What made "Smells like Teen Spirit" such a phenomenal success?

[obamacon]

and...go.

[GraphiteDirigible]

Weird Al

[Jihad_Jesus]

In order to understand this question we must first come to recognize the socio-economic culture surrounding the early 1990s. The decadence of the 1980s came to a screeching halt following GNRs release of Appetite for Destruction when hair bands were exposed as the crap that they were. The gluttonly of the eighties stalled quickly following the stagnation of the market in the 90's preceeding the .com boom. The children of the BOOMERS were coming of age and in an era of minimal parenting and an "I get what I want" attitude. It is also important to note that during this period a little band called The Pixies was in peak form. Anyways, the early 90's was filled with terrible R&B music that nobody could really identify with and all of the good music that the cool kids were listening to wasn't getting any play on MTV because they were too ugly or didn't give a *&^% about their image(they still played videos back then). Enter Kurt Kobain and David Grohl. Both of them were keen about their image and, being the children of Boomers, wanted to make some money. Both were fairly good looking and Kurt had a nice sweater that many of the kids could identify with (both the cool kids and the posers). They hooked up with an emerging label, came up with a cool guitar rift, a flashy album cover, and wrote some depressing music that represented the emotinal void of the time. Lo-and-behold the kids were ready for it...they couln't take Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson any more...and they gobbled the tunes up with vengance. It wasn't until several years later, with the dawn of the internet, that Nirvana was exposed as the mediocre group of musicians that they were mand the great bands from this era came to be recognized within the public sphere. 

[yourlocalsuperhero]

Interesting analysis, Jihad.  Just so you know, you may get mobbed when saying "Kurt was in it for money" in the 3(+) dimensional world.

It's pretty standard for record labels to spend millions of dollars promoting a single song, including questionable practices like bribing stations to, in essence, make it popular.  Maybe SLTS fits into this trend somehow? 

[RATM2007]

The exhaustive post above is 2nd rate drivel that can be lifted from any vh1 special on the era.  I sincerely hope that no one needs to be educated on this subject.

Oh, and I especially like the part about the f*cking internet exposing Nirvana for being mediocre musicians.  I would think that anyone who has played music would be able to discern that by listening to their songs.

[Jihad_Jesus]

Interesting analysis, Jihad.  Just so you know, you may get mobbed when saying "Kurt was in it for money" in the 3(+) dimensional world.

It's pretty standard for record labels to spend millions of dollars promoting a single song, including questionable practices like bribing stations to, in essence, make it popular.  Maybe SLTS fits into this trend somehow? 

The Smells Like Teen Spirit single was not promoted heavily by DGC and it got its initial rotations through college stations. DGC was planning on promoting the second single Come as you Are as the big hit and they were somewhat surprised with the success of SLTS.

[Jihad_Jesus]

The exhaustive post above is 2nd rate drivel that can be lifted from any vh1 special on the era.  I sincerely hope that no one needs to be educated on this subject.

Oh, and I especially like the part about the f*cking internet exposing Nirvana for being mediocre musicians.  I would think that anyone who has played music would be able to discern that by listening to their songs.

Technically speaking there is nothing too impressive with Nirvana. Some Pixie rip-offs, some Boston rip-offs, and some pretty standard power chord progressions...especially on Smells Like Teen Spirit. The internet didn't expose it, it just gave people greater access to other music that was being made at the time that is far superior but got no radio play (i.e., Pixies, Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, Guided By Voices, Pavement, Flaming Lips). Now, don't get me wrong, many of the aforementioned bands had good followings in the 90's, but none of them close to Nirvana. Everybody had Nevermind. Only the cool kids had these others...until now.  

[notoriginal]

maybe you meant to say there is nothing impressive about Nevermind. If you know anything about Nirvana, you know that album isn't even close to being the best. and you also know that kurt hated smells like teen spirit because it was sort of the sell out song.

Technically speaking, there is nothing too impressive with you

[Jihad_Jesus]

maybe you meant to say there is nothing impressive about Nevermind. If you know anything about Nirvana, you know that album isn't even close to being the best. and you also know that kurt hated smells like teen spirit because it was sort of the sell out song.

Technically speaking, there is nothing too impressive with you

Hahahahah...you're one of those die-hard Nirvana fans. You're probably one of those second generation Nirvana fans that was in fourth grade when Nevermind came out? Going through Nirvana's extensive catalog I would rank Nevermind 2nd behind In Utero.. Bleach is good and raw, but lacks overall consistency. Their other releases (Insecticide, & Unplugged don't count because they're just covers and live takes. And if Kurt Cobain was so concerned with selling out why did he sign with Geffen? Seems like if he didn't want to sell out he would have kept the band under the Sub Pop label. Oh well, he couldn't handle the stardom that he so desperately wanted and he ended up blowing his brains out. At least it allowed Dave Grohl to develop his full potential.

Don't get me wrong. I like Nirvana and I liked them back in the day, but musically they were not that talented. It was more of a market niche that they hit upon with those unruly haircuts paired with torn jeans and nice sweaters.

[Hank Rearden]

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