But some songwriters have the ability to say things in a song that connect to a certain teenage audience no matter in which decade they live.
When producer Butch Vig described how Cobain recorded the track "Something In The Way" (from the 1991 seminal grunge album 'Never Mind') you get a feel for how exactly the vibe and feel can transform the song.
Having tried to record the song in the studio several times it was apparent there was something not exactly right. Cobain is frustrated with the results and sitting on the sofa within the control room. Then, laying flat on his back he takes the acoustic guitar "this is how it should go.." and begins to sing the song barely audible with Vig listening.
Vig grabs a couple of microphones, switches off the hardware that's not needed to isolate the sound, and keeping as silent as possible records Cobain's voice and guitar in one take. The other instrumentation is added later, punching in the drum kit a bar at a time because the timing was loose (not recorded to a click track), the backing vocals are dubbed over, the cello ends up recorded slightly out of tune in parts because of the difficulty keeping with the root tuning from Cobain's original vocal track.
The effect is stunning. The voice is close and personal. Despairing yet coherent. Bleak yet surrounding. The lyrics are abstract but understandable. It's an Edvard Munch painting of The Scream without screaming. And completely irresistible to some teenage lives.
