On the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's seminal record Nevermind, founding member and bassist Krist Novoselic has reflected on the impact the album had on people.

Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991, and has been described as a changing of the musical guard.

Novoselic told triple j this week that people often stop him to say how Nevermind changed their life.

"People walk up to me and they tell me how much the music meant to them and I know because I've had that same experience when I listen to bands like Black Sabbath, Black Flag, Flipper, The Beatles - so I've had that same experience people share with me," he said.

"Second of all, that's a way for me to chalk one up for Kurt.

"Because he was such a committed, compelled artist and so driven to express himself. So when people say 'Hey man, Nirvana changed my life' I just look up in the sky and say 'That one's for you dude'."

On the back of Nevermind's release lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain became known as the spokesman for a generation, but he struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression.

He took his own life on April 8, 1994.

'We liked to rock'

Novoselic told triple j about the bond between himself, Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl.

"When you look into it, it boils down to the music. I guess Dave, Kurt and I played well together, we liked to rock, we knew a lot about music and we arranged these songs and we have this record Nevermind along with other works," he said.

"The record label in the US printed 40,000 copies and that was going to be like indie gold.

"So we released Nevermind, we get this video Smells Like Teen Spirit on heavy rotation on MTV, we get picked up by FM radio - so there's a phenomenon and people want to guy buy this CD from this band Nirvana and they go to the record store and it's out.

"They would have to wait for weeks to buy it so that sort of added to the mystique."

Smells Like Teen Spirit, the opening track on Nevermind, is often hailed as the point where alternative rock entered the mainstream.



Charles Sturt University sociology lecturer Dr Catherine Strong has been studying the grunge genre and will release a book in December.

She says Nevermind's songs, like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and Lithium, changed the music industry.

"Everybody talks about that as being this really amazing moment in terms of the things that previously had been on the margins in music suddenly being in the centre," she said.

She says when Nevermind was released, it kicked Michael Jackson off the top of the charts.

"Michael Jackson was number one on the album chart and Nevermind was the album that kicked him off," she said.

"And I think that even though people are still playing things that sound like grunge, the label itself is attached to that point in time and a particular group of bands."