Smells Like Teen Spirit

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Helter Skelter, Dec 7, 2018.

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  1. Helter Skelter

    Helter Skelter Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Did it "hit the airwaves with the force of an atom bomb" (to use one of many possible cliches) changing so much overnight and making so much obsolete, or do you think like so many things the myth has become overblown especially in the wake of Kurt's death?

    More personally, did it impact your musical life at all at the time? I was just a kid and not into music yet, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of those who were buying records at the time. Anyone remember when they first heard it?
     
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  2. Andre Acvedo

    Andre Acvedo Sargento Primero

    Location:
    Mijas
    Not really, it was too commercial sounding and IMO didn’t represent what the band stood for. Bleach is their sound and masterpiece.
     
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  3. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I heard it during late evening time BBC Radio One, probably Steve Lamacq or possibly Marc Goodier playing it, just before it was released. It took a couple of listens for me to really love it, but it totally stood out on a relatively mainstream show in a way it might not have done so much on John Peel or Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show. I got sick of Nirvana very quickly though and don't really care to hear Teen Spirit again. As great as they were, I'm almost never in the mood to play Nirvana now. I bought the 12" and still have it along with my Nevermind LP.

    I went into HMV in Middlesbrough and they had Bleach on vinyl in a sale and I knew they were that heavy band on the radio, so I bought it. It was on Tupelo records and had Big Cheese but not Love Buzz. I loved it but thought side one was far better than side two. I still do. Sadly I don't have that anymore. I sold it when I was a student because the CD included Love Buzz. Oh well! So I heard Teen Spirit first but owned Bleach before Nevermind, but only just.

    I remember wanting to go to the Newcastle Riverside concert advertised on the original Teen Spirit cover but the lift there fell through. It's always been a regret with my friend. He wouldn't go because his brother was going to drive on acid!

    In spite of all this, I hated grunge and still do. Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish LP and their anti-grunge stance really clicked with me in 1993 and I was far more into the British alternative scene. The Wedding Present were my favourite band in 1991.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2018
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  4. mark_j

    mark_j Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I was listening to hair metal at the time. That song and video changed everything in an instant.
     
  5. graveyardboots

    graveyardboots Resident Patient

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    I was a freshman in college when this song hit the airwaves so I'm sure I tend to romanticize its impact. It *did* seem game-changing at the time (with Nirvana dethroning Michael Jackson for the #1 spot) but, as noted above, as much as I enjoyed it at the time, I haven't had much of a desire to revisit it in my adult life.
     
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  6. John Porcellino

    John Porcellino Forum Resident

    Location:
    Beloit, WI
    Smells Like Teen Spirit was inescapable, everywhere you went it was being played. It must have been like what people remember Sgt. Pepper's being like. It was eerie. I was playing in an underground band at the time and within six months of Nirvana breaking everything had changed. The impact was massive.
     
  7. BluesOvertookMe

    BluesOvertookMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    Good song but it didn't change anything for me. I had already heard the Pixies and I already heard Black Sabbath Volume 4. Those are the exact influences I noticed the first time I heard it.
     
  8. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    When I first heard it I said that sounds like......
     
  9. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    Yes it did. It sounded far more raw than other stuff people were used to hearing at the time.
     
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  10. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    I was in peak music consumption, at the time.

    From that perspective, they were an important band for me and they were of course highly successful. But did it "change everything in an instant"? No. I think that's looking back in hindsight / a more historical perspective.

    At the time I thought bands like Sonic Youth or Pixies were more instantly jarring from that which came before. But of course you don't necessarily see those band's t-shirts in Urban Outfitters today.
     
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  11. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    I was a megaton drop. Yes, it was huge.
     
  12. ironbutterfly

    ironbutterfly Listening to marky mark in mono

    Never heard of this band or this song. I am off to YouTube to delve in
     
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  13. bridgeless

    bridgeless Forum Resident

    Location:
    Spring Hill, TN
    I was a junior in high school. I watched the “debut” of the video on Headbangers Ball on Saturday night and then watched them “debut” it again on Sunday on 120 Minutes. I remember finding that really interesting even then, that MTV couldn’t decide if this was metal or alternative.

    I wouldn’t say the change in styles was instantaneous, but it happened fast. I remember watching “alternative” bands open for hard rock acts throughout the next year and some audiences seemed confused (like when STP opened for Megadeth) but most of the time the grunge bands were well received. I didn’t see anything weird about liking Soundgarden and Skid Row. And I saw Soundgarden open for both Skid Row and GNR over that next year, and Alice In Chains with Ozzy. It was a gradual shift before those opening acts were bigger than the headliners, but it didn’t take more than maybe a year to 18 months, at least in my recollection. And Teen Spirit was definitely the jumping off point for that transition.
     
  14. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    I first heard the song on Australian Commercial radio in 1992. I was 13, it was before I began going to gigs and they weren’t playing all ages shows even if I wanted to go.

    It’s easy to look back and say “it was too commercial sounding etc.”, but it’s easy to forget that for someone too young to be hip to alternative music, commercial radio was the starting point.

    It was early exposure to a rock singer that didn’t sound like Bon Jovi or Poison. I still have a vivid memory of the Australian commercial for Nevermind, which played “Come As You Are”. It sounded dark, mysterious and other worldly to me, who was only used to hair metal, AC/DC and early 90’s pop.

    So someone older than me could easily have dismissed Nirvana as alt. rock for kiddies - but as I was at the right age to be impressed by it.
     
  15. picassoson

    picassoson Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I still remember the first time I heard it. I didn’t really have access to “new” music, but a friend was staying over and had the cd. I put it in my discman and that opening guitar riff kicked in. I was 13, and never quite the same again.
     
  16. sons of nothing

    sons of nothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Illinois
    I was listening to tons of death metal when this dropped. The song was huge, the video was even bigger. In Utereo is a better album.
     
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  17. HotelYorba101

    HotelYorba101 Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    Personally I would argue that In Utereo is Nirvana's ultimate statement, that album floored me
     
  18. Black Magic Woman

    Black Magic Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chile
    I wasn’t alive yet but I just wanted to say that dying young always boosts the legend. Winehouse, Cobain, Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, etc all of them have benefited from it.

    Regarding Teen Spirit, it’s a near-perfect song IMO. Love every second of it. And Cobain’s legacy is still strong in 2018.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2018
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  19. Elliottmarx

    Elliottmarx Always in the mood for Burt Bacharach

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It has not been overstated. This song instantly changed everything. The entire culture shifted. There's not a week that goes by when I don't silently incant, "I find it hard, it's hard to find the will; whatever, nevermind." No music in the 1980s - post punk, new wave, synth pop, rap, goth, hair metal - delivered that sentiment. It was extremely generational and I happened to be the perfect age, and possess the right mien for lines like this to have maximum impact.

    Immediately, songs about beers and busts were recognized as meaningless.

    I was permanently altered by that man's lyrics and mission. We all were. Until it became too painful. Or we forgot.
     
  20. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    It was a hit on the radio for sure, but it wasn't this huge impactful thing for me. Maybe it was for other musicians, I don't know. Hell, I never even listened to Nevermind until after In Utero came out.
     
  21. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    It was big at the time, no doubt.
    When I was studying art in Amsterdam I would skip classes sometimes and go visit one of the (at the time) many record stores and I remember big blue posters of the swimming baby EVERYWHERE!
    You simply couldn’t get past it, but it didn’t really change my taste in music. I already was into (hard)rock and getting into metal at the time (my school books sported every band logo you can think of. Metallica, Sabbath, AC/DC and Zep were my main poison at the time) so I fitted right into the zeitgeist. It was a wonderful time for music fans! :cool:

    Btw, my favourite Nirvana album will always be Incesticide.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2018
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  22. Chuckee

    Chuckee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY, USA
    Seemed very big to me at the time, also had some pretty big follow-up songs.
     
  23. Dr. Robert

    Dr. Robert Forum Reconstructor

    Location:
    Curitiba, Brazil
    IT'S MORE THAN A FEEEELING
    WHEN I HEAR THAT SONG...

    Hang on, wrong tune :D
     
  24. gonz

    gonz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michiana
    I was in high school and already went through a punk phase in jr high. The music wasn’t ground breaking, but the fact that it went mainstream was the biggest thing. Suddenly everyone was wearing flannel and converse. It was what I imagined the British Invasion to be like. It was the Seattle/sub pop invasion.

    I was annoyed that the bands I liked and was ridiculed for liking were now popular.

    Btw/FYI, teen Spirit was a deodorant brand.
     
  25. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    I prefer Lithium over Teen Spirit, tbh.
     
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