“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, Wednesday, September 20, 2023

There might be one song that defines the ‘90s and reshaped music and the rock star for Generation X and future generations of music listeners. That song, of course, was the lead single from the 1991 sophomore record by Nirvana, Nevermind. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana, and Nevermind didn’t invent Grunge. Alice in Chains, arguably, brought the sound mainstream before Nirvana did. The song “Man in the Box,” a hopeless rocker when the sounds of hair rockers were much more optimistic and hedonistic, reached number 18 on Billboard’s Modern Rock tracks.  But Alice in Chains didn’t lead the revolution, nor did Nirvana’s other contemporaries Soundgarden or Pearl Jam.
 

HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US. Just as how F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write a satire of the trivial lives and parties of the New York upper crust and subsequently gave literature and history the most condensed account of what the “Jazz Age” was in The Great Gatsby, Nirvana wrote “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which resonated with teenage rebellion which had been closely connected with rock music since the ‘50s. While frontman Kurt Cobain and Nirvana were surprised of the band’s impact on the charts and eventually culture, it was the satire of teen rebellion anthems throughout the four prior decades of rock music from The Beatles to Mötley Crüe that reinvented rock music for the ‘90s. But Nirvana and Cobain weren’t the flamboyant stars rock musicians had been expected to be. Cobain was introverted and suffered from depression. Rather than masking his pain on stage, Kurt used his music to channel his feelings, delivering some of the most honest portrayals of himself in the absence of a stage persona. Today artists like Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish credit Cobain’s stage authenticity as inspiration to show their audiences their truths. 

I FEEL STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS. While Kurt Cobain’s “public display of depression” was a craved missing ingredient in the rock star persona, it was the singer’s views on social issues that keep him relevant even almost thirty years after his death by suicide in 1994. Cobain considered himself a feminist and spoke out against racism, sexism, and homophobia whenever he could. At one show, Cobain told his audience, “I would like to get rid of homophobes, sexists, and racists from our audience.” On another occasion, Kurt told his audience, “If you're a sexist, racist, homophobe or basically an asshole, don't buy this CD. I don't care if you like me, I hate you.” He believed in counter- culture, the spirit in which rock music had been founded in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which had been forgotten in the ‘80s when the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane became the “corporate target” Starship and you could find a “DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac.” Cobain’s views were not shared with everyone in Grunge. In fact, post grunge tended to be libertarian at best and far-right at worst--think Aaron Lewis’ “Am I the Only One?” But Cobain was never concerned about fitting in with a movement. But thirty years later, other than a lawsuit surrounding the cover art, the music holds up, and artists still look to Cobain as a sort of prophet of inclusivity. Of all the forms of teen rebellion, isn’t that a much better vision for the future?

Read “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana on Genius.