On August 15, 1991, Nirvana fans queuing to get into the band's show at The Roxy on Los Angeles' famous Sunset Boulevard were handed a flier.
'Nirvana needs YOU to be appear in their upcoming music video, Smells Like Teen Spirit,' it read. 'You should be 18 to 25 years old and adapt a high school personna [sic], ie, preppy, punk, nerd, jock...Be prepared to stay for several hours! Come support Nirvana and have a great time!'
Inspired by two of Kurt Cobain's favourite films, Ramones' Rock And Roll High School and cult teen rebellion flick Over The Edge, the concept of the Smells Like Teen Spirit video was to have Nirvana lip-sync in front of an anarchic 'pep rally from Hell'. Future Fear Factory frontman Burton C Bell was among those who turned up at the Culver City shoot on August 17.
"About 40 people showed up for the video shoot," he recalled in a 2024 post on Instagram. "The director [Samuel Bayer] had us sit on a riser in the studio, and the band was playing in front of us. The director instructed us to look bored. Me and my friends knew the song quite well, but the rest of the crowd did not. Hearing the song over and over became infectious. The director lost control of the crowd and chaos ensued."
"The band was egging them on because they didn't like making the video either," Samuel Bayer told Rolling Stone in 2010. "I was exhausted at the end of the day. I'm like, 'Okay, you guy want to destroy the set? Go, destroy the set.' And the kids come down off the bleachers, and it's under my lighting, and I'm like, Oh my God, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! I was like, God is on my side. And that riot became the last minute of the video."
