In Utero and Vs turn 20

20 years ago, Nirvana and Pearl Jam released In Utero and Vs. a few weeks apart respectively.  Both are significant in that they were were the follow-up album to each band's breakthrough and, not only that, they were the first of ANY of the Seattle/ "Grunge" bands that ushered in the Alt. Rock revolution of the early 90's to release a follow up to their breakthrough release (This, of course, depends on whether you consider Alice in Chains's Dirt their breakthrough or their follow-up).

In Utero was first, being released September 13th 1993 (just last month a 20th anniversary edition featuring bonus tracks was released) with Vs. following on October 19th.

While Nirvana was clearly the more influential and critically acclaimed of the two bands, people tend to forget that, at the time, Pearl Jam was definitely the more popular, at least in terms of record sales.  Upon release, Vs. quickly dethroned In Utero from the top of the charts and proceeded to sell in much greater numbers. At the time, my meager 10th grade income opted for Vs.; I still do.  In fact, I think Vs. may even be a better album (Nevermind, however, blows away, not only both of these albums, but anything else either band would ever release).  That's not to say In Utero was terrible; in fact, I recently revisited the album and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

What is interesting is there is a similarity to what both bands did with these albums.  Both Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain expressed a level of discomfort with their new found fane (although, honestly, I really think Eddie Vedder might have actually been at least a little bit comfortable with it; Cobain was not). As a result, both albums almost seem like an intentional attempt to alienate their new fans; they're rougher, rawer, noiser, and, overall, far less accessible than their previous releases. In fact, I doubt either record label would have allowed their release a mere 18 months earlier (and, according to some reports, they were somewhat nervous about In Utero, even bringing in Scott Litt to remix the singles: "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies").

Both bands had the right amount of clout and artistic guts to lay down a major challenge to their fans.  And then, something really interesting happened; the record buying public accepted the challenge.  Not only did they not mind that the albums didn't sound exactly like their predecessors, they liked it. For Cobain, this might have been the beginning of the end for his fragile psyche; I almost feel like he wanted the album to fail and was disappointed when it was a success.

Pearl Jam, arguably, got the better end of this deal; Vs. allowed them to inject more of their punk rock roots and make a much more aggressive and primal statement than their previous effort, Ten. Not only that, they showed that a noisier, weirder album could sell.

My point is this, two major artists at the peak of their commercial success took a major risk and, when they took that risk, their fans and the industry supported them.  I wish this still happened.