Hole was an American alternative rock band formed by singer and guitarist C… Read Full Bio ↴Hole was an American alternative rock band formed by singer and guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson in Los Angeles, California in 1989. Influenced by Los Angeles' punk rock scene, and produced by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside, attracted critical interest from British and American alternative press. Their second album, Live Through This, released 1994 by DGC Records, which featured less aggressive melodies and more restrained lyrical content, was widely acclaimed and reached platinum status within a year of its release. Their third album, Celebrity Skin, which garnered them four Grammy nominations, marked a notable departure from their earlier punk influences, boasting a more commercially viable, "mature" sound.

The band had a revolving line-up of bassists and drummers, their most prolific being drummer Patty Schemel, and bassists Kristen Pfaff (d. 1994) and Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2002 the group disbanded to pursue other projects. Eight years later in 2010, Hole was reformed by Love with new members, despite Erlandson's claim that the reformation breached a mutual contract he had with Love. The reformed band released the album Nobody's Daughter, which had originally been conceived as Love's second solo album. In 2013, Love retired the Hole name, releasing new material and touring as a solo artist.

Hole has been noted for being one of the most commercially successful female-fronted rock bands of all time, selling over three million records in the United States alone and having a far-reaching influence on contemporary female artists. Music and feminist scholars have also recognized the band as the most high-profile musical group of the 1990s to discuss gender issues in their songs, due to Love's aggressive and violent lyrical content, which often addressed themes of body image, abuse, and sexual exploitation.

Hole went on to become the most commercially successful female-fronted grunge band in history, selling over 3 million records in the United States between 1991 and 2010. In spite of Love's often polarizing reputation in the media, Hole received consistent critical praise for their output, and was often noted for the predominant feminist commentary found in Love's lyrics, which scholars have credited as "articulating a third-wave feminist consciousness". Love's subversive onstage persona and public image coincided with the band's songs, which expressed "pain, sorrow, and anger, but [an] underlying message of survival, particularly survival in the face of overwhelming circumstances." Music journalist Maria Raha expressed a similar sentiment in regard to the band's significance to third-wave feminism, stating, "Whether you love Courtney [Love] or hate her, Hole was the highest-profile female-fronted band of the '90s to openly and directly sing about feminism."

While Rolling Stone compared the effect of Love's marriage to Kurt Cobain on the band to that of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, they noted that "Love's confrontational stage presence, as well as her gut-wrenching vocals and powerful punk-pop songcraft, made her an alternative-rock star in her own right." Author Nick Wise made a similar comparison in discussion of the band's public image, stating, "Not since Yoko Ono's marriage to John Lennon has a woman's personal life and exploits within the rock arena been so analyzed and dissected." The band has been cited as a major influence on several contemporary artists, including indie singer songwriter Scout Niblett, Brody Dalle of the Distillers and Spinnerette, Sky Ferreira, Lana Del Rey, Tove Lo, Tegan and Sara, and the British rock band Nine Black Alps. The band ranked at #77 of VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Artists.

Forming / Hot Chocolate Boy
Hole Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

He's always waiting
Gotta make the move to tell her
Hot chocolate boy
He's never met one
Hot chocolate wet one
Hot chocolate boy
Deep, sweet, and bitter
Spoon out a place for breakfast

Hot chocolate boy
Hot, frosty, creamy
He was only dreaming

Hold me down, hold me up
Tell them that I'm your gun
Pull my trigger
I'm bigger than
I'm bigger than you
Tell them what it means to be on top
Pull them down, hold me up
Tell them that I'm your gun

Pull my trigger, I'm bigger than
I'm bigger than, I'm bigger than

Overall Meaning

Forming / Hot Chocolate Boy is a song by the American alternative rock band Hole, which appears on their debut album titled "Pretty on the Inside". The song is split into two sections; the first half describes a timid boy who has never met a black woman ("Hot Chocolate Wet One") and is apprehensive about making a move on her. He longs for her; she represents the exotic, the other, the forbidden fruit. The second half of the song is a roar of female empowerment, with lyrics that have been interpreted as an assertion of power instead of being objectified ("Tell them that I'm your gun / Pull my trigger / I'm bigger than I'm bigger than you").

The song has been interpreted as a critique of racial fetishism, white male objectification of black women, and female empowerment. It highlights the complexities of race and gender relations, the dynamics of power and control, and the blurred lines between desire and exploitation. The lyrics evoke images of oppression, submission, and resistance that are embedded in the history of black and white relations in America. The song also challenges traditional notions of gender roles, with the female protagonist taking on a dominant role, which is a departure from the traditional submissive role of women in rock music.

Line by Line Meaning

He's always waiting
The person is constantly waiting for something or someone.

Gotta make the move to tell her
They feel the necessity to do something, possibly confess their feelings to someone.

Hot chocolate boy
Refers to a person who is compared to hot chocolate, possibly in terms of appearance or personality.

He's never met one
The person has never met someone like the 'hot chocolate boy' before.

Hot chocolate wet one
Possibly a reference to a sexually explicit act involving hot chocolate.

Deep, sweet, and bitter
The 'hot chocolate boy' is described using these characteristics, which may refer to their personality or physical appearance.

Spoon out a place for breakfast
Make room for someone to join you for breakfast, possibly the 'hot chocolate boy'.

Hot, frosty, creamy
These words may once again be descriptions of the 'hot chocolate boy' using sensory descriptions to paint a picture of their appearance or persona.

He was only dreaming
The preceding may be a fantasy or dream that the artist has about the 'hot chocolate boy'.

Hold me down, hold me up
The person is requesting someone to take control of their actions or emotions.

Tell them that I'm your gun
The person wants to be viewed as a weapon by someone else to give them power or validation.

Pull my trigger
The artist desires to be activated or initiated in some way, likely to carry out a plan or achieve a goal.

I'm bigger than
The person feels powerful or superior to someone else.

Tell them what it means to be on top
The singer wants to explain what it's like to be in a position of power or authority.

Pull them down, hold me up
The singer is asking someone to bring someone else down while elevating their own status.

I'm bigger than you
The person believes that they are more important or powerful than the person being addressed.

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