What does In Bloom mean?

Nirvana: In Bloom Meaning

Album cover for In Bloom album cover

Song Released: 1992


In Bloom Lyrics

Sell the kids for food
--weather changes moods
Spring is here again
--reproductive glands
yeah!
(chorus)
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...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 13th 2008 !⃝

    This song has nothing to do with posers or the matrix... It has to do with the youth which is similar to teen spirit but this song has to do with the misunderstanding of teens.
    Sell the kids for food- parents and people have are giving up
    Weather changes moods- change brings depression in relation with the teen
    Spring is here again- the suicide rate in spring is the highest from this change
    Reproductive glands- this is that no one gives a flying fuck about the youth anymore and that people can just make more
    The chorus is for the misunderstood teen
    he likes to sing along... He likes to shoot is gun- what do most people do when they are upset or angry... listen to music and destroy shit...
    Dont know what it means- the teen doesn't know why he has all this anger and the yeah just agrees it doesn't answer it because there is no answer
    We can have some more--nature is a whore- this says teens are replaceable
    Bruises on the fruit--tender age in bloom- Teens are the fruit that are being bruised and it is a tender age to have no one give one of the 7 shades of shit because we are still growing between child and adult...
    For all those people that just look at the chorus and not at the entire song shouldnt make an interp

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 13th 2010 !⃝

    you are all wrong. he said himself that this song is a joke. just like 'i hate myself and i want to die'. its just another example of hurt not wanting to conform. each individual verse in the first section of the song has a corresponding verse in the second. (sell the kids for food- we can have some more.ect..) he knew exactly how to make a song that everyone would love, and he knew how to have fun while doing it. making people look stupid by singing a song that is completely out of order (knows not what it means when i say yeah). when he says "he's the one who likes all our pretty song" he's refering to his father and step mother who often listened to what he made and called it names like pretty, or nice. this is what makes him brilliant.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anavrin
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    Jan 10th 2004 !⃝

    An attack on people who listen to certain music for the wrong reason. Imagine the macho, gun toting guy who sings along to Nirvana, but has no clue what he's singing about.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 6th 2016 !⃝

    Let me drop some knowledge on your dumbasses.

    [Verse 1]
    Sell the kids for food

    (We start as kids then we are sold to society to bring bread on the table like we're fucking cattle.Nurture a little, then use it for its meat)

    Weather changes moods
    Spring is here again
    Reproductive glands

    (Think mating season and that this is some vicious cycle)

    [Chorus](x2)
    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 when I say

    -(This is like a trap. Its a metaphor. Nirvana is a big fuck you to society and that all of us are oblivious to the cycle mentioned above. Making all of us the dumb rednecks who likes to shoot guns that know nothing)

    [Verse 2]
    We can have some more
    Nature is a whore
    Bruises on the fruit
    Tender age in bloom

    -(We are greedy and we are a part of "nature" making us the whore and the whole cycle of being sold to society. The bruised fruit are the Nirvana fans because Kurt thinks whoever is listening feels the same as he does. We are the bruised and tender age in bloom,We were rushed and bruised but no one gives a fuck WE'RE SHOVED AND SOLD TO SOCIETY REGUARDLESS)

  5. anonymous
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    Apr 25th 2015 !⃝

    When I initially heard this song, I interpreted like Heart-Shaped Box. Courtney's getting on Kurt's ass about having a baby, and he keeps trying to tell her no. "Sell the kids for food-" they don't have enough money to take care of the kid and themselves. "Weather changes moods," maybe he'll feel differently if the atmosphere changes around the house, or just in general. And then there's the chorus:He's the one who likes all our pretty songs, and he likes to shoot his gun. But he knows not what it means. That is Kurt describing what this kid would be like. "he knows not what it means" just means that the kid wouldn't know how hard being in a famous family means. That is how I interpret it.
    I <3 NIRVANA!!!

  6. anonymous
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    Jul 4th 2014 !⃝

    I have a few interpretations of this song, the first one being: a teenage guy/or girl who sings along to nirvana songs etc. about pain and serious issues or angst and the teenager has no idea or experience of the issue the song was talking about. so they sing along maybe because they think it's cool or something. This also plays along with smells like teen spirt, as most teens who've actually heard a nirvana song, only know this one because it relates to them in a small way.

    The second one being:
    Teens learning from young ages from the media that it's somehow "cool" or "good" to just go and have as much sex as possible.

    Third one: I also think it deals with the hormones of a teenager when they might be confused, horny and angry all at the same time.and they have mood swings which result in being suicidal or depressed one time and the other being in love and wanting sex.

    Ok that's what I'm thinking but you might have a different idea. One of my favourite songs also.

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 18th 2013 !⃝

    It has many meanings intertwined in it. I won't touch on all of them but one often overlooked and misinterpreted parts of the song is when Kurt says "Knows not what it means when I say, out" referring to a teenage homosexual who is not sure what is wrong with him and Kurt encourages him to be himself and come out

  8. anonymous
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    Jul 24th 2012 !⃝

    a gun, in junkie terms, is another name for a syringe.

    "...likes to shoot his gun" = fixing himself with heroin.

    trust me. i know...i was one for 4 years.

  9. anonymous
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    Feb 12th 2012 !⃝

    Its an attack in people who listen to music for the wrong reason if you listen to the chorus imagine a gun wielding macho guy listening to Nirvana but doesn't have a clue of anything that the song is saying

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 2nd 2011 !⃝

    this is what Kurt said about this song: “Obviously I don’t like rednecks, I don’t like macho men. I mean, I don’t like abusive people, and I guess that’s what that song is about, it’s an attack on them.”

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 29th 2011 !⃝

    I think Matrix movie was created in 1999, right? How come the song "In Bloom", which was composed and became a hit in 1991 was inspired by the movie matrix? It's the other way around...In Bloom is a song about youth and it's dilemma.

  12. anonymous
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    Jun 11th 2011 !⃝

    It's about a fish I a bowl that can't breathe due to bigger fish taking all nutrients and oxygen, wen the sniffer fish suck all life away the smaller fish shrivel and die because if there insignificance in the scheme if things, even though the small fish are entitled to life the big fish take it without bothering to empathize because of there importance. Also it's about my friend.

  13. anonymous
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    May 25th 2011 !⃝

    The song is all about the people who don't know the true depth of their songs and only like them Because he's famous. Hence the term "he knows not what it means.

  14. anonymous
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    Mar 23rd 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about a dude and his girl friend is cheating with this dude behind his back. And of course she says, something like oh he's just a friend I hang out with every now and then

  15. lester_castro
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    Aug 30th 2010 !⃝

    I've read a lot of interpretations here. And found it agreeable. I dunno about Kurt Cobain, but he's kinda' like Davey Havok from AFI. The latter, in an interview, a fan, or whoever it was, (I read about it in the net a couple of years ago)mentioned of his own interpretation about their song. And Davey told the interviewer that he respects(This is not the exact words that Davey said but my best recollection of it)however his fans would take their songs, and how it means to them. Because if he divulge the actual meaning of a particular song, and it doesn't agree to how the listener is taking it, it would only ruin his identification to it--how it means to him.
    So in a nutshell, a song can mean anything to anybody. It is open to interpretation. And this is my interpretation of "In Bloom". I'd like to know what you think of it. I think it's about Kurt's contempt for the profit-driven viewpoint of the music industry.

    SELL THE KIDS FOR FOOD.
    -This line is in a third person point of view supposedly the music industry/major labels remarking: "Lets exploit music artist—that offers a kind of style that is currently in vogue--for profit."
    WEATHER CHANGES MOOD.
    -Supposedly connected from the first line that says:” Let’s not waste time for the trends in music are changing fast.”
    SPRING IS HERE AGAIN.
    -Still taken from the point of view of the music industry/major labels:” The birth of a new musical style that appeals to the masses is here.”
    REPRODUCTIVE GLANDS
    -Going on with the point of view:“Let’s invest for these artist that possessed the style of music that is currently the trend.”

    The chorus is a personification, referring again to the music industry.

    HE'S THE ONE WHO LIKES ALL THE PRETTY SONGS.
    -It's fond of easy-listening, radio friendly and marketable forms of music.
    AND HE LIKES TO SING ALONG.
    -It keeps up with the trend,
    AND HE LIKES TO SHOOT HIS GUN.
    -Naturally, as I take it, this imagery implies fear so as to demand something on somebody. And which eventually leads me to the idea that some major labels would audaciously interfere the creativity of its artist.
    BUT HE KNOWS NOT WHAT IT MEANS.
    -Because it doesn’t care about that; the music industry is solely concerned about how marketable a type of music is.

    WE CAN HAVE SOME MORE.
    -Nature is a whore.
    -I think the two lines of the second stanza are connected. The major labels remarked something about their advantageous state their in; that when a style of music and its artist would lose its appeal, there are always new ones that are vulnerable to fame and fortune, thirsty for their spot in music history.
    BRUISES ON THE FRUIT.
    TENDER AGE IN BLOOM.
    -The last lines are also related. It mentions something about how the artist is disregarded when it loses its appeal even if musically it’s “in bloom.”

  16. shanon2885
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    Jun 14th 2010 !⃝

    I agree with the majority of the previous admission. This song is in reference to the corruption of today's youth. bruises on the fruit references the trials and tribulations that today's youth go through that is in essence unnecessary. Kurt was disgusted with the fact that parents are no longer parents and no one takes the time to actually raise children, but then they wonder why todays youth is so corrupt. This song is about children growing up too quick and imitating the behavior they see because it's all they know. RIP KURT

  17. anonymous
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    Dec 22nd 2009 !⃝

    Its Nirvana's other songs. People sing along with them and they like the music, but they don't know what they are singing about. Nirvana sings the songs for the meanings behind them, they people sing along but they don't know what the words mean.

  18. anonymous
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    Jul 21st 2009 !⃝

    Now, I might be totally crazy but when I hear the chorus, I think of how everyone was trying to interpret Smells Like Teen Spirit, and he's just saying that everyone got it wrong.

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