The Year The 90's Got It's Personality

The last great revolution in music occurred two decades ago when Nirvana catapulted onto the scene with their landmark 30 million selling sophomore album ‘Nevermind'. 1991, the year of it's release would be seen as the turning point when Generation X usurped the youth culture from the Baby Boomer's.

 Nirvana had it's roots steeped in the underground Seattle music scene of the late 80’s and released their debut album 'Bleach' in 1989 to little fanfare. Things were to changed forever in 1991 when the band released the anthemic  'Smells Like Teen Spirit', accompanied by it's famous music video which would immortalised not only them, but also a music genre, a new genre dubbed 'grunge'.  Alternative culture entered mainstream conciousness when Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson off the the Billboard No.1 album position in January 1992. It was seen as the crowning moment of rock defeating pop in the 1990's. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ ninth in its list of greatest songs of all time, describing it’s impact as ‘A shock-wave of big-amp purity, [it] wiped the lingering jive of the 80’s almost overnight.’ Its impact on the social climate at the time cannot be overstated.

I recently posted that Rolling Stone quote on Facebook and found myself getting several negative comments. One such comment went: ‘Metallica were paving the way well before Nirvana of deleting the jive decade of bass less music… Nirvana just preyed on tone deaf people.’ Another wrote: ‘One word: Overplayed. Corrupt corporate marketing journal Rolling Stone also gave Nevermind an incredibly shitty review when it was released and now praise Cobain like he is the second coming of Christ.’

In the 20 years since Nevermind's release, grunge has fallen out of favour and some have forgotten why Nirvana were culturally significant, above and beyond their considerable sales and critical acclaim.

The baby boomer's dominated youth culture during the 60’s and 70’s but the middle ground is in the 80's where the two generations collide. Several events beginning as early as the seventies contributed to a new generations uprising. Punk music’s arrival was a defining moment in the Gen X timeline. Punk sort to destroy the ideals of 70's purified rock perfection with a stripping-it-back-to-basics approach. MTV gave rise to music video and debuted in 1982. Teen comedies were popularised by the film Animal House (1978) and they littered the cinema landscape in the eighties (not to mention the birth of many gratuitous sequels). Burgeoning in the mid 80’s as a rejection of the commercialism that dominated that decade was the genre of alternative rock. Although alternative rock's commercial success was limited (save for a pocketful of bands such as R.E.M), by the early 90’s it 's presence was felt in a major way in the sub-genre Grunge. The hysteria surrounding the movement impacted society in ways that are still felt to this day.  Never before has a generation so emphatically announced themselves.

It's important to remember that Nirvana didn’t invent grunge. The Seattle sound (as it was known in the late 80’s) was an established, albeit little known, genre. Nirvana were just one of a multitude of  bands that were part of that music scene. They did however, have an ace up their sleeve: an anthem for the masses. A song that transcended the proverbial alternative/mainstream line in the sand. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain wouldn’t have liked to admit it, but the reason for their success – and the whole genre of grunge itself – rested on the shoulders of that one song, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

It was 1991 that was the year the 90’s got its personality; and this is true of both music and cinema. World culture changed as a new order took over. Cult director Quentin Tarantino (labelled by movie critics 'Siskel & Ebert to be the first rock star movie director) and production company Miramax revolutionised the art of low budget indie films. There were great leaps forward in special effects  in films such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Mask, Death Becomes Her etc. A new era had dawned.

As ‘corporate’ as Rolling Stone Magazine may be, their 3 stars out of 5 rating of Nevermind upon first release isn’t all that bad considering Nirvana were treading over familiar musical territory. Metallica were anti-eighties pop music to be sure, but rather than overthrow the establishment, they merely co-existed with the music scene of the time. Nirvana’s legacy is how they changed the musical landscape forever and gave voice to a new generation.