Few bands have been authentically themselves as Nirvana. And few albums are as authentically grunge as the 1991 legendary album Nevermind. That album is packed full of songs that still endure today, from the megahit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to “Something In The Way” to “Come As You Are”. There’s a reason why so many fans of the band, both casual and diehard, cite Nevermind as their favorite Nirvana album. Another standout song on Nevermind is “In Bloom”. Even someone who isn’t a fan of Nirvana (or grunge music in general) can likely identify it from the chorus alone.
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There’s a pretty interesting story behind this alt-rock song as well. Considering Kurt Cobain’s distaste for mainstream fame, the meaning behind “In Bloom” isn’t exactly surprising, either.
“In Bloom” is the second track on Nevermind and was written entirely by Kurt Cobain. According to bassist Krist Novoselic, the song originally sounded “like a Bad Brains song” before Cobain opted to slow it down and rework it.
The Story Behind “In Bloom” by Nirvana
“[Kurt] went home and he hammered it,” said Novoselic in an interview with Rolling Stone. “He kept working on it. Then he called me on the phone and said, ‘Listen to this song.’ He started singing it on the phone. You could hear the guitar. It was the ‘In Bloom’ of ‘Nevermind’, more of a pop thing.”
Cobain clearly put a lot of work into “In Bloom”. So, what’s the song actually about? According to Michael Azerrad’s 1993 biography of Nirvana, Come As You Are, “In Bloom” started as a song about the “shallow mainstream types” that began to go to Nirvana’s shows in droves. It’s a direct reference to how the band made it big following their debut album Bleach.
According to Azerrad, the song became even more relevant after the release of Nevermind and Nirvana’s breakthrough into mainstream popularity. The irony is that plenty of new fans, many of whom were the kind of people that bullied Cobain tremendously growing up, were singing the catchy lyrics of “In Bloom” without really understanding that the song was about them… and not in a positive way.
Journalist Everett True also posed the notion that the song was likely about the band’s general discomfort with being part of the growing grunge movement.
“I assumed it was directed towards the fans who would show up at concerts with signs saying ‘Even Flow’ [by Pearl Jam] on one side and ‘R*pe Me’ [by Nirvana] – I think – on the other,” said True. “The fans who did not understand there was a point of difference between Nirvana and other Seattle bands or media representations of grunge.”
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