Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit analysis

The song title and the video go together hand in hand. The video encompasses everything that it is to be a teenager – High school/College student in America in the 90s. Set in a school gym, the band is performing to students, like a more personal/intimate Nirvana gig.



Straight away the video is filtered in a hazy yellow light which shows that it is in a sports gym. This also makes me feel like the murky fog shows it is a secret gig and is against permission of teachers. This links back to the rebel movement alternative Rock tries to portray. The cheerleaders also give us the sense of teenage and we can identify with another part of US student culture. The crowd are going crazy and really getting into the performance, so much so that during the show, they interact with the band by crowd surfing the members.

The classic “head banger” dance is iconic with Nirvana’s music, and is a constant with the audience, which shows how the band have noticed this and incorporated their fans actions into their videos. At the end, a stereotypical geek is found taped up in the gym with the care-taker of the school cleaning up after the gig. This again shows the element of rebellion.

From an editing point of view, the action shots of the crowd are slowed down so that we as onlookers to the gig can see more clearly the expression and actions of the crazy teenagers. This is effective because we can see how Nirvana’s music makes their fans feel. Also, the pan and tracking shots of the lead singer Kurt Cobain are good because they make us focus on the band more. It also is the only time that we as the watching audience feel like the performance is for us and our own viewing pleasure, not just the crowd in the gym at the time.

The video was directed by Samuel Bayer who has been editing music videos since 1991 till as recent as Justin Timerblake in 2007. Worked with bands such as The Strokes and Green Day continuing his popularity in the Rock and especially the Alternative Rock genre.

What I can take from this?
The slowing down of action shots to show emotion is very effective and something I will look to do myself. Also, if I choose to do a performance video, I will need to make sure that my artist is interacting with the camera and the audience. This was done in this respect with tracking of the artist as he moved around the stage, using eye contact at all times.