YMMV / Pump Up the Volume

• Awesome Music:
  • The movie has a legitimately awesome soundtrack, featuring the Cowboy Junkies covering Robert Johnson, Concrete Blonde covering Leonard Cohen, the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Was (Not Was), and The Pixies contributing a different arrangement of their "Wave of Mutilation". The Beastie Boys track that Mark plays in the film is an obscure bootleg called "The Scenario" that actually was left off their first album due to Executive Meddling.
  • In the film but not included on the soundtrack are the Leonard Cohen original of the song covered by Concrete Blonde and a song by Stan Ridgway that is only available on live bootlegs.
• Fair for Its Day: While Harry doesn't clearly come out and say homophobia is bad when he talks to the gay teen who had been abused by other students when they found out he was gay, the fact he takes it seriously and talks to the other teen seriously about it (especially considering he takes almost nothing else seriously), makes this movie much different than almost all the teen movies that came out in the 1980's where casual homophobia, even from the heroic characters, was very common.
  • Like many teen boys of the era, he’s easy with jokes and exaggerated sex talk, but uncomfortable directly discussing serious emotional issues. That’s what got him in trouble to begin with: he never directly told the kid not to kill himself. Today, the internet has helped teens find more outlets to discuss gender, sexuality, and mental health problems.
• Fridge Logic: So, uh, where the hell did they get the giant penis in the middle of the night?
  • Considering that it shows that Mark has been broadcasting as Harry for a short time before the start of the film, it's safe to say someone may have made it over the course of a few days and decided to bring it up to the high school (where everyone hangs out to listen to the broadcast) on that particular night.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Jan Emerson has been fired by Crestwood for speaking out, but steals evidence of Crestwood's misdeeds from the offices and hands it to Deaver... right in front of Crestwood.
  • "I'm suspending you." "You can't do that." "Oh, I think I just did."
  • In the same exchange, when Deaver, who's been on the side of the administration up to this point, says "They're just kids," showing he does care about his students. Though he may be just covering himself.

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