What's interesting to me is to learn from Wikipedia that the reference was apparently an accident:
Cobain came up with the song's title when his friend Kathleen Hanna, at the time the lead singer of the Riot Grrrl punk band Bikini Kill, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since they had been discussing anarchism, punk rock, and similar topics, Cobain interpreted the slogan as having a revolutionary meaning. What Hanna actually meant, however, was that Cobain smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit, which his then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain later claimed that he was unaware that it was a brand of deodorant until months after the single was released.[9]
I'd always assumed that Cobain was deliberately, cynically poking fun at one of the stupidest marketing campaigns ever ("smells like teen spirit" was the *actual* slogan for the stuff.) Mocking that level of corporate pandering. Turns out he did it by accident...
(Is it *really* an obscure factoid now? Are you running into people who never heard of it? Damn.)
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I'd always assumed that Cobain was deliberately, cynically poking fun at one of the stupidest marketing campaigns ever ("smells like teen spirit" was the *actual* slogan for the stuff.) Mocking that level of corporate pandering. Turns out he did it by accident...
(Is it *really* an obscure factoid now? Are you running into people who never heard of it? Damn.)