Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the Zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana's second album turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream. This wasn't entirely an accident, either, since Nirvana did sign with a major label, and they did release a record with a shiny surface, no matter how humongous the guitars sounded…
In retrospect, Nevermind may seem a little too unassuming for its mythic status – it's simply a great modern punk record – but even though it may no longer seem life-changing, it is certainly life-affirming, which may just be better.
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records. Frontman Kurt Cobain sought to make music outside the restrictive confines of the Seattle grunge scene, drawing influence from groups such as the Pixies and their use of song volume dynamics.
In September 2011, in honor of the album's 20th anniversary, Universal Music Enterprises released a 4-CD Super Deluxe Edition of Nevermind. Super Deluxe Edition features not only the original remastered album and accompanying studio and live B-sides, but the first full official release of the pre-Nevermind demos recorded at producer Butch Vig's Smart Studios, as well as boombox recordings of subsequent rehearsals through which the listener can actually experience "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "On A Plain" and others that take shape before his or her very ears. The Super Deluxe also offers an altogether new perspective on the finished Nevermind album exclusive to this format in the form of the Devonshire Mixes: the album as produced and mixed by Vig as opposed to the commercially released final version produced by Vig and mixed by Andy Wallace. Rounding out the Super Deluxe are a pair of previously unreleased BBC recordings and the aforementioned 1991 Paramount show available for the first time and exclusive to this format on CD.