Commentary

More Than Just Teen Spirit: The Moment Nirvana Changed My Life

I caught myself daydreaming this past weekend when the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came on the radio.  I found myself wishing I could recreate that same sense of momentous excitement I had when I first heard that song.

Everyone who knows me knows my obsession with Pearl Jam (74 shows and counting), but they also know Nirvana was a close second in my pantheon of music.

The moment I heard Nirvana was one of those moments in life that you never forget.  I remember the first time I saw an Internet browser.  I remember the first time I saw an iPod with a small video screen.  I remember the first time I drove an electric car.  Those were all technology-oriented moments, and massively influential on my professional career.  Nirvana was a formative moment in my personal life, but also impacted my thinking about personal culture and my work.

Setting the scene: I had just walked into a house party during my college years, in Syracuse, late September, 1991, when I heard the guitars crunching on a song.

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I asked my friend Sean Quigley, who had fantastic taste in music, “Who’s that playing on the stereo?”

“Nirvana.  It’s a new record.”

I stood still for a second, which somehow seemed much longer than it probably was, and I soaked in a sound that seemed to convey chaos in a tightly wound ball.

I was already into a bunch of alternative bands and music was my personal hobby, but Nirvana was a watershed moment that unified so many disparate pieces of rock music.  There are very few musical moments you can point to where one chapter officially closed and a new one began.  Most of the time that evolution is gradual.  This time it was not.  The ‘80s hair bands and rock were officially over.

I write about this now because one of my professors said, “If you want to be a great marketer, study all you can about popular culture.” I always took those words to heart.  I loved the idea that my passions could help me in my chosen profession.

 I read articles in publications like Rolling Stone and Spin -- and while they debate about so much, they all agree that record was one of the most impactful moments in popular music history.

I feel lucky to have been part of that moment, and I know many of you reading this article fall into that same bucket.  This column is about media, and music is a form of media. I’m sure many of you have a story just like this one, where you were present at a change in popular culture.  Please share them in the comments because I love to read what other experiences we have all have had.

5 comments about "More Than Just Teen Spirit: The Moment Nirvana Changed My Life".
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  1. William Chambers from a4 Advertising, March 1, 2023 at 2:19 p.m.

    Huge music fan - great read - thank you!  My moment similar to yours was hearing "Paradise City" for the first time by Guns N Roses.  I remember pulling into my driveway in my Ford LTD and listening to the radio and when it came on, I could not leave the car.  I was blown away - but in a day before the internet, I could not check lyrics.  I remember at the end of the song, hoping that the DJ would please say who that was or what the name of the song was.  Didn't happen - so I had to immediately go to my corner hole in the wall record store on Staten Island - a little place called "Our Music Center" - and recite to the girl behind the counter "do you know a song that goes 'take me down to the very nice city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty'"  LOL!  She said - it's Paradise City and after a good laugh, I immediately purchased what was and is the greatest rock debut album ever!   Thanks for the memories!!

  2. Cory Treffiletti from Rembrand replied, March 1, 2023 at 3:36 p.m.

    I remember the first time i saw a Guns N Roses patch on the back of a jean jacket.  It was on a guy in my school and he was a hard-edged guy.  That being said he was a musical trail blazer too.

  3. John Grono from GAP Research, March 2, 2023 at 3:44 p.m.

    Cory, Cory, Cory.

    You make me feel old.

    I feel the same thing about music (especially live music), but my list would be names like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Easybeats, The Beach Boys etc. (and I'll throw in Television and the lately departed Tom Verlaine

    Hang on ... I am old!   Drat!

  4. todd Allard from Noethern Tool, March 8, 2023 at 10:20 a.m.

    Mine was a video and music moment. At 17, we had not yet signed on for cable, but a friend did and with that, Mtv 24/7. He would record hours of Mtv and share it on vhs. Yes, dating myself.  I recall seeing The One Thing from INXS - a simple video with the band frolicking around a table with an elaborate feast. That started a lifelong love affair with the song and the band, who I've seen many times. 

  5. John Grono from GAP Research replied, March 8, 2023 at 3:10 p.m.

    Bravo Todd.

    I'd heard about a promising young band in Sydney called The Farriss Brothers, but I never got to see them before their parents relocated to Perth with the kids to finish their schooling.   About a year later they came back to Sydney and got the band back together as a support act.   Around the end of 1979 I saw them at a pub in Cremorne and they were now called INXS.   I went with a bunch of work friends one who lived near the pub and she knew one of the crew and invited them back for a boozy post-gig night.   Lo and behold around six months later they had a record deal and by the end of 1980 they released 'Just Keep Walking' as a single.   The rest is history.

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