10 Artists That Disowned Their Own Songs

The entire kickoff to the ‘90s needed something like Smells Like Teen Spirit to wake up the rock industry again. Although Nirvana didn’t look like the same kind of rock starlets that you saw across MTV, the authentic approach that Kurt Cobain had in the music video was enough to win everyone over, with a song that was just as sarcastic as it was angry. That was Kurt’s intent, but the very thing he was lashing out against came back to bite him.

When the band were first cutting Nevermind, Kurt was actually really proud of Teen Spirit, even asking the rest of the band to check out the lyrics to really understand what he meant. It did resonate with a lot of kids, and Kurt had an issue with some of the jocks that were starting to get on the bandwagon for grunge at the time. Seeing how the same people who liked his band used to bully him in school, Kurt pulled back hard on the entire record, with Teen Spirit being the prime candidate for songs that he couldn’t stand.

Though Kurt would play the song in concerts, he had said that he found no joy in playing it when Nirvana were playing live, saying that all he wants to do is throw his guitar down and walk away. That might not be the song’s fault though. Having Teen Spirit resonate across social groups wasn’t because of glossy production or anything. Kurt just may not have realized that he had his finger on the pulse of youth culture maybe a little too accurately.