Ah the nineties, such nostalgia. Takes me back to when I was… born. That’s right, we have finally made it to a decade I was alive in. Unfortunately, I was only there for one year, and lullabies are pretty standard across the years. However, I did get a taste of music from the 90s as I grew up with radio stations playing throwbacks or my mom jamming out to the Bon Jovi “Keep the Faith” and “These Days” album CDs on car rides.
There is a certain feel to 90s music, and correct me if I am wrong (after all I only experienced 10% of the decade). Music from the 90s speaks to evolution, a new twist on older music. If you do not believe me, I have got one word for you. Grunge. Google defines it as, “a style of rock music characterized by a raucous guitar sound and lazy vocal delivery,” but it is so much more than that. Words cannot describe the emotion that comes from this music or rather lack thereof. This mix between punk and hard-rock speaks of emotion that is nihilistic, self-deprecatingly ironic, and overall rebellious in nature. The music screams of teen-angst and defying labels. Here are just a few of the hits that rocked the 90s: Pearl Jam’s “Alive”, Alice in Chains’ “Would?”, Soundgarden’s “Superunknown”, Smashing Pumpkin’s “Today”, the aforementioned Bon Jovi albums, and Nirvana’s “In Bloom”. Aside from a few heartfelt standouts like Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind”, and Boyz II Men “End of the Road”, the 90s was filled with varying versions of rock.
It is with this realization that I, along with Rolling Stones, VH1, and ThoughtCo, have decided that the best song of the 90s is Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from 1991. Kurt Cobain’s cynical perspective of teenagers accompanied by edgy, distorted punk rock music truly ushered grunge into the decade. Without this distinctive hit, grunge might not have even been brought out into the spotlight as a huge part of the culture of the 90s.
However, this creme de la creme of grunge was written on a misconception. In the early 90s, Cobain was hanging out with Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill, near a fake abortion clinic. The clinic was actually a religious center that would push women to keep their children when they came seeking an abortion. Cobain, in his rebellious nature, spray painted demeaning messages on the wall of this fake abortion clinic while intoxicated. In the same manner of vandalism, Hanna left Cobain a message written all over his bedroom wall in Sharpie saying, “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Taking this to mean the spirit of teenagers, Cobain took the message to heart and ended up writing a song named after it that many have come to know and love. However, Hanna meant it as a joke about one of Cobain’s exes. A fellow member of Bikini Kill, Tobi Vail dumped Cobain previously. Vail’s choice of deodorant was Teen Spirit, something Cobain did not know. Kurt Cobain’s grunge hit centered around a misunderstanding about a stick of deodorant.
A song that is instantly recognizable as soon as the pick hits the guitar strings. That riff is one for the ages and one repeatedly heard in late 90s and early 2000s remixes and movies. In fact, the song made an appearance on The Muppets and most recently Pan. “Weird Al” Yankovic also put his own little spin on the hit with his own parody “Smells Like Nirvana.” If you ever want to take a blast to the past, listening to Nirvana’s grunge, teen angst, and apathy in “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”