In 1991, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna wrote “Kurt Smells like Teen Spirit” on her friend Kurt Cobain’s bedroom wall. (Teen Spirit was a type of deodorant marketed to young girls.) Cobain took the joke and turned it into an anthem for the “over-bored and self-assured” youth who failed to connect with mainstream culture. “Teen Spirit” was recorded in just three takes, and although it was released as the first single off the band’s Nevermind album, it wasn’t expect to sell. But surprisingly, it did. The song’s music video was played constantly on MTV, and Nevermind went on to sell 25 million copies. The song is arguably one of the biggest hits of the 1990s, but if you listen to it today, with Kurt’s garbled lyrics over muddled guitar riffs, it sounds just as raw and revolutionary as it did 20 years ago. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” isn’t a song for the grunge generation. It’s a song for anyone who has ever stopped and realized, “I don’t know what I’m doing with my life.”
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