Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit: How an era-defining moment was sold short

The formula was simple: four and a half minutes, four chords and three verses of barely discernible lyrics that made little sense when you deciphered them anyway.

Much has been written about the impact of Nirvana and frontman Kurt Cobain: they changed the musical landscape; suddenly decent music was charting again and a disaffected generation had a spokesperson – albeit a reluctant one.

They rocked the world, shook everything up, but 20 years later everything seems to have settled back to the way it was.

It's 20 years since Smells Like Teen Spirit was released to college radio stations in the US.  Use the interactive above to explore the world of grunge and see the connections between the main players - and some surprising cameos.

Daniel Makagon, then a 21-year-old DJ with LA college radio station KXLU, was the first person in the world to air Teen Spirit.   He had the band sitting in the studio with him when he did it.

“They were relaxed.  Kurt didn’t talk much at all,” Mr Makagon, now an associate professor of communications at DePaul University in Chicago, told news.com.au.

Alternative rock music had been around for a while, particularly in Seattle, and like any genre of music it had a strong following well before mainstream listeners found it.

Campus radio picked up Teen Spirit and played it heavily.  Suddenly Nirvana were the biggest band on the planet.

It was all about grunge.  Grunge music, grunge fashion, grunge attitude.

Bands such as Sonic Youth, the Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam became huge.  Whether they started out before Nirvana fever or cashed in after, deserved it or didn’t, a host of musical acts rode in on the grunge revolution. And indie label Sub Pop was at the helm.

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Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit: How an era-defining moment was sold short

The formula was simple: four and a half minutes, four chords and three verses of barely discernible lyrics that made little sense when you deciphered them anyway. Much has been written about the impact of Nirvana and frontman Kurt Cobain: they changed



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