Nirvana released the single “In Bloom” in the UK on November 30, 1992, closing the run of four singles from Nevermind. The song had appeared on the band’s second album the previous year. Its new video gave that familiar recording a different setting: an old-fashioned television show where Nirvana could play respectable pop stars and then tear the set apart.
“In Bloom” had already traveled through two recording sessions before becoming a single. Nirvana recorded an earlier version with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in April 1990, while they were signed to Sub Pop. They returned to it at Sound City in California during the Nevermind sessions in May 1991. Vig knew the arrangement from their earlier work together, making it a useful place to begin as the band settled into the studio.
The song’s complaint about listeners predates Nirvana’s commercial breakthrough. Its chorus describes someone who enjoys singing along but misses the meaning of the songs, setting that complaint inside an inviting melody. The tension is right there in the music: restrained verses give way to a chorus made for joining in, even as Kurt Cobain questions whether the listener understands him. The later single release put that contradiction in front of an audience far larger than the band had known when they first recorded it.
Dave Grohl’s backing vocals helped give the chorus its lift. In a 2011 Billboard interview, Vig remembered the drummer struggling to reach the high notes and the band laughing together as they worked through the part. “Dave’s voice sounds amazingly like Kurt’s and it blended really well,” he said. That blend added another melodic layer to Cobain’s lead, with Grohl contributing to the hook as both drummer and singer.
For the video, director Kevin Kerslake and Cobain turned to the conventions of early television pop performances. Kerslake told Louder in 2016 that an earlier, more elaborate concept had been dropped because of time constraints. Their replacement drew on The Ed Sullivan Show and the way television presented successful bands to the public. They used vintage cameras and filmed two takes with Nirvana in suits, followed by two in dresses as the musicians destroyed the set. The familiar video cuts between those contrasting performances, letting the tidy presentation unravel.
Cobain wanted the joke to be visible in the picture itself. In a 1993 MTV interview, he explained that he had asked Kerslake to find cameras from the period so the footage would resemble late-1950s or early-1960s television. He also wanted the introduction to emphasize how wholesome the band supposedly was. With Nirvana being portrayed as degenerates, he said, “we needed a light-hearted video.” The stiff manners, suits and reassuring introduction all gave the destruction something specific to overturn.
“In Bloom” reached No. 28 on the UK singles chart. Its television parody went on to earn recognition from the channel carrying it: the video won Best Alternative Video at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.
