All the celebrating leaves some people wondering whether the aesthetically authentic response to the anniversary should instead be what the band itself advised back in the day: the name of the Nirvana album that included “Teen Spirit” — and unseated Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” at the top of the charts — was “Nevermind.” It has sold at least 30 million copies worldwide.

Was it really One of the Most Transformative Records in Rock History?

When Mr. Cobain sang “I feel stupid and contagious/Here we are now, entertain us,” was it really emblematic of a new Seattle sound or was it just shrewdly packaged punk by some jaded dudes from a dreary old logging town, Aberdeen, Wash., more than 100 miles outside the city?

Does it matter?

“Probably in the mind of Kurt Cobain, if he was still with us, he would probably think the most punk thing would be to just reject it all,” said Charles Peterson, a photographer who still makes much of his living off the pictures he took of Nirvana. “But of course, you know, he would be a multi-multi-multimillionaire at this point. So, easy for him to say.”

Except that Mr. Cobain has been dead for 17 years. Regardless of the music being made in Seattle now, Nirvana and grunge loom like brand names, as connected to the city as Starbucks and Amazon and Microsoft. Some city tours include the house near Lake Washington where Mr. Cobain killed himself. A selection of the most prominent records by Nirvana and Pearl Jam are in a small sales display at the front counter of Easy Street Records in a West Seattle neighborhood near where Eddie Vedder, the singer for Pearl Jam, owns a house.

Were the records in such a prominent position because of the anniversary? “They’re always there,” said Ron Garcia, a store clerk.