Smells+Like+Teen+Spirit+Lyric+Analysis+Standard+2.5

**Below are questions from a work sheet I created for my Advanced Composition students for OPAPP (Ohio Performance Assessment Pilot Project). OPAPP was an assessment project designed to evaluate how high school students perceived the media around them. I used this worksheet in a lesson in which we analyzed lyrics from songs that centered around adolescence.**


 * Standard:** Reading Applications: Informational, Technical, and Persuasive Texts

emotion, syntax and word choice that authors use to accomplish their purpose and reach their intended audience.
 * Indicator:** Analyze and critique organizational patterns and techniques including repetition of ideas, appeals to authority, reason and


 * I chose this selection because it displays how I used a new media text to ask students to contemplate the lyrics' affect on society-- the purpose of this year's OPAPP assessment was for students to examine and investigate different forms of medias' affect on the adolescence of society, and what implicit and explicit messages the media sends.


 * Directions: Included on the back of this sheet are the lyrics to Nirvana’s hit “Smell’s Like Teen Spirit.” After reading the lyrics and listening to the song, answer the following questions. Make sure you have copies of Taylor Swift’s “Fifteen” and Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen”; you will need them to answer the questions below.**

1 What identities are explored in “Smells Like Teen Spirit?” Provide an example from the lyrics to support your answer. 2. What message(s) does this song send about teeangers? Provide an example of both an implicit and an explicit message. Use the text to support your answer. 3. Compare this song to both “Fifteen” and “Eighteen.” What are some similarities and differences. Think of tone, message, and content. 4. Think of Bordo and her argument. Pretend you are including these lyrics as a source within your essay. What connections can you draw between the lyrics and Bordo’s claims? Does this song support or go against her claims? Why? 5. Both “Eighteen” by Alice Cooper and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana’s lyrics are told in first person (singer=narrator). Describe the narrator in each song. How do they feel? What’s on their mind? 6. Each of the three songs we have analyzed this week were all chart topping hits which discuss the emotions associated with adolescence. In your opinion, knowing the popularity of these three songs, what affect do you feel these songs had on adolescence who heard them? Use samples from the lyrics to support your answer.

Video 1: [|"Smells Like Teen Spirit"] Video 2: [|"Fifteen" Taylor Swift] Video 3: [|"Eighteen" Alice Cooper]


 * "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana**

Bring your friends It's fun to lose and to pretend She's overborne and self-assured Oh no, I know a dirty word
 * ||= Load up on guns

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?

With the Lights out it's less dangerous Here we are now entertain us I feel stupid and contagious Here we are now entertain us A mullato an albino A mosquito my libido yay

I'm worse at what I do best And for this gift I feel blessed Our little group has always been And always will until the end

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?

With the Lights out it's less dangerous Here we are now entertain us I feel stupid and contagious Here we are now entertain us A mullato an albino A mosquito my libido yay

And I forget just why I taste Oh yeah I guess it makes me smile I found it hard it's hard to find Oh well whatever nevermind

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?

With the Lights out it's less dangerous Here we are now entertain us I feel stupid and contagious Here we are now entertain us A mullato an albino A mosquito my libido A denial ||