Analysis of "Smells like Teen Spirit".

"Smells like teen spirit" is a performance, and music video written by Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic for an American Band called Nivarna. It was released in 1991. Kurt Cobain released in an interview the song was an attempt to create something similar to the style of the Pixies, a band he greatly admired. The song turned out to be a platinum single in the US with millions of sales.

The video starts out with a cut in of an audience member stomping their foot to the rhythm of the guitar. Immediately this is a signifier, because once you've heard the song, the start is almost hypnotic, you know what song it is and when the rhythm is going to "kick-in". It puts the audience into perspective on whats happening, and gets them into the grove before the song even starts.

It then reveals the setting of the show thats going on, in a musk room with rooms covered in grey material, smoke covers the room in a thick musk, cheerleaders are then seen dancing. This is unusual, it doesn't conform to anything, but it shows people having a goof time in a very dull environment. This could perhaps be related to the fans of the band, being unenthusiastic, ridden teens.

Later it is shown to us that the band are performing in a school hall, with the students on benches, we can see basket ball hoops hanging from the walls. It makes the title almost ironic, that the band are performing in a school gym hall packed full of teens, and that it "smells like teen spirit".
There are multiple cut-ins of the janitor dancing with his mop, which implies he enjoys the change in the atmosphere.