Smells Like Teen Spirit – Verse
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Pre-Chorus
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Chorus
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Chorus Lead-Out
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Solo
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Solo 3
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Instrumental
Related Music Concepts
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
G3 – F4
Mood
Tense, Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
14
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
69
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
91
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
F3 – G#4
Mood
Tense, Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
14
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
5
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
98
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
C4 – A#4
Mood
Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
14
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
37
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
28
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
F Phrygian
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
B4 – C5
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
91
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
96
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
0
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
65
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
F3 – F4
Mood
Tense, Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
14
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
54
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
92
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
F3 – A#4
Mood
Tense, Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
14
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
44
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
90
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
F Minor
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
C4 – F4
Mood
Simple, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
15
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
65
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
35
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
22
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Keys
F Minor, F Phrygian
Tempo
117 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
F3 – C5
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
i(no3)
Chord Complexity
11
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
44
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
92
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
19
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
About Smells Like Teen Spirit
About the Key
F Minor
It is the 9th most popular key among Minor keys and the 20th most popular among all keys. Minor keys, along with major keys, are a common choice for popular music.
i iv VI
Most Important Chords
The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all minor chords (F minor, B♭ minor, and C minor).
F Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
About the Melody
Melody data is compiled from all analyzed melody sections, so depending on how a user analyzed a song, "melody" might include instrumental notes.
F3 – C5
Melody range across 19 semitones
1.03 beats/note
Across 318.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
99%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
52%
Chord Tones
Percentage of notes that fall on a chord tone of the underlying harmony.
Mixed
Consonance
How smoothly the melody blends with the harmony (0 = dissonant, 1 = consonant).
Loose
Syncopation
How often the melody emphasizes off-beats. Higher = more syncopated.
About the Metrics
Chord Complexity
Chord Complexity tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
Melodic Complexity reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
Chord-Melody Tension quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Progression Novelty
Chord Progression Novelty measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Chord-Bass Melody
Chord–Bass Melody evaluates how smoothly the bass moves between chords, scoring higher when it travels step-wise, ascending or descending, instead of jumping directly between root position chords.
Hooktheory's metrics are calculated against the entire database of analyzed songs, where 50 is the "average song." Learn more about each of these metrics here.
Chord Complexity
11
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 11/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
44
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 44/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
92
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 92/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
19
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 19/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
33
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 33/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Smells Like Teen SpiritAverage Song
BPM Comparison
Melody Distribution
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Melodic Intervals
Distribution of note-to-note jumps in semitones (negative = downward, positive = upward)
Note Durations
How long each note is held (in beats)
Syncopation
How many notes fall on each level of metric strength (0 = on-beat, higher = increasingly off-beat)
Level 0
Notes that fall on the downbeat — the strongest metric position in the measure.
Level 1
Notes on a secondary strong beat (e.g. beat 3 in 4/4) — still firmly on the grid.
Level 2
Notes on the remaining primary beats (2 and 4 in 4/4) — moderate metric weight.
Level 3
Notes on eighth-note offbeats — between the primary beats. Audibly syncopated.
