The 1980s were drawing to a close when music began to explore new directions. Grunge emerged as a response to the glamour and vibrant colors of glam rock that dominated the decade. The gritty image, distorted sound, and vintage inspirations gave rise to great rock bands like Nirvana .
Kurt Cobain , along with Kris Novoselic and Chad Channing , spent December 1988 and January 1989 recording Bleach , their debut album which was released months later, on June 15, 1989, by the Sub Pop , now considered the precursor of grunge and independent music.
In early 1988, Nirvana had booked the studio to record with Melvins drummer Dale Crover , but they ended up choosing Channing for the job. The choice proved not to be ideal, as the group had to remix Crover's recordings on the songs "Floyd the Barber," "Paper Cuts," and "Downer" because Channing's recordings didn't come out as expected, and the drummer ended up leaving in 1990, making way for Dave Grohl.
Bleach was produced by Jack Endino , who charged $600 for 30 hours of recording, which included the singles "About a Girl," "Love Buzz," and "Blew." With its release, Nirvana paved the way for a counter-movement that would last until the end of the 1990s.
Endino also helped Nirvana find a guitarist for the album, feeling they were too raw. The choice was Jason Everman, who ended up becoming Nirvana's second guitarist until they felt they functioned better as a trio. Although he didn't participate in the recording, he is credited on the album. According to Novoselic, they wanted to "make him feel at home in the band."
The album cover, a photo of the group performing at the Reko Muse Art Gallery in Washington, taken by Cobain's then-girlfriend Tracy Marander , shows the break from style and paradigm that they would propose throughout their career, which was short, lasting only seven years.
The song was almost entirely written by Kurt Cobain the day before recording. “It was like I was angry. I don’t know about what. Let’s just shout some negative things and, as long as they’re not sexist and don’t get too embarrassing, it’s fine,” he told Spin magazine in 1993.
Bleach was initially going to be called Too Many Humans, but Cobain chose to change the name after seeing the word written on an AIDS prevention poster for heroin addicts. "Bleach their works," it read.
The singles chosen for the album almost didn't make it onto the record. "Love Buzz," a cover of Shocking Blue , according to Cobain, was meant to have a heavier sound, and he didn't like the result very much. "It was our first recording. We weren't sure what we wanted yet," he told NME at the time.
“About a Girl,” another single from the album and one of the band's most famous songs, almost didn't make the final cut for Cobain. He said, during an interview with Rolling Stone , that at the time he was listening to a lot of R.E.M. and the song ended up with a pop feel. Another song that caught attention was “Blew,” which later became an EP with “Love Buzz,” “Been a Son,” and “Stain,” the latter two songs also appearing on Incesticide , from 1992.
Music critics at the time listened to the album with an open mind and wrote extensively about a possible start to a new era, but the public wasn't ready to understand the genre. The band's notoriety only became public in 1991, when the group released the iconic Nevermind. Subsequently, Geffen Records re-released the debut album, and it was a success, having sold 1.7 million units in the United States alone to date. Even today, Bleach remains Sub Pop's best-selling album, a true classic.