In Bloom - Music Video

Music Video

Nirvana first made a music video for "In Bloom" in 1990 for the Sub Pop Video Network Program VHS compilation (1991). The recording of the song featured in the video is the version recorded during the Smart Studios sessions. The Sub Pop video features the band walking around various parts of lower Manhattan including the South Street Seaport, the Lower East Side, and Wall Street. While filming the video, Novoselic shaved his head as penance for a bad performance the band gave in New York City. This caused discontinuity in the final cut; shots of the band feature the bassist with and without hair throughout the video. This video was later compiled on the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out (2004).

The second video, created to accompany the 1992 single release, was directed by Kevin Kerslake, who had previously directed the band's videos for "Come as You Are" and "Lithium". Cobain's original concept for the video told the story of a young girl born into a Ku Klux Klan who one day realizes how evil they are. His concept was too ambitious, so Cobain instead decided to parody musical performances by bands on early 1960s variety shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show. The humorous tone of the video was a result of Cobain being "so tired for the last year of people taking us so seriously . . . I wanted to fuck off and show them that we have a humorous side to us". Kerslake filmed the video on old Kinescope cameras, and the band improvised its performance. The video begins with an unnamed variety show host (played by Doug Llewelyn, former host of The People's Court) introducing Nirvana to an in-studio crowd of screaming teenagers; their non-stop screaming is heard throughout the duration of the song. The band members, whom the host refers to as "thoroughly all right and decent fellas", perform dressed in Beach Boys-style outfits; Cobain wears glasses that blurred his vision, while Novoselic cut his hair short and liked it so much he kept it that way afterwards. As the video progresses, the band destroys the set and its instruments.

Three different edits of the Kerslake video were made. Cobain intended to replace the first version of the video after a period with a new take featuring the band wearing dresses instead of suits. MTV's alternative rock show 120 Minutes insisted on premiering the video, but Cobain felt the program would not properly convey the humor of the "pop idol" version. Instead, a new edit was produced which contained shots of the band in both suits and dresses. The original edit of the video never aired. This video won the award for Best Alternative Video at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, and topped the music video category in the 1992 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.