 Cobain 's lyrics address the people outside of the underground music scene that began showing up at Nirvana shows after the release of the group 's debut album Bleach . Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad wrote , " But remarkably , [ the song 's lyrics ] translated even better to the mass popularity the band enjoyed . " Regarding the song 's chorus , Azerrad commented , " The brilliant irony is that the tune is so catchy that millions of people actually do sing along to it . " In his biography of Cobain , Heavier Than Heaven , Charles R. Cross asserted that the song was a " thinly disguised portrait " of Cobain 's friend Dylan Carlson . 
