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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