Feedback, Flannel & the Sound of a Generation Waking Up

Arguably the most important rock album of the 1990s, Nevermind arrived like a wrecking ball and flattened everything in its path — knocking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous off the top of the Billboard Hot 200 and instantly establishing Kurt Cobain as one of rock’s most distinctive and genuinely original voices. The genius of the album lay in its contradictions: warped pop songs delivered with the belligerence of punk and the cranked-up power chords of metal, lyrics that were teasing, contradictory, and deeply unsettling, wrapped in melodies so irresistible you couldn’t help but sing along.

The anthemic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” opened with a killer riff and alternated subdued verses with howling choruses that felt like the release of a decade’s worth of frustration. “Come As You Are” featured another unforgettable hook, “Polly” was a dark acoustic-led tale of genuine menace, and “Territorial Pissings” was pure, riotous, helter-skelter chaos driven by Dave Grohl’s powerhouse drumming. Cobain later lamented the album’s slick production, but the power and subtlety of the songwriting beneath it inspired an entire generation of musicians and changed rock music forever.

Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)