Sam Fogarino of Interpol on the success of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
There are some songs that simply define popular music, highlighting the societal shift in music taste across the decades. Tracks that have exemplified the spirit of society in particular generations include ‘My Generation’ by the Who in the 1960s, ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba in the 1970s and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana in the 1990s.
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ arrived on September 10th, 1991, as the lead single from Nirvana’s second album Nevermind. Both the single and the album would propel Kurt Cobain’s band from an underground grunge act into world-conquering superstars. However, this was something that perhaps contributed to Cobain’s tragic suicide; he was never the kind to be adored by millions.
Cobain had been heavily influenced by the Beatles, and in ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, we can hear the simplicity of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership coming through. The track opens with one of the most iconic chord progressions of all time, followed by a simple two-note ‘riff’. It was this eschewing of unnecessary adornment that made Nirvana so famous. It’s a sentiment that Sam Fogarino, the drummer of Interpol, agrees with.
“Nobody said about Nirvana that they’re just Beatles songs hit heavy,” Fogarino said. “It’s unfair the way we just peg someone to the past versus someone who will just have immunity. But Nirvana wasn’t horribly original; they just had a different idea.”
He added, “With all credit, too, it’s not a slight. I mean, distorted guitars, loud-quiet-loud is not original, but their approach was, and their execution was. There are things that are intrinsic to a good song; good melodies, good lyrics, good arrangements, so at that point, it doesn’t matter how original it is.”
Indeed, much of rock music, in general, is drawn from prior inspirations. After all, pretty much all of Western music has been written using just twelve notes. Yet, just because something takes clear inspiration from something else does not necessarily mean that it is without merit, nor that it cannot elucidate new themes for new generations of listeners; something that Nirvana, without doubt, succeeded in.
On why it was Nirvana out of all the 1990s Seattle grunge bands to shoot into unrivalled stardom, Fogarino said, “It was because ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was a hit. Kurt Cobain tried to write a pop song, and he did, and it had widespread appeal. It didn’t alienate the indie kids, and it was pop enough for the kids who didn’t care about the underground.”
He added, “So it’s just pure merit of good songwriting. When Nirvana broke on the front of Time magazine, it read, ‘Everybody’s hip, and that ain’t cool’, and I thought, ‘that’s so true’.”
