"Today" is a song by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, written by lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Corgan.

"Today" and its follow-up "Disarm" are credited in AllMusic for popularizing the band and "sen[ding] [Siamese Dream] into the stratosphere".

[4] "Today" has been generally well received by critics; a Blender article described it as having "achieved a remarkable status as one of the defining songs of its generation, perfectly mirroring the fractured alienation of American youth in the 1990s".

Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was undergoing an increasingly severe addiction to heroin; James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky had recently broken up their romantic relationship; and Billy Corgan had become depressed to the point of contemplating suicide and plagued by writer's block.

While Corgan briefly considered tuning the guitar down a half-step and playing the song with the fingerings and positions of E major, he said, "There was something about the E♭ voicing that I liked.

[5] The song, spanning three minutes and 21 seconds, begins with a one-measure opening guitar riff that alludes to the E♭ major-pentatonic scale.

[11] Ned Raggett of Allmusic commented on the song's ability to "alternate between calmer, almost Cure-like sections and the louder crunches, [and Corgan's] soon-to-be-trademark guitar style taking My Bloody Valentine's own hypnotic riffing to more accessible results".

'"[10] The dark, ironic lyrics of "Today", describing a day when Corgan was feeling depressed and suicidal, contrast with the instrumentation.

[11] Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the song is "downright pretty as rock ballads go" but that "Corgan manages to convey the exhilaration and tragic release he seeks.

[7] The music video, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, brought even more mainstream success to the band through repeated airplay on MTV.

[5] Debuting in September 1993, it was shot with low quality photographic equipment, which, like several other early Pumpkins videos, was an intentional stylistic decision.

However, Corgan is ultimately kicked out, and the video ends with him walking off the road wearing a cowboy hat as the van drives away.

[22] "Today" was later called one of the "hits that took the cool alternative band into stadium rock territory" by the BBC's Dan Tallis in a review of the band's greatest hits album, Rotten Apples,[23] and similarly referred to as the "Smashing Pumpkins' red carpet to the glorified frat houses of alternative rock radio" by Nick Sylvester of Pitchfork Media.

"Today" has appeared on several Smashing Pumpkins official releases, including the band's greatest hits album Rotten Apples and the box set Siamese Singles.

A live version of "Today" performed in the band's hometown of Chicago was included on the 1994 video release Vieuphoria and on its companion album Earphoria,[27] and was praised as "a triumphant recording" by Pitchfork's Chris Dahlen.

[30] The song appears on a two-disc MTV Dutch import, Rock Am Ring, a collection of hit singles from the early 1990s.

[34][35] The main guitar passage was also sampled by Japanese hip-hop act Dragon Ash in its song "Grateful Days".