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.

ROCKSTAR
Hole Lyrics

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Well I went to school, oh
Well I went to school, ha ha
Well I went to school in Olympia
Everyone's the same
What do you do
With a revolution?

When I went to school in Olympia, ya, ya, ya

And everyone's the same
We look the same
We talk the same
Yeah
Don't you please
Make me real, fuck you
Make me sick, fuck you
Make me real, fuck you

Well I went to school in Olympia
Everyone's the same
And so are you, in Olympia, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya
Everyone's the same
We look the same
We talk the same yeah
We even fuck the same
Well I went to school in Olympia, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya
Don't you please
Make me real, come on
Make me sick, come on
Make me real, yeah yeah yeah

Do it for the kids, yeah
Do it for the kids, yeah
Do it for the kids, yeah
Do it for the kids, yeah
Do it do it do it do it do it
For the kids

No we're not done

Well I went to school in Olympia
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Hole's song "Rockstar" describe the experience of going to school in Olympia and feeling like everyone is the same. There is a sense of frustration and anger in the lyrics as the singer feels trapped in their surroundings, unable to break free and create something new. The repetition of the phrase "make me real, fuck you" expresses the desire to be seen as an individual and not just another face in the crowd. The line "do it for the kids" could be interpreted as a call to action for the younger generation to strive for change and create something new and unique.

The song was released on Hole's second studio album "Live Through This" in 1994, just days after the death of lead singer Courtney Love's husband, Kurt Cobain. The album was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, but was also surrounded by controversy due to accusations of plagiarism and controversy surrounding Love's marriage to Cobain. Despite this, "Live Through This" remains a seminal album in the Riot Grrrl movement, which sought to empower women in punk and rock music.

Line by Line Meaning

Well I went to school, oh
I attended school and want to emphasize it

Well I went to school, ha ha
I went to school and find it amusing to mention it again

Well I went to school in Olympia Everyone's the same
I attended school in Olympia where everyone and everything is uniformly mundane

What do you do With a revolution?
A revolution is underway, so what should we do now to bring about change?

We look the same We talk the same Yeah
We appear the same, communicate similarly, and lack distinctive identities

Don't you please Make me real, fuck you Make me sick, fuck you Make me real, fuck you
I despise being just like everyone else, so screw you for wanting to maintain the status quo

And so are you, in Olympia, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya We even fuck the same
Everybody in Olympia, even in intimate situations, is repetitive and typical

Don't you please Make me real, come on Make me sick, come on Make me real, yeah yeah yeah
I yearn for an authentic and unique identity, so please push me to the extreme to achieve this

Do it for the kids, yeah Do it do it do it do it do it For the kids
Let's create a revolution for the sake of our younger generation who deserve better than a bleak future

No we're not done Well I went to school in Olympia Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
This is not over yet, but for now, I bid farewell to my unremarkable time in Olympia

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: ERIC T ERLANDSON, COURTNEY M. LOVE

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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