self-loathing and anxiety. Learn the details of the hit indie song here.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.