“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
If you don’t know what this song means, you’re not alone— neither did Nirvana’s lead singer. When Kurt Cobain saw “smells like teen spirit” scrawled across his wall in Sharpie, he thought it was a revolutionary slogan about anarchy and punk rock. That’s not what Kathleen Hanna, the one who’d written it, meant at all. “Teen spirit” was a popular deodorant, worn by Kurt’s girlfriend at the time, Tobi Vail. Kathleen was saying the room smelled like Tobi.