- In the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" music video, the cheerleaders wear red "A"s on their shirts. Cobain originally got the idea for the song from his friend Kathleen Hanna, during a discussion of anarchy and rock. The "A" could stand for anarchy, or be an allusion to The Scarlet Letter, which is about a girl who's alienated for her actions. Punk rock and grunge music was considered the ultimate edgy and alienating music a person could listen to, and the culture it established intentionally drove itself away from the mainstream.
- Another example from "Smells Like Teen Spirit": A common stereotype among troubled teenagers is that they all get bad grades in school. "Teen Spirit" is played in the key of F minor.
- Yet another example: The lyrics in "Tourette's" make no sense and are shouted repetitively; common symptoms of Tourette's syndrome include the repetition of nonsense words.
- "Sliver" has the line "fell asleep and watched tv", which is not really possible if taken literally. A possible explanation is that it's a deliberate use of childlike language- the lyrics are extremely simple because they're meant to be from a child's perspective, so it could be the narrator mixing up his words while telling the story, as an excitable child might. Or it could refer to falling asleep with the television on.
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