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Between the Grooves of Nirvana's 'Nevermind'

Our writers undertake a track-by-track analysis of the most celebrated album of the 1990s: Nirvana's Nevermind. From the surprise hit that brought grunge to the masses, to the hidden cacophonous noise-fest that may not even be on your copy of the record, it's all here.

                                      
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PopMatters is moving to WordPress. We will publish a few essays daily while we develop the new site. We hope the beta will be up sometime late next week.

Our writers undertake a track-by-track analysis of the most celebrated album of the 1990s: Nirvana's Nevermind. From the surprise hit that brought grunge to the masses, to the hidden cacophonous noise-fest that may not even be on your copy of the record, it's all here.

Musically 1991 will forever be remembered as the year alternative rock conquered the masses. We explore how alternative became the dominant form of rock music in the 1990s.

Our Counterbalance team takes on the "Greatest Albums of All Time". This time it's Nirvana's Nevermind. Dust off your flannel shirt... it's going to be a grungy good time!

Recorded in late 1993 and achieving notoriety as leader Kurt Cobain's epitaph, Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York is back for a 25th anniversary reissue. Are the new rehearsal tracks enough to justify buying the album again?

The Beatles' White Album has been credited with a lot of things over its 50-year history, but how about as the single biggest influence on US alternative rock as it burst into the mainstream in the late '80s and early '90s? Well, it's not as crazy as you might think.

Here's 10 albums that never happened but are still discussed among fans and often recreated in some shape or form by the original artists, inspired musicians, or just hungry fans.

Patty Schemel's Hit So Hard is one of the most honest -- but moreover, one of the most useful -- addiction memoirs in recent history. Courtney Love should read.

Twenty-five years on, the populace gets a renewed look at Soundgarden’s contribution to the year punk broke with a fully loaded reissue of their career-changing Badmotorfinger.

Nevermind, while containing most of the hits for which Nirvana is celebrated is, of the four primary releases, the least emotionally and aesthetically complex.

The fifth and final part of our examination of the 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s, includes Portishead, Blur, Björk, R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and more.

Nick Soulsby’s interview book for completists is not meant to entertain -- it's a 500-page death march.

Persona -- the “I” of the song -- has evolved, broadened, and expanded to more fully represent a diversity of experiences as well as emotional, political, and cultural orientations.

Sturgill Simpson successfully covers Nirvana by lowering the intensity, which somehow deepens the impact.

Just imagine songs this extreme making the American Top 40, let alone the Top 10… unthinkable.

Nick Soulsby tries to crack the case of Nirvana, the watershed band that very few saw coming.

Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films, called the production “the most unusual biopicture I’ve been involved in”.

Cobain’s witty self-awareness is one of many new and heartrending sides of him brought to light in Brett Morgen’s new HBO documentary, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.

Right from the start, Nirvana had numerous musicians backing their cause.

The successors to Radiohead and The Bends are a generation who liked how the film started, but lost the script halfway through.

Twenty years since the world learned of Kurt Cobain's death, what impact does he have on rock music today?

“Rape Me” was intended as a razor-sharp anti-rape anthem, an emblem of the feminist messages Kurt began channeling during the last two years of his life. That's not how it was taken.

There are times when you hear Kurt Cobain sing that you believe no other voice has ever told the truth about suffering. But it's more complicated than that, isn't it?

I gazed a gazeless stare. We walked a million hills. As the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death approaches, Counterbalance takes a look at Nirvana's landmark acoustic performance.

As promised, this morning the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally announced its 2014 inductees.

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Self-appointed judges judge more than they have sold. They agree though, that Nirvana's 1993 swan song is the 126th most acclaimed album of all time. All in all is all we are.

Four days, six stories, one column, dozens of tweets and nearly 10,000 words later, I'm still wondering how we define success at SXSW.

As the featured speaker of this year's music festival, the Nirvana drummer, Foo Fighters lead singer reflects on what it took to get where he is today.

On Wednesday, the former Beatle teamed up with the surviving members of Nirvana for charity and debuted a heavy Zeppelin-esque jam live on stage. Kurt Cobain would have been jealous.

It’s Fine By Me may appear to be a slim book, lacking a flashy storyline or extraordinary characters. But this is precisely what makes the novel so special.

The genre once tied to college radio and indie record companies became mainstream in the '90s. Some of those icons of “alternative” are making comebacks – or never went away. Is this 2012 or 1996?

For the longest time, I’d auto-choose Nirvana's In Utero over its catchier predecessor Nevermind. It’s not embarrassing I chose In Utero for so long. But what is embarrassing is how I reached that conclusion.

Gen X’ers may still want their MTV, but the version they loved is as distant a memory as Valley Girl speak, parachute pants, and leg warmers. Wake up and smell the VEVO.

Not every band borne out of a great predecessor can measure up. Here are five that do.