Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" most iconic song ever, study shows

PanARMENIAN.Net - A new study shows that Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the most iconic song of all time. The song appears on the top of a list by researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London, AceShowbiz reports citing the Daily Mail.

According to the site, Dr. Mick Grierson who conducted the study took 50 songs from various best-ever lists and then used analytical software to compare their key, BPM, chord variety, lyrical content, timbral variety and sonic variance.

"We found the most significant thing these songs have in common is that most of them use sound in a very varied, dynamic way when compared to other records," explained Grierson. "This makes the sound of the record exciting, holding the listeners attention. By the same token, the sounds these songs use and the way they are combined is highly unique in each case. Ultimately, there is no 'formula' for this, other than to make your song sound as different, diverse and exciting as possible."

Behind "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the list are John Lennon"s "Imagine", U2's "One, Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" which take the second, third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Other most-iconic songs according to the study include Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" and Radiohead's "Creep".