The True Meaning Behind SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT

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My dad has a story about seeing Nirvana like a week before the Smells like Teen Spirit single came out. Basically he got free tickets to see them for promoting the Nevermind album. Apparently it was a pretty small venue, and only about thirty people were really listening to them. They were playing smells like teen spirit, and no one really seemed particularly interested in their performance. Funny that about a week later it would become a hit and one of the most famous songs ever. Edit: since a lot of people arguing, i'll tell you where it was: Les Foufones Electriques in Montreal Canada in September of 1991. my dad got free tickets because of his radio show. I hope that clears up the confusion.

Kurt is an artist who’s spirit will never die. Rest In Peace to one of the greatest musical talents of all time.

Kurt was a poet. He constantly wrote poetry. He also didn't believe lyrics were important, and is known for writing some lyrics right before recording them. Kurt would inject couplets from his poems into his lyrics and SLTS is a great example of this. People who try to find meaning in his lyrics will never succeed because so many of the lyrics were from disseparate poems with no shared meaning. You can find meaning in couplets, but trying to tie several couplets together in meaning is a pointless endeavor.

I love how 'smells like teen spirit' both was and was not named after the deodorant, since kurt didn't even know what it meant when it was written on his wall. He just saw the poetic power in the phrase.

these videos visually and audio sonically are just a step above, you do a fantastic job and if there’s a team behind it or just you doing it, hats off.

Maybe he just wrote the lyrics out of his a** in a few minutes but they still convey a powerful meaning of sort bc it's like he wrote them in a stream of conciousness

I cannot even to start imagine what Kurt would think of 2021.

I was in high school when this song came out and was definitely one of those generation x teenagers that no one wanted around. It was very important to me at a difficult point in my life.

I always misheard the line as “Life is stupid and contagious” It sounds even more pessimistic that way. As if being alive is an act of stupidity, contagious in the act of reproduction

it was the entire package you know, the riff, the lyrics, the video, and the sheer chaos of Nirvana's live performance of this song ... there's something about it that just can't be explained (much like adolescence itself). I think the allure of chaos among teens is what made Teen Spirit an anthem.. awesome video brah

Re: Dave's belief that Kurt came up with lyrics five minutes before. A story that doesn't often come up in this debate is the time Kurt pretended, for the benefit of those who happened to be in the studio at the time, to write "Something In The Way" just off the top of his head. The song had been played more or less complete over two year ago at that point. I won't speculate as to why Kurt would do with but when considering how much thought Kurt put into his songs and his lyric I think this moment should be considered. Kurt spent at least some time lying to the people around him about his process. He also definitely spent hours and days working on one song over and over.

I find Nirvana’s songs so thought provoking, Kurt was with us for a very short time, but what talent he had. He will always be missed by many fans young and old.

Never really thought about Smells Like Teen Spirit's riffs sounding like Godzilla's riff by Blue Oyster Cult. Kind of makes sense in a weird way that I never would've realized otherwise.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was not only the first Nirvana song that I ever heard, but also one of the songs that finally got me to listen to their albums!

The great thing about music is that you can convert it into your own meaning, just like this song that supposedly has no meaning, it does. Even if the lyrics don’t have a meaning it’s the message of the song, the reason why Nirvana wrote it.

That was pretty solid assessment and well explained for something not easy to explain. It is one of those songs that is easy to explain two lines at a time but hard to explain as a whole and likely intentionally put together as such.

your videos are not only interesting to watch because of the content, they are all sooo well written and just beautiful to look at! always enjoying them thoroughly!

Honey wake up! Middle 8 just upload his new video!

Amazing video! Loved how it was presented and the animation that went along with it. Top notch stuff man 🤘