Nirvana

Following through on the throat-scorching threats of first-generation punks and the pioneering indie rock of admitted influences like the Pixies and Melvins, Nirvana's Nevermind changed everything the second it hit store shelves. Who didn't get chills the first time they heard the mosh pit-inciting "here we are now, entertain us" chorus of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or the self-fulfilling prophecy of "Come As You Are," a black-hearted pop song with overcast chords and the "test me — I dare you" declaration "I swear that I don't have a gun"?

How strong is Nevermind? So strong that we included five more of its Beatles-by-way-of-Black Flag nuggets in our Next Steps.

Much has been made of the self-loathing that plagued (and ultimately caused the demise of) Kurt Cobain. Not because music critics wanted to mythologize the Nirvana singer; Cobain did that on his own with or without realizing it, starting with the trio's Sub Pop debut (the stoned weirdo character of "Negative Creep"; the tortured, lovesick track "About a Girl") and subsequent exorcisms like "Territorial P*****gs," "Stay Away," and the acoustic-but-angular Meat Puppets cover "Lake of Fire," one of many haunting selections on the accidental eulogy album MTV Unplugged in New York: Nirvana.

Our Deep Cuts don't stop there, though; they dig and drill until demos, outtakes, and B-sides start popping up right alongside records from throughout Nirvana's all-too-brief tenure at the top of the alternative rock heap.

"What would the music industry be like if Nirvana were still around?" It's a question many have asked since Kurt Cobain succumbed to the pressures of pop stardom on April 5, 1994 — the Day Alternative Rock Died. The reason for the recurring question? The trio's Top 40 takeover, a catchy but caustic wave of squealing and screeching (epitomized in the feedback-smothered irony of "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter") that pulled the plug on the flat-lining glam-metal and new wave scenes of the '80s. With Cobain long gone and a pile of subversive pop records (the broad riff strokes of "Love Buzz," the pointed poltergeist trails of a "Smells Like Teen Spirit" demo) left in his wake, we want to know HOW NIRVANA DID IT — how they got through to all of us. Listen and learn.

The runaway success of Nevermind — Nirvana's second full-length album and definitive footprint in the history of rock 'n' roll — didn't just make the band the Next Big Thing of the growing grunge/alternative rock scene. Between its fall '91 release and Kurt Cobain's suicide three-and-a-half years later, it also helped immortalize the iconic singer and his smash-and-bash sidemen (bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer/future Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl) as countercultural demigods — uncompromising proof that the underground can come up for air and blow us all away when the time is right and everyone's ready for an industry-rattling change. Taken in full, with Nirvana's impressive back catalog (the stark, powerful minimalism of MTV Unplugged in New York: Nirvana, the low-budget lacerations of Bleach), it also proves that a pop song doesn't have to be sweet or smooth to capture the undying devotion of millions.