On this day in 1991, Nirvana shot the music video for the song that broke grunge into the mainstream. In May 1991, the band recorded their hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. on September 24, 1991, the release of their sophomore album, Nevermind, defined the decade ahead. Ahead of the album’s release, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released as a single on September 10, 1991. Its iconic music video was shot one month before, on August 17.

The music video was shot at GMT Studios in Culver City, California, for less than $50,000. It was a low-budget shoot that featured real Nirvana fans as the audience. Ahead of the shoot, the band released an announcement calling on fans to appear in the video. The announcement read, “You should be 18 to 25 years old and adapt to a high-school persona, i.e preppy, punk, nerd, jock…”

Director Samuel Brayer believes he was chosen for the job because his test reel was so poor that the band felt the result would be more “punk” and “not corporate.” Overall, this would be Brayer’s first music video shoot, and he went on to shoot videos for Ozzy Osbourne, Blind Melon, The Smashing Pumpkins, and many more throughout the decade.

the inspiration for the iconic music video

Kurt Cobain mentioned on various occasions that one of his favorite films was Jonathan Kaplan’s 1979 film Over the Edge. This can be heard in the 2015 documentary film, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. In Over the Edge, rebellious teenagers lock their parents and teachers in a school while they destroy the town. Cobain made a connection between this film and the music video concept for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Additionally, The Ramones 1979 film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School also served as inspiration for the video.

Nirvana is seen performing during a school pep rally in a dystopian reality. Students mosh while cheerleaders in black wear black outfits with anarchy symbols. The students destroy the set, which actually happened, as many of the extras grew frustrated during the shoot. Ultimately, this left the crew scrambling to finish safety shots, as the extras had destroyed the set by the end of shooting.

The video won Nirvana the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Group awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2000, Guinness World Records named “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the most-played video on MTV Europe. Upon release, the song peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and went to No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart.

Photo by Goedefroit Music/Getty Images

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The grunge genre is surprisingly good at producing catchy songs. Of course, the well-known bands are still relevant because they made such great songs, and it’s difficult to single out the best of all time. But, we tried anyway, and the results feature some grunge classics.

“Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots

Stone Temple Pilots released “Plush” on their debut 1992 album Core, with one of the most recognizable and catchiest choruses in grunge. STP was pretty good at writing hooks in general, and it’s difficult to choose just one from their discography. But “Plush” stands out for its longevity despite almost unintelligible lyrics.

Overall, “Plush” was huge for the band, even though critics at the time found it derivative. Still, it was the first alt-rock song to top the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. Additionally, it earned Stone Temple Pilots an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1993, and the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. Now, it’s considered a staple of grunge, but it took a while to earn that respect.

“Even Flow” by Pearl Jam

“Even Flow” appeared on Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut album Ten. Another grunge band that has had a profound effect on alt-rock, Pearl Jam has an almost endless catalog of iconic choruses to choose from. But the tried-and-true “Even Flow” is never a disappointment.

However, diehard fans know that the original version of “Even Flow” actually was a disappointment, at least to the band. In 1992, they re-recorded a version that was eventually used in the music video (the concert footage by Josh Taft, not the strange zoo footage by Rocky Schenck). The updated “Even Flow” pleased the band a little more than the first. Either way, it’s still a rousing grunge classic.

“In Bloom” by Nirvana

“In Bloom” was released on Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, and the chorus is pure Cobain derision and cynicism. It was originally written around 1989 about the vapid, shallow people who were flooding the underground scene. Re-recorded in 1991, it translated perfectly to Nirvana’s increasing mainstream visibility.

The chorus of “In Bloom” is so successful, however, that it becomes tragically ironic. It’s so catchy and memorable that people earnestly sing along, despite the sneering lyrics about not knowing what the song really means. Unfortunately, that was a byproduct of Nirvana’s success.

Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns

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The grunge era was a big deal to us 90s kids. I mean, I was about 10—in the mid 90s—before I discovered it, to be fair. Even that late, it still meant a lot to me, and there are a ton of songs I know we all still know by heart.

I’m not talking about the most popular ones. The ones that EVERYONE knows. I’m also not talking about the deep DEEP cuts. The B-side demos that purists give you s**t for not knowing.

This is all about those important songs that made real grunge fans out of a generation of Gen-X/Millenial inbetweeners. These are the songs for us.

“I Stay Away” by Alice in Chains

Everybody loves “Rooster” and “Man in the Box”. You’re a real 90s grunge kid, though, if you can still sing along to Alice in Chains’ 1994 tune “I Stay Away”.

It’s really a lovely track, honestly. There’s a beautiful melody to it, and the string arrangement just really drives it home. You almost feel classy belting this one out in the car.

“Animal” by Pearl Jam

The third single off of Pearl Jam’s sophomore album, Vs., “Animal” is hands down one of the best songs they ever released to radio. It’s very rock ‘n’ roll; borderline not even grunge, but if it’s got Eddie Vedder’s distinct vocals, it’s grunge as f**k.

“Jesus Christ Pose” by Soundgarden

Some of you are going to reject this, I can already feel it, but: “Jesus Christ Pose” by Soundgarden is one of these songs. It’s huge with 90s kids, but in the mainstream fandom, it gets overlooked quite a bit.

Even though the song was technically written about rock stars with god complexes, I think, maybe, there’s an element of the song that speaks to the religious trauma of late Gen-Xers/Elder Millennials. I’m not gonna get into a whole thing, but suffice it to say: if you know, you know.

Also, it’s just a killer song with such a memorable riff.

“Drain You” by Nirvana

It’s tough because Nirvana is almost split down the middle, with songs everyone knows on one side of the line and songs only hardcore fans know on the other side. So, what are the songs right on that line?

For me, “Drain You” is one of those songs. It’s not super well-known to just anyone. But it’s also not an obscure track. It’s one that real 90s kids remember and love just as much as “Smells Like Teen Spirit“.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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