August 17, 1991: Anarchy on MTV – With “Smells Like Teen Spirit” indie rock went mainstream
“Kurt hated mainstream,” states Krist Novoselic. “That’s what ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was about: the conformity of the masses and their conformist thinking.” On August 17, 1991, Nirvana, an underground trio from the greater Seattle area, shot the video for “Smells” in a studio in Culver City Like Teen Spirit”, the first single from their as yet unreleased album “Nevermind”. The clip, quickly put together by newcomer director Sam Bayer, was a subversive satire of the usual MTV fodder: Nirvana playing in a high school gym in front of enthusiastic fans, with pretty cheerleaders waving their pompoms. Except that the girls have the word “anarchy” scrawled on their sweaters, the kids are dancing the pogo and the band – drummer Dave Grohl, bassist Novoselic and singer/guitarist/songwriter – are opening and closing their mouths to the playback.
The video changed Nirvana’s life in an instant…In October ’91, while the band was touring North America, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” played virtually non-stop on MTV. Club gigs became sold-out triumphs and album sales skyrocketed. In January ’92, “Nevermind” was number one on the album charts.
But the loose-pop viciousness and sweat-soaked visual detail of the “Teen Spirit” video also powerfully promoted something much bigger: the invention of punk metal and the indie ideals of a new generation of Seattle bands. With Nirvana at the forefront, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees and Mudhoney stormed the radio playlists and album charts and became the pop mainstream of the next five years. “A random collection of outsiders who didn’t put much pressure on each other,” says Mudhoney singer Mark Arm, describing the glory days before talent scouts descended on the city like locusts, looking for “grunge bands.” “There was a core of maybe 50 people that you would see at almost every concert,” adds Mudhoney’s drummer Dan Peters. There wasn’t much money to be had back then.
Sub Pop, the most popular local label, combined strict austerity with impeccable musical taste and released records by many important Seattle bands of the time, including Nirvana. When the band, founded in 1987 by Cobain and Novoselic, recorded their album “Bleach” in 1989, it cost Sub Pop the whopping amount of $606.17. But the wild life also had its dark sides. Heroin was common among Seattle rock musicians. Unable to conquer his addiction and wracked with self-doubt, Cobain committed suicide on April 5, 1994, bringing Seattle’s renaissance to an early end. The latest victim was Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley, whose long descent into drug hell ended with a fatal overdose in 2002.
“The hype back then, how they hyped up the music – that left its mark on everyone,” said Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder last year. “You just had to deal with that.” But at the height of their fame, there were few things more exciting than being a band from Seattle. “You had been making music for ten years and never had an audience,” Vedder recalled in 1999. “Then, suddenly, you had one. And everyone wanted to enjoy that.”