When I do 'Loser' now," says Beck Hansen of his big hit record, "I should go, 'I'm a schmoozer, baby, so why don't you rock me?'"

If he's a schmoozer, Beck, 23, is definitely an alternative schmoozer. The baby-faced singer — who goes by his first name professionally and whose "Loser," a quirky, winning anthem of downward mobility, has become an unexpected pop smash — is sitting in a dimly lit Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, attempting, in his own charming and eccentric way, to shed a little light on who he is. That is, by striking a mock rock-star pose and gleefully parodying his own surreal, hip-hop-inflected breakthrough hit so that it better reflects his current chart-topping status. "If all this ridiculous stuff keeps on happening to me," he says, shaking his head, "I'm really going to have to change those lyrics."

"All this ridiculous stuff" is by far early '94's most unlikely overnight-success story, one bound to destroy any claims this likably offbeat guy may have ever had to lower status. Not long ago, Beck was an underground — way underground — Los Angeles act whose indie recordings included a 1993 single entitled "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack." But in today's brave new alterna-rock world, Beck has a Top 40 hit and has become a major-label priority for DGC Records. And now that his ingenious video clip for "Loser" is safely ensconced in MTV's Buzz Bin, Beck better break out his crack pipe.

As he drums with a tortilla chip in time to a Muzak version of Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" blasting on the restaurant sound system, Beck remembers seeing the "Loser" video on MTV for the first time and being pegged as a new spokesman for the grunge generation.

"I was up in Olympia, Wash., and someone called up and said they were going to premiere the video," Beck says. "The guy on the air was talking about all this slacker stuff, saying that 'Loser' was like some slacker anthem or something. I was like 'What?' I said, 'Turn off the TV.' I was like 'Slacker my ass.'