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. anonymous

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   Mar 22nd 2009 !⃝

   I think that this song doesn't actually mean anything. Most of the lyrics are plays on words. In the series where it's saying "a mullato... etc.", I think that it's supposed to be like a statement because when the song is sung you can't really tell the difference between them. This principle can be applied to most of it. Like "load up on guns" as opposed to "load the guns" and "over bored" as opposed to "over board". I also find it funny that "entertainers" and "entertain us" sound very similar to the listener. I think this song would most aptly be characterized as the "I Am The Walrus" of punk rock in that it's trying to, not exactly confuse people, but to make them see the flawed logic that they have about language. The Beatles were trying to make the interpreters' heads hurt, while Nirvana's simply saying that music doesn't need to be interpreted.
2. anonymous

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   Mar 18th 2009 !⃝

   Don't even start talking about how the song can be about "Team spirit" the song name was created because of a girl who wrote "kurt smells like teen spirit" and Kurt did not know what that meant until after the song became well known,he was looking for a song title and that's why it is called smells like teen spirit/it stuck with him at the time the song needed a name.
   
   The song is basically about fighting for what you believe in (*load up on guns bring your friends*) and the part about him saying "No I don't have a gun" is basically just saying not to harm innocent people while fighting for what you believe in.
3. anonymous

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   Feb 28th 2009 !⃝

   To me:
   
   The Song: is all about teen rebellion. believe me as a teen myself, Kurt is my hero. it is almost like he was writing the songs for us. Teens that are sick of living by the rule book. that is personally my interpretation of the song
   
   The video: the video is all about a "pep assembly gone bad" as Kurt Cobain once said in an interview in Montreal Canada. and thats how it is to me. if you have ever had to attend a pep rally, THEY SUCK! as a matter of a fact me and my friend decided to skip them for now on because they suck soo bad. and come to find out kurt did that as well. luckly we didnt get caught. but yeah Kurts dream was for a pep rally to go absolutly wrong. and thats what the video was about.
4. anonymous

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   Feb 19th 2009 !⃝

   Ok some of these interpretations are a little too serious everyone's trying to talk like a college professor! I think one it could be two things. One it has no real meaning. Or two that kurt is making fun of people who try to "fit in". There could be some meaning to these words that only kurt at the time only knew. Although the only possible answer is that he is making fun of "those" type of people. And i don't think that it goes beyond that point. Sometimes great music doesn't need intrepretation.
5. Vanna

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   Feb 1st 2009 !⃝

   Curt Cobain was most likely not the most popular kid in school. I say most likely because I can't account whether he was or not.
   Its fun to lose and to pretend - just like it says, its fun to be someone your not.
   shes over bored and self assured - sounds like hes talking about a girl he likes or girls(cheerleaders) in general.
   how low - like limbo how low can you go?
   with the lights out - its more of a metaphor for like if you were blind folded or thinking about the person instead of the outide(corny i kno)
   or that its safer to be unnoticed and unseen
   i feel stupid and contagious - basically every body feels like a J.A. and like a pest rather than part of a group.
   Also the second verse I find it hard... - its kind of a little joke, its hard to find..oh well whatever nevermind.
   I find this funny, I suppose I'm just one of those ppl who has a weird sense of humor and a more artistic mind... anyways it's basically the title "teen spirit" or the essence of a teen geared toward the "oddballs" that can;t seem to fit into the "categorys"
   btw thinking that im one of those, thats cool. I would be more complemented instead of insulted. I do my best to distinguish between being individual and beinga sheep
6. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2009 !⃝

   The song smells like teen spirit has no mean, some one wrote smells like teen spirit on the wall of his Olimpia apartment, and kurt thought it was a complement, and he did not know that teen spirt was a deoderant... He wrote the song on a flight right before they would record nevermind
7. LOLA09

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   Jan 9th 2009 !⃝

   This song is about how the singer went to walmart and he was bored and then he went to the deodorant section and he started to smell the tenn spirit deodorants and he really liked the cherry blossom one so he decided to make a song about it.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. askl

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   Dec 31st 2008 !⃝

   I'm worse at what I do best
   And for this gift I feel blessed
   Our little group has always been
   And always will until the end
   
   I personally think this part is about the band
   
   and the name smells like teen spirit was from a bar of deodorant Kurt saw
9. Veinless

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   Dec 5th 2008 !⃝

   I don't think its meaningless
   i would say it's about heroin
   
   Load up on guns
   Bring your friends
   Its fun to lose
   And to pretend
   Shes overboard
   Myself assured
   I know I know
   A dirty word
   
   they come together there adictect they have to
   
   With the lights out its less dangerous
   Here we are now
   Entertain us
   I feel stupid and contagious
   Here we are now
   Entertain us
   A mulatto
   An albino
   A mosquito
   My libido
   Yea
   
   its dangerous they shouldnt see them
   the heroin should make them happy
   there start seeing things
   
   Im worse at what I do best
   And for this gift I feel blessed
   Our little group has always been
   And always will until the end
   
   his lifestyle got him more and more into drugs
   but the heroin makes him happy
   the group will stay together cause they will all die on heroin they kno
   
   Im worse at what I do best
   And for this gift I feel blessed
   Our little group has always been
   And always will until the end
   
   hey forget things
   and start to don't care anymore
   
   
   
   this sounds the best to me
   even maybe it is just without sense but this does sound good
10. anonymous

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    Nov 26th 2008 !⃝

    To me i dont know what the song means but i do know what the Video is about. Kurt saw this movie from the 70's i dont know the title of it but it was about teens taking over the school and rebeling and he wanted the set to be based on that and The Ramones Rock N' Roll High School. So basically the video is about teens rebeling but as for the song i have no clue.
11. anonymous

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    Oct 22nd 2008 !⃝

    The song meaning is about his friend has a deodorant and Kurt use it. Then a friend of Kurt said to him, "Kurt smells like teen spirit". The song don't talk about his suicide or anything compared.
12. yeaitsfingme

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    Sep 16th 2008 !⃝

    Well at first he's talking bout all the typical hicks or stuck up people that act like everyone around them just to fit in. no matter their morals or ethics they just do it to have friends. like buying a gun even thou they don't like them or pretending to be someone. like being a bitch when your really not one.
    
    Some of the chorus to me anyway. It's hard to explain. but you know when you get that flight or fight really anxious feeling around people. and you feel like your making other people around you feel the same way cause of that energy.
    
    I think that's what stupid and contagious means. Then he just threw in some cool sounding words that rhym.
    
    
    Then he's talking bout how he is a really good musician but not a very good celebrity cause he probably had a bad self image. but he's in a band so fuck it he keeps on makin music.
    
    Then he's describing how bad of a time he has communicating things in he's head. So he's saying well whenever I try saying stuff it doesn't some out right so ...i give up.
    
    Kind of like how I feel here hahaha
13. anonymous

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    Aug 14th 2008 !⃝

    Smells Like Teen Spirit was a name that Kurt had taken from an incident he had. He had a girlfriend at the time who wore Teen Spirit deodorant, he picked up the scent and people started to notice. Then one day his girlfriend wrote on his wall "Kurt smells like teen spirit". Kurt had no idea what it meant or where it came from. But he liked the name, and decided to put it as the title as one of his songs.
    
    "She's overboard and self assured" Well most likely you can guess that this line is about a girl. Kurt had fallen in love with a girl but could not be with her because she was not interested. Teen Spirit is about his relationship with this girl he loved, "With the lights out, it's less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us" those words, I believe, are about sex with her, about him wanting her, him being "entertained" by her. The rest of the song, lines that seem to have no link to love for a girl could be about teen spirit, teenagers being confused, angry, depressed etc. "I'm worst at what I do best" that could about negativity going on in a teenagers head.
    
    Maybe Kurt wrote it about his teen years, who knows maybe about something else. But I guess only Kurt knows what the songs true meaning is.
14. billiedog

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    Jul 23rd 2008 !⃝

    The top rated interpreter claims that this song is about teenagers. I do agree in some ways but I read the following story in a book and thought it might change some minds a bit. "Teen Spirit" is an underarm deodorant that was popular in the 90's.
    
    Before Kurt Cobain fell for Courtney Love, he dated Tobi Vail, drummer of Bikini Kill in 1991. She eventually lost interest in Kurt so she broke it off. One night, one of Vail's band mates, Kathleen Hanna, was hanging out at Cobain's apartment, listening to him lament the break-up. At one point she grabbed a can of spray paint and wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" all over his wall. Vail wore this deodorant and her scent was still lingering on Cobain. This phrase provided inspiration for the band's first big hit.
    
    Later, Cobain admitted that he didn't know that Teen spirit was a deodorant for teenagers until after the song was released.
15. anonymous

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    Jun 29th 2008 !⃝

    In my opinion this song is just about teen spirit.. Teenagers are free spirited and it captures how they feel about things in life. I think its just a list. It seems to simply be a list of things that you may hear and instantly think..*Smells like teen spirit.*
    
    It's kind of like when older people would hear a teen say something and refer to them as *Smelling himself.*
    
    When he says "I know I know a dirty word." It's like when we would teach each other swear words in different languages. I remember taking spanish class
    and trading different swear words.
    
    Some of Nirvana's songs are pretty deep, but to me this one is pretty straight forward....

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