"Want to know what else happened in 1991? Barely a month after Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten came out, Nirvana pushed grunge into the mainstream with the September 24th release of Nevermind."
Oh, wow.. all that pointless research I did on "Teen Spirit/Smells Like..." is paying off... in a way. The single for Smells Like Teen Spirit was sent…
"Want to know what else happened in 1991? Barely a month after Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten came out, Nirvana pushed grunge into the mainstream with the September 24th release of Nevermind."
Oh, wow.. all that pointless research I did on "Teen Spirit/Smells Like..." is paying off... in a way. The single for Smells Like Teen Spirit was sent out to radio stations on Aug 27, 1991... and to stores on Sept 10th — the album came out on Sept 24th, but the video for SLTS didn't air until the 29th on 120 Minutes (late night).
The story goes that it was so popular that it was moved to daytime rotation, but... the thing is: it didn't peak on the charts until January of 1992, and even then, it only reached 6th place. Nirvana weren't mainstream darlings until *after* Nevermind reached number one on the Billboard 200 that same week — which also raised the profile of all the bands who released seminal albums around the same time as Nevermind was released. Pearl Jam's Ten just entered the Billboard 200 at #155 the week before Nevermind hit #1, and then peaked at #2 for 2 weeks in the end of August and first week of Sept, 1992. So, it makes sense the Grammy's didn't pay much attention to any of it in February 1992 (because no one really cared about them yet).
What no one talks about is how Nevermind sat in 6th place for 4 weeks before suddenly jumping to #1, but that only lasted a week (then one more in Feb). Micheal Jackson's "Dangerous" was #1 for only 4 weeks (coincidentally the same 4 weeks NM was at 6th) — Nevermind replaced it, but the following week Nevermind itself was replaced by Garth Brooks' Ropin' The Wind... which stayed at #1 for a total of 18 weeks. The week of Feb 1st Nevermind got its 2nd week at #1, but the following week Garth Brooks was back in the number one spot and stayed there until April, when he was displaced by the Wayne's World soundtrack.
Kinda interesting that Ropin' The Wind spent 18 weeks at #1, but sold less than half (14m) of Nevermind (30m) or Dangerous (32m)... and while Nevermind is known for knocking Dangerous out of the #1 spot, Dangerous actually sold more than Nevermind and spent twice as long at #1 (and Ropin' The Wind spent more than 4x as long at #1 as Dangerous). I really don't get how any of this works, because even though I'm not a fan, it seems like Garth Brooks should be more of a talking point when discussing popular music from that time period.
"Want to know what else happened in 1991? Barely a month after Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten came out, Nirvana pushed grunge into the mainstream with the September 24th release of Nevermind."
Oh, wow.. all that pointless research I did on "Teen Spirit/Smells Like..." is paying off... in a way. The single for Smells Like Teen Spirit was sent out to radio stations on Aug 27, 1991... and to stores on Sept 10th — the album came out on Sept 24th, but the video for SLTS didn't air until the 29th on 120 Minutes (late night).
The story goes that it was so popular that it was moved to daytime rotation, but... the thing is: it didn't peak on the charts until January of 1992, and even then, it only reached 6th place. Nirvana weren't mainstream darlings until *after* Nevermind reached number one on the Billboard 200 that same week — which also raised the profile of all the bands who released seminal albums around the same time as Nevermind was released. Pearl Jam's Ten just entered the Billboard 200 at #155 the week before Nevermind hit #1, and then peaked at #2 for 2 weeks in the end of August and first week of Sept, 1992. So, it makes sense the Grammy's didn't pay much attention to any of it in February 1992 (because no one really cared about them yet).
What no one talks about is how Nevermind sat in 6th place for 4 weeks before suddenly jumping to #1, but that only lasted a week (then one more in Feb). Micheal Jackson's "Dangerous" was #1 for only 4 weeks (coincidentally the same 4 weeks NM was at 6th) — Nevermind replaced it, but the following week Nevermind itself was replaced by Garth Brooks' Ropin' The Wind... which stayed at #1 for a total of 18 weeks. The week of Feb 1st Nevermind got its 2nd week at #1, but the following week Garth Brooks was back in the number one spot and stayed there until April, when he was displaced by the Wayne's World soundtrack.
Kinda interesting that Ropin' The Wind spent 18 weeks at #1, but sold less than half (14m) of Nevermind (30m) or Dangerous (32m)... and while Nevermind is known for knocking Dangerous out of the #1 spot, Dangerous actually sold more than Nevermind and spent twice as long at #1 (and Ropin' The Wind spent more than 4x as long at #1 as Dangerous). I really don't get how any of this works, because even though I'm not a fan, it seems like Garth Brooks should be more of a talking point when discussing popular music from that time period.