The Story Behind: "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Have you ever wondered what is the story behind some of the songs? Well, in this segment we are taking a look at the stories behind some of the greatest songs of the last century.

The meaning of the phrase "Smells Like Teen Spirit«

Our story begins in the year of 1990. One night, Kurt Cobain and the singer of the band Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna were out for a night of heavy drinking, that ended up in a motel room where Kurt fell asleep. While Kurt was sleeping, Kathleen grabbed a sharpie and wrote »Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit« all over the wall of the motel. The reason why she wrote that sentence was, because Kurt had been dating Tobi Vail, (the drummer of Bikini Kill) whom she frequently wore a deodorant named »Teen Spirit«.

Why did Kurt write the song?

The reason Kurt wrote the song, was to create the perfect pop song. He told the Rolling Stone Magazine in 1994, that he wanted to rip off the band The Pixies, which was Kurt's favourite band. We can hear the influence of The Pixies in the song for its very quiet verses and heavy and loud choruses. 

The Riff

Kurt wrote the riff for the song several months later after the motel incident and weeks before the release of their second album Nevermind. Kurt started playing a riff that the bassist Krist Novoselic thought didn't sound so good. After playing it for a while they all started to like the riff, and decided to make a song out of it.

Meaning of the lyrics

For years fans have speculated what the lyrics of the song was because the record did not come with any lyrics and the unintelliagble, slurred singing voice of Cobain. The meaning of the lyrics Cobain explained in an interview in 1994 for the Rolling Stone Magazine: "The entire song is made up of contradictory ideas [. . .] It's just making fun of the thought of having a revolution. But it's a nice thought." While the drummer Dave Grohl stated: "Just seeing Kurt write the lyrics to a song five minutes before he first sings them, you just kind of find it a little bit hard to believe that the song has a lot to say about something. You need syllables to fill up this space or you need something that rhymes."