Smells Like Teen Spirit is a song by Nirvana. The song was released as single on September 10, 1991. It is the opening track and lead single from the band’s second album, Nevermind (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled Nevermind to the top of several albums charts at the start of 1992, an event often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. It was Nirvana‘s biggest hit, charting high on music industry charts around the world in 1991 and 1992, and was number one on the charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand and Spain. It was met with wide critical acclaim, and described as an “anthem for apathetic kids” of Generation X. Although Nirvana grew uncomfortable with the mainstream and commercial attention the song brought to them, listeners and critics continue to praise Smells Like Teen Spirit as one of the greatest songs of all time.
The music video for the song is based on the concept of a high school pep rally which ends in chaos and riot, inspired by Jonathan Kaplan‘s 1979 film Over the Edge and the Ramones‘ film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. It won two MTV Video Music Awards, and was in heavy rotation on MTV during the 1990s. In subsequent years Amy Finnerty, formerly of MTV‘s programming department, claimed the video “changed the entire look of MTV” by giving the channel “a whole new generation to sell to”. In 2000, the Guinness World Records named Smells Like Teen Spirit the Most Played Video on MTV Europe.
Smells Like Teen Spirit was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s list of The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2001, the (RIAA) ranked the song at number 80 on their Songs of the Century list. In 2017, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Tracklist:
- Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Even In His Youth
- Aneurysm
The music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit was the first for director Samuel Bayer. Bayer believed he was hired because his test reel was so poor the band anticipated his production would be punk and not corporate. The video is based on the concept of a school concert which ends in anarchy and riot, inspired by Jonathan Kaplan‘s 1979 film Over the Edge and the Ramones‘ film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. It had an estimated budget of between $30,000 and $50,000.
The video was filmed on August 17, 1991, on Stage 6 of GMT Studios in Culver City. It features Nirvana playing at a pep rally in a high school gym to an audience of apathetic students on bleachers, and cheerleaders wearing black dresses with the Circle-A anarchist symbol. The video features an appearance by Burton C. Bell, later known as frontman of heavy metal band Fear Factory. Occasionally, the scene cuts to a janitor (played by Tony De La Rosa) wearing a navy blue jumpsuit and dancing with a push broom handle. The video ends with the students destroying the set and the band’s gear. The discontent was genuine; the extras that filled the bleachers had been forced to stay seated through numerous replays of the song for an entire afternoon of filming. Cobain convinced Bayer to allow the extras to mosh, and the set became a scene of chaos. “Once the kids came out dancing they just said ‘fuck you’, because they were so tired of his shit throughout the day,” Cobain said.
Cobain disliked Bayer‘s final edit and oversaw a re-edit of the video, creating the final version. One of Cobain‘s major additions was the penultimate shot, a close-up of his face after it had been obscured for most of the video. Another major change involved two sequences of a principal standing next to a loudspeaker and being sprayed with confetti, and a teacher dressed like a nerd dancing to the song with a “Dunce” cap before being tied to a basketball hoop pole. Cobain had the principal footage and most of the teacher footage removed, aside from the ending scene which shows the teacher tied to the pole as the janitor sweeps the floor. Bayer said that unlike subsequent artists he worked with, Cobain was not vain, and was more interested that “the video had something that was truly about what they were about”.
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain (uncredited): vocals, guitars
Krist Novoselic (uncredited): bass
Dave Grohl (uncredited): drums, backing vocals on “Drain You”
Technical personnel
Butch Vig: producer, engineer
Craig Montgomery: production and engineering on “Even in His Youth” and “Aneurysm”
Andy Wallace: mixing
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994).
