Nov. 1, 2024

Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Show Notes
Transcript

This scorching audio narrative untangles how Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a generational big bang of creative liberation. Deconstructing Kurt Cobain's abrasive howl channeling millions of disaffected souls into a molotov cocktail of working-class manifesto and melodic irreverence, it explores Dave Grohl's unparalleled drum bombardment as the true kinetic life force. The making of the anarchic music video crystalizing their cheerleader anti-iconography is revealed, as is the song's seismic impact torching hair metal banality to upend rock's very consciousness. Finally, Grohl's continuation as culture's most esteemed ambassador honoring that spirit through Foo Fighters and beyond solidifies "Teen Spirit's" immortality.

Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!

Subscribe now for exclusive shows like 'Palace Intrigue,' and get bonus content from Deep Crown (our exclusive Palace Insider!) Or get 'Daily Comedy News,' and '5 Good News Stories’ with no commercials! Plans start at $4.99 per month, or save 20% with a yearly plan at $49.99. Join today and help support the show!

We now have Merch! FREE SHIPPING! Check out all the products like T-shirts, mugs, bags, jackets and more with logos and slogans from your favorite shows! Did we mention there’s free shipping? Get 10% off with code NewMerch10 Go to Caloroga.com

Get more info from Caloroga Shark Media and if you have any comments, suggestions, or just want to get in touch our email is info@caloroga.com

Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!

Subscribe now for exclusive shows like 'Palace Intrigue,' and get bonus content from Deep Crown (our exclusive Palace Insider!) Or get 'Daily Comedy News,' and '5 Good News Stories’ with no commercials! Plans start at $4.99 per month, or save 20% with a yearly plan at $49.99. Join today and help support the show!

We now have Merch! FREE SHIPPING! Check out all the products like T-shirts, mugs, bags, jackets and more with logos and slogans from your favorite shows! Did we mention there’s free shipping? Get 10% off with code NewMerch10 Go to Caloroga.com

Get more info from Caloroga Shark Media and if you have any comments, suggestions, or just want to get in touch our email is info@caloroga.com

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.279
The hit Maker Chronicles now has merch hats, mugs, t

2
00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:06.639
shirts all with the podcast logo. We have free shipping

3
00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:09.119
and ten percent off with the code new Merch ten.

4
00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:12.279
Just go to Caloroga dot com. That's c l o

5
00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:15.359
Roga dot com or look for the link in the

6
00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:18.239
show notes. It all supports us here behind the scenes

7
00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:26.600
of the show and really appreciate it. Thanks Calaroga Shark Media.

8
00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:36.479
In the grand lineage of rock's most seismic revolutions, few

9
00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.200
watershed events echoed with the universe shattering force of Nirvana's

10
00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:44.560
smells like teen Spirit detonating across the airwaves in nineteen

11
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:48.679
ninety one. From those first thundering power chords and Kurt

12
00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:52.679
Cobaine's laryngitis laced growl of with the Lights Out, It's

13
00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:57.200
Less Dangerous were instantly submerged in the angst drenched ethos

14
00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.719
that would crystallize a new generational reckoning. This was the

15
00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:04.760
elemental howl of millions of disenfranchised youth vibrating through one

16
00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:09.040
solitary conduit, a cathartic Molotov cocktail of shredded hopes and

17
00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.400
steely defiance in the face of a thousand oppressive societal

18
00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:16.040
conventions for what began as a few scribbled slogans by

19
00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:19.760
Cobaine bemoaning the cynical abandonment of the true punk spirit

20
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:23.159
across the Seattle scene, would ultimately blossom into a full

21
00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:28.480
throated generational manifesto. If bands were posturing as misfits, Nirvana

22
00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.879
rendered such outsider trappings visceral and violent. Take a deep

23
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:36.239
breath and listen closely. Can you hear the first faint

24
00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:40.359
crackles of authenticity smoldering beneath the suburban dreariness of dying

25
00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:44.760
mauls and overstuffed phutons, The fumes of a misspent adolescence

26
00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:48.239
gradually igniting under the mind numbing, static brain rot that

27
00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.439
America's youth culture found itself mired in as the Cold

28
00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:55.680
War's ashes settled. That's the bellows, providing the first ember

29
00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:59.480
the mundane imagery of youth's doldrums that Cobaine drew from

30
00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:04.239
in craft smells like teen spirit of smashed pumpkins, makeshift

31
00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.760
deodorant belts, and over driven pubescent day dreams, against the

32
00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.400
backdrop of a culture drained of vitality, of being dumb,

33
00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:14.919
feeling contagious, but unable to locate the source of this

34
00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:19.759
generational malaise, and then, with Dave Groll's earth shaking drums

35
00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:24.680
summoning the sonic Maelstrom, Cobain unleashed the match, transcending disaffection

36
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:28.639
into a molten battle. Cry. Here we are now entertain us,

37
00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:32.639
he rasped, enshrining the death rattle of a society, imprisoning

38
00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:36.599
a demographic in corporate malaise. Its Grolls, massive beats, and

39
00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:40.039
chaotic swing fills that are the raging Id, propelling Cobain's

40
00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:45.240
howls into our souls. While Cobain's genius birthed Nirvana's reckoning,

41
00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.120
one cannot overstate his seamless mind meld with Grolls, percussive

42
00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.199
heroism and force of nature energy. Groles sinked instantly with

43
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.840
Cobain and christ Novoselic's unleashed id. His beat's channel teenage

44
00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:02.879
anguish into controlled chaos fills, slamming through stifling norms, lending

45
00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:06.400
smells like teen spirit, its sense of swinging between rapture

46
00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:10.280
and fury. What elevates the song's impact beyond punk is

47
00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:15.599
Cobaine's impassioned shrieks with conviction. He spits incendury dictums like

48
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.879
our little tribe has really been antiquated, while bearing vulnerability

49
00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:25.360
about feeling overblown and his self smoldering unseen. In four

50
00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:31.240
breathtaking minutes, Nirvana transformed punk's agrotherapy into enlightened catharsis for

51
00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:35.599
a generation stranded in hair metal's cultural hegemony. In the

52
00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:39.680
Uncensored video, with cheerleader uniforms and moshing youth, the band

53
00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.879
torched any notion of sanitized rebellion. This was anarchic upheaval,

54
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:47.680
with the cleansing emancipation of letting the unmuzzled id scream

55
00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:52.439
itself hoarse, of shredding every shred of inauthenticity through transcendent noise.

56
00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:56.639
Upon its release, the shock waves of smells like teen

57
00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:01.360
Spirit transcended underground with precision. There was the ubiquity of

58
00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.879
its opening rift, proliferating pop culture and becoming a viral

59
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.520
sing along, but the deeper chord it struck emanated from

60
00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:12.159
a primal desire to violently shrug off society's oppressive shackles.

61
00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:16.120
To answer Cobain's howl, I feel stupid and contagious. Here

62
00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:20.279
we are now entertain us with unbridled rebel yells like

63
00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:26.279
profound upheavals. Teen Spirit's impact elevated to deep veneration for millions.

64
00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:31.279
Raised on its anthemics, Cobaine personified anti establishment defiance, the

65
00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:36.319
figurehead to catalyze subversive awakenings. In nearly thirty years since

66
00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:40.959
Nirvana's rebellion flamed out, Smells Like Teen Spirit expanded its

67
00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:45.879
footprint and capacity to shape shift for every disaffected generation's undercurrents.

68
00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:50.800
While contemporaries upheld Grunge's integrity, only Nirvana struck with sustained

69
00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:56.120
generational combustion that its four minutes transcended into spiritual rite.

70
00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:00.600
The lyrics became incantations, etched across millions seeking an emancipation

71
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:05.800
to satirize and transcend collective on we find identity beyond

72
00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:22.120
norms more in a moment. Nearly three decades later, Smells

73
00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:26.279
like teen Spirit remain sacred scripture, inspiring artists across the

74
00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.560
spectrum to transform the world's ugliest pain into revelation. As

75
00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.360
Cobaine howled before detonating his spirit with the lights out,

76
00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:38.920
it's less dangerous here. We are now entertain us an

77
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:43.399
invitation to liberation, ringing across disaffected souls starving for an

78
00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:47.800
unmuzzled voice. It's the essence the hit maker. Chronicles celebrates

79
00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:52.199
that singular offering, changing the world's consciousness, giving voice to

80
00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:57.519
the silenced masses, setting the cultural fabric ablaze with smells

81
00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.360
like teen Spirit, The howl of an a band and

82
00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:04.879
generation was unleashed, berthing a new frontier of visceral expression,

83
00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:09.079
a musical big bang whose shock waves still ripple. While

84
00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:14.160
Cobaine's scream lanced through silence, Dave Grohl's thunderous drums ensured

85
00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:19.079
the transmission kept blasting forth as Foo Fighter's backbone grole

86
00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:22.519
re established his obligation to keep that primal spirit alive

87
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.279
from their first gritty nineteen ninety five album With staples

88
00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:30.240
like Big Me, the Foos were torch bearers, keeping Nirvana's

89
00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:35.040
punk grooves rumbling while transcending their fallen brothers. As Dave

90
00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:39.040
carried his juggernaut to Arenas, he rededicated himself as caretaker

91
00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:44.120
to that uncompromising spirit through sheer visceral force, whether through

92
00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:47.839
anchoring albums like One by One and Wasting Light or

93
00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:51.759
championing rock's roots through works like Sound City, Grohl was

94
00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:56.720
rock's true north, its tireless ambassador, insuring smells like Teen Spirits,

95
00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:01.560
purifying flames consumed complacency. So crank the volume. Feel that

96
00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:05.079
opening thunder rumbling your core. Can you smell the vapors

97
00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:08.759
from the initial spark that reignited a generation's passion, that

98
00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:13.040
prove this rock ritual still breathed life. It's all still visceral,

99
00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:17.680
liberating as smells like Teen Spirits, legacy breathes into each

100
00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:22.920
new class. Grole insures Nirvana's galvanizing transmission never ceases, reminding

101
00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:28.759
us to screen ourselves into existence. I'm Andrew Irons and

102
00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:32.240
this has been another engaging episode of The Hit Maker Chronicles.

103
00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:35.399
Join us next week as we continue to uncover the

104
00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:38.680
stories behind the songs and artists that have left an

105
00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.079
indelible mark on the world. The Hit Maker Chronicles is

106
00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:46.519
a production of Calarogus Shark Media executive producers Mark Francis

107
00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:49.759
and John McDermott. Portions of this podcast may have been

108
00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:51.600
created with the assistance of Ai