I can't believe I'm going to kickstart this new CityLife A&E blog with something initiated by Mark & Mercedes, the morning jabbers on KMXB-FM 94.1, but I believe I'll redeem myself pretty quickly, so here goes.

I set my alarm so I will absolutely wake up and get out of bed. So, I position the alarm clock at a bit of a distance from my bed, and I set the radio at KMXB (aka Mix), at full-blast volume. This way, when Mercedes’ squawking inanity jolts me from my slumber, the first thing I will want to do is jump out of the bed and turn her the fuck off.

Well, this morning I didn’t get out of bed so immediately because when the radio went off, the duo was talking about a poll taken by Q magazine’s (superior) answer to Rolling Stone. Readers of the publication were asked what their favorite pop singles of the past 20 years were — probably in commemoration of Q’s 20th anniversary — and Mark launched the bit by playing the song voted No. 1: Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I’ve never heard Mix play a song that aggressive or edgy, so I kept listening. Mark then read of the rest of the top five, which included, in numeric order, Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’Mine,” Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Symphony” (hey, this was a British music fan poll, remember) and U2’s “One.”

Mark barely got the “One” out before Mercedes was harrumphing the high placement of “Teen Spirit” because she did not think it was a pop song. She alluded to the aggressiveness of the song, and directly critiqued Kurt Cobain’s primal vocal delivery as being decidedly un-pop. Mark asked listeners to call in and say whether they agreed with Mercedes or not, and for the first time in my life, I dialed a telephone to talk to the two. They needed to be schooled. Except that I didn’t get through before the duo had moved onto the appeal of Star Trek, but I knew what I was going to tell them.

First of all, “Teen Spirit” is unquestionably a pop song. Some people believe that pop means commercial, teen-oriented and easy-on-the-ears. But pop truly categorizes songs with catchy, indelible melodies, and “Teen Sprit” certainly has those. The Pixies, The Ramones and Jesus and the Mary Chain also fuzzed up their oft-raucous songs, but that didn’t make them any less infectious. In fact, the verses in “Teen Spirit” are nearly as penetrating as the chorus. That’s partly why it was such a massive, crossover hit. There are hip-hop and R&B artists who will cop to loving that song.

Secondly, a singer’s screaming, raspy vocals do not take away from the hooky nature of a song. Janis Joplin shredded her vocals through “Piece of My Heart,” but you’ll find few who deny that song’s status as a pop classic. Bruce Springsteen was also a fan of the gruff singing style, and he is a titan of popular music.

Third, as one of the callers who actually got through hinted at, “Teen Spirit” is a generational anthem. It not only effectively stopped the parade of metal cheese on the Billboard charts, but it was the first radio hit that reflected the anger and disillusionment many members of Generation X — the demographic most represented among radio listeners and music buyers back in 1991 — were experiencing back then. Moody teenagers weren’t being served by Ace of Base, Young MC, Motley Crue or EMF. With “Teen Spirit,” millions of youth found a way to channel their angst. And even if they weren’t pissed, the song has an undeniable energy and urgency that clearly resonated with them.

The magazine poll thing has gotten lame. There’s a new one every few months, and their rankings all depend on which artists’ fanbases have mobilized to vote en masse. With the Internet, propping a band or song or album up isn’t difficult. And, as such, the results from one survey to another are hardly consistent. When a 60 Minutes interviewer asked Bob Dylan how he felt when Rolling Stone voted “Like a Rolling Stone” the best of the top 500 songs of all time, the singer-songwriter was nonplussed. “Maybe this week,” he said, referring to the fickle nature of music writers and fans. And as I recall his answer, I can’t help but wonder if Mercedes would dismiss the pop iconoclasm of that nugget, too.