Are These 3 Grunge Songs From 1991 Overplayed, or Are They Just That Good?

The majority of the 1990s grunge catalog belongs to a very particular kind of music fan. In other words, most of it doesn’t cater to the masses and consequently, isn’t played on an infinite loop. However, like every genre, the grunge scene does have a couple of songs that arguably fall under the “overplayed” category. That being so, are these three grunge songs from 1991 overplayed, or are they just that good?

Videos by American Songwriter

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana

Have you ever gone to a hot wing spot and viewed the spice levels on the menu? If you are a novice, you go with the easy level, the introductory level. Well, that same paradigm applies to grunge music and Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, as it is the entry point into the genre, and likely the most digestible amongst non-devout grunge fans.

Released in 1991, this single was a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Nirvana and this track are the face of the 1990s grunge scene, so this is, without a doubt, one of, if not the most played, grunge tracks of all time. Although that isn’t us saying that it’s overplayed, no, you have to answer that question yourself.

 “Alive” by Pearl Jam

In recent years, Pearl Jam‘s “Alive” has made a massive resurgence via meme culture. For some reason, people find Eddie Vedder’s voice absolutely hilarious, and frankly, we don’t disagree. His mumbling is somewhat intelligible, yet still pleasant, and entirely confusing; so, yeah, it’s pretty comical, we can’t lie.

Compared to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Alive” probably doesn’t seem that overplayed. Although compared to the rest of the grunge catalog of 1991, it certainly does. Personally, we don’t believe this song has yet reached the latter category, but in a couple of years, if it keeps its pace, it could.

“Come As You Are” by Nirvana

Is it unfair to feature Nirvana on this list twice, maybe? Although we can all likely agree that the two most popular grunge songs from 1991 are “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are”. Per that perspective, we have to do our due diligence and feature it on our list.

In relation to our possibly confusing buffalo wing analogy, “Come As You Are” is the second level, yet still introductory. As a result, this song gets nearly the same amount of circulation as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Now, is that too much, just enough, or too little? What do you think?

Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock