Wednesday, December 15, 2010

"They don't know what it meeeans"



I've never been a huge Nirvana fan, but in recent years I've come to respect their contribution to popular music more and more, as well as their never-sell-out attitude. "In Bloom" is my favourite song right now. It's about how people outside of the underground music scene starting getting into Nirvana after the minor success of the "Bleach" album, and how they started going to Nirvana gigs, but all they wanted was catchy music, and they didn't understand the true essence of what Kurt was trying to say.

"He's the one who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he don't know what it means
Don't know what it means"

But the irony of it all is that the chorus is so sing-a-longable that it was a big hit, with even more people singing along than ever before, few of them knowing they were they butt of the joke they were so happily spreading.

7 comments:

  1. I'm too skeed to tell people which Nirvana songs because only know and like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come As You Are". I knew Kurt hated fake fans who only dig their mainstream hits. So I just say I don't really like them. Because I know just about nothing else about their songs XD

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  2. I don't think it was people only knowing the singles that annoyed him, I reckon it was more people listening to them for the wrong reasons, ie being posers, or just because it was catchy, or because its what happened to be on the radio, etc.

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  3. Nirvana should get over themselves. They write songs. People like it. End of story. For them to 'hate on fans' just cause they like their music coz its catchy or just plain nice,is the most pretencious thing i've ever heard. Your music is open to interpretation and if fans interpret as a nice catchy tune, please don't throw up your hands in exasperation because you're 'not being taken seriously' as an artist. You're playing musical instruments and singing tunes - its about time you got some perspective. To diss fans privately is totally immature. As Chris Martin said during an interview once, "at the end of the day, its just music. its just a song."

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  4. "For them to 'hate on fans' just cause they like their music coz its catchy or just plain nice,is the most pretencious thing i've ever heard."

    Music means different things to you and Kurt. For him, it was about expression, a way to be yourself in a society that encourages conformity. To see his music be used for the very thing he hated most would be heartbreaking.

    "To diss fans privately is totally immature."

    It's only private if you don't bother listening to the lyrics.

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  5. so Kurt hates conformity in general but when it comes to his music prefers that people conform to his interpretation of his songs? hypocritical much?!

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  6. It's not about conformation to his message, it's about understanding him. This song is about his frustration that people didn't understand what he was saying. We have our right to disagree with him, or say his music sucks, but what pissed him off more was the failure of people to understand in the first place.

    Also, this is just what I infer from interviews etc. I can't say for sure what was on the heart of Kurt Cobain.

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