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During 1991, the year before Nirvana's Nevermind topped the US charts on its way to selling over 10 million copies, the only rock acts to reach number one were Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Metallica and Van Halen.

In the two years that followed Nevermind, there were not only number one albums for Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice In Chains, but even Mudhoney, The Melvins, Tad and The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly were signed to major labels.

Without Nevermind clearing the way, these bands and their punk overtones would never have been allowed anywhere near the mainstream. The hit-packed Nevermind may have been an unlikely trojan horse by which punk entered the nineties mainstream, but then again it was an album full of contradictions.

"It's about, hey brother, especially sister, throw away the fruit and eat all the rind." Kurt Cobain on Smells Like Teen Spirit

As we'll see, Kurt Cobain was at best ambivalent about the album – or what it represented. It also caused some tensions in the band's relationship with their audience. Irrespective of how its principle author felt, Nevermind proved to have a seismic effect on nineties music.

Cobain's beloved Pixies, with their canny pop songwriting and quiet/loud dynamics, certainly influenced Nirvana's sound on Nevermind, yet the Pixies never truly broke beyond a cult concern. Nevermind, meanwhile, changed a lot: it changed how people dressed, what bands got signed, how people played guitar. It also changed the landscape of rock 'n' roll forever...

Sound City

Recording their major label debut saw Nirvana entering the hitherto unimaginable world of mainstream rock stardom. The setting was Sound City studios in Van Nuys, California, in May-June 1991, its walls resplendent with platinum discs from bands like Cheap Trick and Fleetwood Mac, who had recorded Rumours there.

Producer Butch Vig had been selected to man the desk, having established a rapport with the band after working on earlier recordings at his own Smart Studios over a year before in April 1990, for what was meant at the time to be the band's second album for Sub Pop, then tentatively titled Sheep.

Nirvana's debut Bleach had managed to shift around 50,000 copies off the back of heavy touring; the building buzz around the band had attracted the attention of several major labels. Geffen won (Sonic Youth's presence on the label was a key factor) and the band hammered out a deal that eschewed a huge advance in favour of a higher royalty rate.

Kurt Cobain crowdsurfing mid-show at the Motor Sports International Garage in Seattle, September 1990 (© Charles Peterson/Retna Ltd/Corbis)

Throughout the six – originally budgeted to be three – weeks of sessions, the band (now settled on the definitive line up of bassist Krist Novoselic and recent recruit Dave Grohl on drums) were lodged at a local apartment complex.

Butch Vig recalls: "A couple of times I went to pick them up and they had definitely turned their place into a bachelor pad. There were cans of food lying open everywhere, clothes thrown all over the place and acoustic guitars lying around the room. I know they were getting a big kick out of staying there because the band Europe was staying next to them.

"The guys in Europe would all go sit out with their girlfriends by the pool everyday. And I remember Krist and Dave and Kurt making fun of them. They were not big Europe fans."

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