Composition
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is written in the key of F minor, with the main guitar riff constructed from four power chords (F5–B♭5–A♭5–D♭5) played in a syncopated sixteenth note strum by Cobain. The guitar chords were double tracked because the band "wanted to make it sound more powerful," according to Vig. The chords occasionally lapse into suspended chord voicings as a result of Cobain playing the bottom four strings of the guitar for the thickness of sound. Due to being neither major nor minor, the occasional use of suspended chords also allows the chord progression used in the riff to be thought of as a I–IV–♭III–♭VI major chord progression. The song's chord progression has been described as "an ambiguous, harmonically dislocated sequence," and "it is the asymmetrical nature of Cobain's riff that makes it so great." Musicologist Graeme Downes, who led the band The Verlaines, says that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" illustrates developing variation. Listeners made many comments that the song bore a passing resemblance to Boston's 1976 hit "More Than a Feeling". Cobain himself held similar opinions, saying that it "was such a clichéd riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or 'Louie Louie.'"
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" uses a "somewhat conventional formal structure" consisting of four-, eight-, and twelve-bar sections that includes an eight-bar verse, an eight-bar first chorus (pre-chorus), and a twelve-bar second chorus (main chorus). Elements of the song's structure are marked off with shifts in volume and dynamics, going back and forth from quiet to loud a number of times during the length of the recording. This structure of "quiet verses with wobbly, chorused guitar, followed by big, loud hardcore-inspired choruses" became a much-emulated template in alternative rock because of "Teen Spirit".
The song begins with Cobain strumming the main riff, adding distortion when the rest of the band joins in. During the verse Cobain plays a sparse two-note guitar line over Novoselic's eighth note bassline, which outlines the chord progression. In the pre-chorus, Cobain begins to play the same two notes on every beat of the measure and repeats the phrase "Hello, hello, hello, how low?" Cobain then resumes the main guitar riff for the chorus, where the band plays loudly and Cobain yells the lyrics. The first and second choruses both end with a brief four-bar interlude where Cobain shouts "Yeah!" twice over a new riff. After the second chorus, Cobain plays a 16-bar guitar solo that almost completely restates his vocal melody from the verse and pre-chorus. The band extends the third and final verse and chorus as Cobain sings the refrain "A denial" repeatedly. At this point Cobain's vocals become strained and his voice is almost shot from the force of yelling. The song ends with the feedback of the guitar.
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