the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D4
music
thursday,september 29, 2011
achieving nirvana a reflection on two decades of nevermind This past Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, an album that I’ve been told has changed the world. A fittingly over-the-top, four-disc superdeluxe edition of Nevermind was released on Sept 27, and there have been plenty of other tributes to honour the occasion, including a concert at Hamilton’s Casbah on Sept. 25 that featured numerous local acts performing Nirvana covers. After hearing so much about Nirvana recently I finally decided to give Nevermind a try. I had heard most of the album’s first half countless times on the radio, but until about two weeks ago I had never actually listened to the entire thing. The usual response of my friends has been “Well, what did you used to listen to, then?” It’s crazy that one band has become such a fixture in pop culture that it’s considered strange to grow up without their music. My first introduction to Nirvana was hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a mix CD given to me by a friend in grade seven. At the time, I thought is sounded too dark, too intense and too angry, so I chose to stick with my classic rock. I wondered why people loved Nevermind back then, but eight years later I think I’m finally hearing what everybody else is. When the album initially came out in 1991, it was drastically different from the pop of New Kids on the Block and the hair metal of Guns N’ Roses that ruled mainstream at the time. Instead of becoming rock stars, Nirvana seemed to aim for something more grounded, more relatable. Though they didn’t invent grunge, they made people care about it. Nevermind has been able to appeal to so many different types of people because of how much the band was able to do with their music. They appeal to the angsty high-schooler with the power-
ful sound of grunge, to the parent that grew up loving the Beatles with Cobain’s gift for writing melodies and even to the university student with the cerebral-yetslacker attitude of 90’s college rock. Nearly everybody has a favorite Nirvana song and nearly everybody enjoys talking about it, so I think that part of the enjoyment comes from the shared experience of listening to the band. At the centre of what allows people to connect so deeply with the band is Kurt Cobain. Even when you can’t always make out what he’s saying, you can somehow tell that it’s important. And when you can make out his lyrics, which are sometimes sarcastic and sometimes sincere, you’ll find that they’re always striking. I’m also convinced that the drums play an important part in what makes Nirvana’s music so powerful. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so much of today’s Top 40 is dance music; there is something immediately appealing and powerful about a strong rhythm. The drumming on Nevermind is enormous and adds to the brutal intensity of the songs. When I first listened to Nevermind, I was fully conscious of all the expectations placed upon it. It would be impossible for the album to live up to its life-changing reputation, but it was never meant to. In About a Son, a documentary about Cobain’s life compiled from interviews, he expresses frustration at the pressure for him to create a musical revolution when all he cared about was creating good music. That’s what Nevermind is. So if you still haven’t heard it, I think you might like it. • Nolan Matthews & Joshua Wiener