One Classic Rock Song of Nirvana Made Famous by MTV

Remember MTV? Well, before the reality shows, that is. When the station’s moniker was more true to its word. In the 1980s and 1990s, Music Television was the preeminent source of culture for young people. And while the station played videos from artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson, a giant part of its programming came from good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. (See: MTV Unplugged.)

“Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana

You can’t talk MTV in the 1990s without talking grunge. One even wonders, what grunge would be without the music channel and what MTV would have been without grunge? Thankfully, we’ll never have to know. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and its accompanying video were ubiquitous on the channel, leading MTV to book Nirvana for perhaps the most famous MTV Unplugged session ever. The video was so huge, it was also parodied by Weird Al Yankovich. Today, the video has well over a billion views on YouTube, alone. Just imagine how many eyeballs it got at the height of grunge when it was released in 1991.