The Angry Czeck

“Smells Like Teen Spirit changed everything.”

I’ve heard this said both mockingly and with solemn reverence.  For those who evoke those words in the former’s tone, there are those who point to Nirvana’s less-heralded predecessors. Some question the artistry of the music. Others will even note Nirvana’s contemporaries have lent more to the grunge genre (Pearl Jam is the band most often cited).

I can’t speak for a generation or for an industry, but Smells Like Teen Spirit did change a great deal for me. Before SLTS (is it okay if I do this?), my music was my parents’ music, with a smattering of hair rock thrown in for variety. My mixed tape was comprised chiefly of Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, The Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, and a dozen other voices not of my own generation.

While you can’t take away the brilliance of The Who or even The Guess Who, I found that too much of my parents’ music centered around social troubles or kicking a cocaine habit. It was difficult to identify with the powerful anti-war anthems or the experiments into psychotropic drugs that stirred my father’s ire. These weren’t my themes. I couldn’t even identify my themes! Unless, of course, frustration and apathy are themes, in which case Def Leppard wasn’t hitting the mark.

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Smells Like Teen Spirit provided an instant interpretation to what was once an unidentifiable soup of emotions and formless ideas. Everything was right: the rage in Cobain’s voice, the raw pluck of chords followed by a furious crescendo of drums and electric guitar. What was “teen spirit?” And what was it supposed to smell like? It didn’t matter. You knew it when you smelled it. And it did feel contagious. And it did feel stupid.

And that was the point. Ours was a generation without a villain.  We knew drugs were bad so we didn’t do them. We knew racism was wrong so we didn’t practice it. We didn’t smoke or fuck or burn draft cards. Our nemesis was ourselves, a foe we wrestled to the ground day after day. What did that smell like?

Ten is a better album than Nevermind. Not only that, Pearl Jam is just a better band. (Feel free not to debate me on that.) But while Black and Jeremy could have been the songs that changed everything, somehow Smells Like Teen Spirit beat them both to the punch. Twenty years later, my head still rings from it.

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