According to Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic, "In Bloom" "originally sounded like a Bad Brains song," before being slowed down and reworked by Cobain at home.

The following day, the band began work on recording a new release for their then-label Sub Pop, at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin with producer Butch Vig.

[6] Among the eight songs recorded during the five-day session was "In Bloom", which originally featured a bridge that Vig removed by physically cutting it out of the 16-track master tape with a razor blade, and throwing it in the garbage.

The band instead used the material as a demo tape, which circulated amongst the music industry and generated interest in the group among major record labels.

"In Bloom" was re-recorded by Vig at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California in May 1991, during the sessions for the band's second album and major label debut, Nevermind.

[8] Like the other songs recorded at Smart Studios, the arrangement for "In Bloom" was left mostly unchanged, with the band's new drummer Dave Grohl staying close to what Channing had played.

Cobain uses a Mesa Boogie guitar amplifier for the verses, and during the chorus he switches to a Fender Bassman amp (suggested by Vig) for a heavier, double-tracked fuzztone sound.

[8] According to the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad, "In Bloom" was originally written about "the jocks and shallow mainstream types" of the underground music scene the band began to find in their audience after the release of their 1989 debut album, Bleach.

As Azerrad points out, the song's lyrics "translated even better to the mass popularity the band enjoyed" following the breakthrough success of their second album, Nevermind.

"[13] English journalist Everett True suggested the song may also have addressed the band's discomfort with being part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, saying that "I assumed it was directed towards the fans who would show up at concerts with signs saying Even Flow [a Pearl Jam song] on one side and Rape Me – I think – on the other: the fans who did not understand there was a point of difference between Nirvana and other Seattle bands or media representations of grunge.

[14] Originally Cobain wanted to release In Bloom on a promotional EP as well as their first major label debut single after signing with DGC, for the then-second album sessions with Sub Pop, entitled Sheep.

[20] Music journalist Everett True wrote an uncharacteristically unfavorable review of the single in Melody Maker, accusing it of "milking" the success of Nevermind.

[24] According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "In Bloom" was the seventh most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 131,000 spins.

[25] In 2019, Cobain was given a songwriting credit on the single "Panini" by American rapper and singer Lil Nas X, due to the song having a similar chorus melody as "In Bloom".

Nas X revealed that the song was approved by Kurt's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, and that the experience "actually got me into [Nevermind] for the first time.

"[26] In a 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, said she was "very firmly in the club that says ‘In Bloom’ should have been the first single" from Nevermind, calling it "a far better song" than "Smells Like Teen Spirit.

"[27] The first music video for "In Bloom", for the Smart Studios version, was directed by Steve Brown, and filmed in New York City in April 1990, shortly after the song had been recorded.

[30][31] According to Michael Azerrad, Cobain's original concept for the video was "a surrealistic fable about a little girl who is born into a Ku Klux Klan family and one day realizes how evil her parents are.

The band members, whom the host refers to as "thoroughly all right and decent fellas," perform dressed in suits, while Cobain wears glasses that made him dizzy.

However, Cobain was skeptical that MTV's alternative rock show 120 Minutes, which insisted on premiering the video, would properly convey the humor of the "pop idol" version.

[71] Sludge metal band Thou recorded the song in their 2020 collection of Nirvana covers, Blessings of the Highest Order.