Talk:Nevermind

Elden's legal allegations

Spencer Elden in his adult life is an artist. It is a matter of public record that he had requested the surviving members of Nirvana to help him publicize his artwork, but they were not interested in doing so. Some people have made the observation that only after the members declined to do that, he began a legal case in which he claimed that he had been sexually exploited as an infant by that album cover. Tesseract12 (talk) 21:21, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable source for this? That's very interesting, but if you don't have a good link with it then there's not much of a point to add it into the article.

Also, please stop rewording your comments constantly, it's bloating up the history on this talk page. Carlinal (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

It was openly in the news media. Offhand I cannot remember a specific source.

I guess you could search out news articles about it. It is definitely true that he began litigating

with them only AFTER they declined to help him publicize his artwork.

As for your second point, I did not even KNOW that the previous versions get preserved here.

Anybody has a right to revise his own posts. Tesseract12 (talk) 00:26, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Look, Tesseract, making comments like this on the talk page isn't necessarily a BLP violation because we discuss stuff like this here to find what's good enough to be in the article. I mean, that's one of the main points of a talk page. Removing this stuff discourages open discussion, and it increases the likelihood of repeating the same topic; I'm grateful that you mentioned the artist detail because it enables me and other Wikipedians to consider its value and whether or not it should be included on the article. Removing these comments may also remove constructive thought, or at least a chance for it. Don't feel guilty bringing this up at all. Carlinal (talk) 18:34, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Very good point!

Perhaps what I was remembering pertained to criticism being put onto any main article,

rather than a talk page. Tesseract12 (talk) 18:56, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

AN UPDATE ON THIS MATTER: As of early September 2026, the Federal court has not yet ruled on Elden's appeal. Tesseract12 (talk) 17:40, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Lead section is unnecessarily long

"Contrary to the hedonistic themes popular in rock music at the time, writers have observed that Nevermind promoted the image of the sensitive artist in mainstream rock. Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain, the album is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. Its themes include alienation, frustration, anti-establishment and anti-sexist views, and troubled love inspired by Cobain's broken relationship with Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail. A landmark in grunge and alternative rock, the album also features acoustic ballads and punk-inspired hard rock."

I would suggest removing this entire paragraph from the lead section as it doesn't contain any essential information and is more about interpretation. The lead section should only contain the most important facts. Dornwald (talk) 03:32, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

I think it's appropriate for the lead to summarize the content and themes of the album. But I don't think it's well written, reading more like dodgy journalism than robust, neutral encylopedic content. Popcornfud (talk) 04:20, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

I agree and I also think it doesn't accurately reflect the album's content: Nevermind "promoted the image of the sensitive artist in mainstream rock", it is "humorous" and has "anti-establishment themes"? I don't think it has any real "themes" at all as the lyrics are all very abstract (except for Polly and Something in the Way). A "range of emotions"... you could say that about pretty much any album. ~2026-43180-39 (talk) 04:46, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

I have a question.

If Spencer Elden is uncomfortable with the album cover, why are we hosting his naked pictures? I don't think Wikipedia should be a place to post the nudes of children who grew up to be uncomfortable with it. In any sane society, that is frowned upon. If I was Spencer Elden and a site posted pictures of my underaged penis for no educational value because of "archival" I would be very mad. ~2026-47911-30 (talk) 17:07, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

You are of course fully entitled to express your opinion. But over the years, Elden participated in various commemorations of the album cover. Then he suddenly decided that he had been victimized. Please read my post above, in the "Elden's Legal Allegations" section. Tesseract12 (talk) 17:37, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Billboard Claim

This seems like a controversial claim, and I partially CEd this in the lead, but I decided to discuss in advance before adding a note to it. According to this New York Times source, Dangerous was already replaced at #1 by Garth Brooks' album Ropin' the Wind one week prior, but Billboard didn't publish an issue that week. I can only surmise this led to the popular belief that Nevermind surpassed Dangerous (which IMO I found somewhat overblown when I examined this fact several years ago, because of the other albums that also replaced Dangerous that week). Should I add an EFN to explain this, or should we find more sources first? PantheonRadiance (talk) 00:05, 25 September 2026 (UTC)

No reviews??!!!

"At first, Nevermind did not receive many reviews, and many publications ignored the album."

This is nonsense. Nme and Melody Maker, Q and Select reviewed it. Maybe in America this is true, in which case that should be stated. ~2026-52470-74 (talk) 20:28, 29 September 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure how you can prove this sentence is nonsense, but it never occurred to me exactly how this sentence can be verifiable either. Some of the sentences in the reception section seem to be uncited, so they should be highlighted. Carlinal (talk) 22:49, 29 September 2026 (UTC)