Produced by Butch Vig and released by DGC Records, Nevermind was Nirvana's first album on a major label, and the company shipped only about 46,000 copies to American stores at first. Heavy rotation of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video on MTV changed that. In January 1992, the album displaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous at number one on the Billboard 200. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and its success turned Kurt Cobain into a reluctant spokesman for a generation.
Nirvana had formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 and released a first album, Bleach, on the Seattle label Sub Pop for about $600. In 1990 the drummer Dave Grohl joined Kurt Cobain and the bassist Krist Novoselic, and the band signed with Geffen Records' DGC label. They recorded most of Nevermind in Los Angeles in May and June 1991 with Butch Vig, who layered Cobain's vocals and guitars to give the record a polished sound Cobain later said he found embarrassing.
The title of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came from a phrase a friend spray-painted on Cobain's wall, referring to a deodorant he had not heard of. Nevermind's cover, showing a baby swimming toward a dollar bill on a fishhook, became one of the most recognizable images in rock.
The album's sudden success overwhelmed the band. Sales reached hundreds of thousands a week by Christmas 1991, and record companies rushed to sign other Seattle bands. Cobain struggled with fame and heroin addiction and died by suicide in April 1994. In 2005 the Library of Congress added Nevermind to the National Recording Registry.
Key people: Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, Butch Vig