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Time & Perspective Quote by Krist Novoselic

"But whenever history is in the making, there's some kind of intangible feeling"

About this Quote

History rarely announces itself with a press release; it leaks into the room as a vibe. Krist Novoselic’s line leans into that sensory truth, capturing how big cultural shifts are often registered first not as facts but as atmosphere. The word “whenever” is doing sly work: it frames history-making as recurring, almost routine, while the rest of the sentence admits we usually don’t recognize it in the moment. We just feel the air change.

Coming from Novoselic, the bassist who helped anchor Nirvana’s rupture of early-’90s pop culture, the quote reads like a veteran’s report from inside the blast radius. Grunge wasn’t sold as a “movement” at first; it was messy scenes, loud rooms, thrift-store aesthetics, and an impatience with glossy mythmaking. The “intangible feeling” names that pre-verbal signal that something has slipped: old narratives stop fitting, new ones haven’t hardened yet.

There’s also a quiet skepticism here. “Some kind of” keeps the claim modest, almost suspicious of grand declarations. It’s not claiming prophetic clarity, just noting the bodily tell: anticipation, dread, adrenaline, maybe disbelief. That understatement is the point. Cultural history is often retrospectively packaged into milestones and anniversaries, but from the inside it’s confusion with a pulse.

Novoselic’s intent seems less to romanticize history than to defend the messy, subjective experience of living through it. Before the headlines and documentaries, there’s the feeling you can’t quite name - and that’s often the most honest evidence that something is changing.

Quote Details

TopicExcitement
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Novoselic, Krist. (2026, January 15). But whenever history is in the making, there's some kind of intangible feeling. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-whenever-history-is-in-the-making-theres-some-147445/

Chicago Style
Novoselic, Krist. "But whenever history is in the making, there's some kind of intangible feeling." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-whenever-history-is-in-the-making-theres-some-147445/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But whenever history is in the making, there's some kind of intangible feeling." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-whenever-history-is-in-the-making-theres-some-147445/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Krist Add to List
Feeling History: Krist Novoselic on the Intangible Moment
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About the Author

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Krist Novoselic (born May 16, 1965) is a Musician from USA.

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