So...What Does "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Mean, Anyway?
Nirvana's biggest song celebrates its 32nd birthday.
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Today’s fact: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was inspired by deodorant.
Whether you’re a Nirvana fan or not, you know the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It’s sold more than 8 million records, reached No. 1 on nine different music charts throughout the world, and is routinely ranked on “best songs ever” lists. There’s also that iconic music video and the wonderful spoof by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
The song, which Nirvana released on August 27, 1991, became an anthem for the grunge movement. A way for rebellious folks to fight back against the powers that be.
As it turns out, most of the song is nonsense — including its title.
The line, “Here we are now, entertain us,” is what lead singer Kurt Cobain would say when entering a party.
The chorus of “A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido” were just a collection of words that rhymed.
Cobain even admitted that he was “basically trying to rip off the Pixies.” And when he first presented the song to his bandmates, he made them play the opening guitar riff for an hour and a half straight. Maybe that was to prepare for how many radio stations would play the song ad nauseam.
It’s possible “Smells Like Teen Spirit” would have been called something entirely different if not for a deodorant that launched the same year as the song.
As Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer for Bikini Kill, explained, after a wild night of drinking, she and Kurt went back to the rental house he was staying at, and she wrote a bunch of phrases all over the wall.
One of those phrases: “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit.”
Hanna was referring to the deodorant. At the time, Cobain was dating Bikini Kill’s drummer, Tobi Vail — who happened to wear Teen Spirit.
Six months later, Cobain called Hanna and asked if he could use the lyric for the song. Hanna, who had tried to purge the entire night from her memory, said, “As long as I can get out of this conversation, I’m totally cool.”
Cobain apparently never had any idea Hanna was just making a tongue-in-cheek comment about his girlfriend. Yet it sparked one of the biggest songs the world has ever seen.
You can hear Hanna tell the story below. It’s pretty entertaining, albeit perhaps NSFW: