Self Esteem (song)

In his review of the album, Andrew Mueller from Melody Maker wrote, "The clear highlight here is "Self Esteem", a self-abasing, self-pitying slandering of some or other black-hearted wench set to a rocket as inventive as they get."^[4] Pan-European magazine Music & Media commented, "Coming out once more to play the role of Nirvana's perfect replacement, Offspring delivers the punky action so sadly missed on rock radio because of Seattlers who take themselves way too seriously."^[5] John Harris from NME, taking a negative view, said, "The male-only dorms of US colleges have surely been throbbing to this for months. Small wonder: "Self-esteem" — to which the phrase "Crap Teen Spirit" barely does justice — is built around a premise that roots it firmly in the odorous world of the knucklehead male adolescent."^[6]

In 2012, Loudwire ranked the song number four on their list of the 10 greatest Offspring songs,^[7] and in 2021, Kerrang! ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Offspring songs.^[8]

The music video for "Self Esteem" was directed by Darren Lavett (who directed the previous video, "Come Out and Play") and was shot in August 1994 after the Offspring had just gone both gold and platinum with Smash.^[9] In the music video, several people are doing stunts, intercut with shots of the band playing on stage.

In the video, Dexter Holland wears three different band T-shirts. Initially, he wears a Sex Pistols T-shirt. Later he dons a T-shirt of the Germs, and then a Vandals T-shirt when he briefly appears as a human skeleton.

In an interview on the Offspring's Greatest Hits DVD, Noodles claimed that he gave his Fender Stratocaster (which he played in the videos for "Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem") to one of the actors who appeared in the video.

"Self Esteem" remains one of the Offspring's popular videos. Its popularity on MTV helped launch the song to success on mainstream radio. According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Self Esteem" was the sixth most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 131,000 spins. All of the top 10 songs were from the 1990s.^[10]

The music video also appears on the Complete Music Video Collection DVD. It was released in 2005.

CD single, 7-inch blue and 12-inch black vinyl

CD maxi

• Dexter Holland – vocals, guitar
• Noodles – guitar, backing vocals
• Greg K. – bass
• Ron Welty – drums