Nevermind

By tych0_21 | Digital Restorations | 11 Feb 2021

'Nevermind' is the name of the second studio album released by Nirvana on September 24, 1991. The album was released by the American records label DCG Records to immediate critical and commercial success that resulted in well over 250,000 records being sold each week by January of the following year. Some of the band's most recognized and popular songs, such as Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come as You Are, Lithium, and In Bloom, are included among the 13 tracks that make up the album.

Enjoying significant airtime on MTV, the band is widely credited for shifting the paradigm in American rock away from the hair bands of the 80s towards the more discordant and heavy-handed tones of 90s grunge and punk rock artists. Despite the album's early acclaim, may major retails such as Walmart and Kmart refused to carry copies in their stores well into the hay-days of the album's success in the early months of 1992. Their hesitancy stemmed from the albums cover art: an image of a naked baby boy swimming in a pool as he swims after a U.S. dollar bill being towed along by a fishing hook on a line.

According to Dave Grohl, who was the band's drummer at the time, inspiration for the album art came from a television program on water births that he and lead singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain watched one evening in their apartment. In tune with the defiant and unrelentingly creative character for which he is now remembered, Cobain was said to have vehemently fought any and all requests from retailers to provide alternative cover artwork for the work, ultimately only conceding to allow stores to physically cover the baby's genitals with a sticker that read: "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile." Though the cover art for Nevermind is now considered to be among of the most famous and recognizable album covers of all time, it is not uncommon for retailers to continue this same practice, with different stickers that is.