Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit Meaning

Song Released: 1991

Covered By: Malia J (2021)

Smells Like Teen Spirit Lyrics

Load up on guns and
Bring your friends
It's fun to lose
And to pretend
She's over bored
And self assured
Oh no, I know
A dirty word

hello, hello, hello, how low?
hello, hello, hello, how low?
hello, hello, hello, how low?
hello,...

1. 2QT2BSTR8

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   Jan 5th 2006 !⃝

   Kurt was dating a girl in another band, but they broke up. Later, another girl in the band sprayed on his wall, "Kurt Cobain Smells Like Teen Spirit" (the deodorant she always wore). Kurt misunderstood it and thought it meant he was rebellious. His song has almost trippled the sale of Teen Spirit deodorant.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   Dec 31st 2005 !⃝

   The real origin of the song is that "teen spirit" was a deodourant and someone wrote on Kurt's wall "Kurt Cobain smells like teen spirit," and that's the basis of the song.

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3. 2cool4u

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   Dec 29th 2005 !⃝

   You are all being stupid! Why does this really cool song need to have a ....ing meaning? It's got cool lyrics, and the guitar is kickass, so shut your mouths!

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4. anonymous

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   Dec 28th 2005 !⃝

   That was "The Man Who Sold The World"
5. anonymous

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   Dec 22nd 2005 !⃝

   Hey, "Nirvana" just because that's how Kurt got the idea and name from the song doesn't mean some of those "interpretations" are wrong. The whole song doesn't have to just be about how he got the idea for it.
6. anonymous

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   Dec 18th 2005 !⃝

   In poking fun of Generation X's evasion, denial, and broken attention spans, the song overtly uses the refrain "Here we are now/Entertain us" to express the youth's passive relation to life, while offering a variety of scattered and confused lyrics to represent the inability to focus on coherent thought.
7. anonymous

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   Nov 27th 2005 !⃝

   I prefer the reversed verson of the song its catchy you can also make out words about the illuminati (not directly, but how they treated him), but I doubt it's intentional.

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8. anonymous

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   Nov 6th 2005 !⃝

   Kurt's girlfriend, Tobi Vail (of Bikini Kill), wore Teen Spirit deodorant and Kathleen Hanna, her best friend, jokingly wrote on Kurt's wall that he "smelled like Teen Spirit". After Tobi broke up with him, Kurt wrote this song. Original versions included the line, "Who will be the king and queen of the outcast teens?" which was a strong reference to their relationship.
9. anonymous

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   Oct 31st 2005 !⃝

   A friend of Kurt wrote on the wall: "Kurt smells like teen spirit" meaning the deodorant.
   
   Kurt missinterpreted (he didn't know the deodorant) and thought of it as a deeper thought. Then he wrote this song with that literate meaning: the smell of teen spirit.
10. jeskllz

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    Oct 31st 2005 !⃝

    It's about Kurt waiting for the rest of the world to entertain them. He doesn't give a crap about being cool because common trends die fast and the rest of the world is a bore. "OOoo, let me be cool and join groups like everybody else." You can pretend all you want and still have your life (the main point of the song). Let's shoot each other with the lights out, who cares, you're still alive idiots. The whole purpose of having a life is to be yourself, get over it! To understand a song, you have to take in context the lyrics from other songs. Otherwise your left to your own interpretation which is wrong 99% of the time.

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11. anonymous

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    Oct 30th 2005 !⃝

    It's a song about apathy. "With the lights out it's less dangerous" refers to life and how people can go about life with ease if they don't think deeply into how things really are. With the lights out, people can't see the truth (and is less dangerous to their well being). This is why some people don't understand where Kurt is coming from. "A denial" repeated over and over again alludes to the same idea (people living in denial).
12. D00by

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    Oct 25th 2005 !⃝

    This song is about peer pressure. The group he talks about in the song, he's willing to do anything for their acceptance. He's laughing at people who play things like russian roulette, and the choking game and become cheerleaders just so they can be liked. People are too afraid of just being different and being good at what they are good at, if its not "cool" to be good at that thing then give it up, that's what the song is about. Its a contagious ritual that happens in every corner of life.
13. anonymous

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    Oct 17th 2005 !⃝

    Perhaps, and don't quote me on this, but perhaps rock and roll lyrics are to be understood only in the context of the music they are joined to. This would mean that the lyrics don't literally mean anything. They are poetic (sometimes) and accentuate the feelings of the music. Music is, after all, a powerful means of expression. If this is the case, then we are participating in a fruitless, and stupid, act, by trying to interpret the literal meanings of this particular (and talented, given) grunge artist.
    
    But hey, I could be wrong.
14. anonymous

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    Oct 17th 2005 !⃝

    Teen Spirit was a deodorant. It was grafittied that Kurt smelled like a friend of Kathlen Hanna, singer of Bikini Kill. Her friend, a 'kind of' lover of Kurt wrote it as part of the Riot Grrl movement. Basic facts behind the song, people.
15. anonymous

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    Oct 15th 2005 !⃝

    I don't know if I'll give it a go anyway.
    Kurt was two timing and he had one girl over (I don't know who) who was wearing a perfume called "Teen Spirit". When she went away, the other girl came and she said that something "smells like Teen Spirit". Quite a simple explanation though, so probably not true. Anyone got any ideas?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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