I’m not going to read anyone else’s comments or thoughts until I make mine. So here goes nothing . . .
First off, I think Nirvana and Kurt Cobain are both WIDELY overrated. I don’t think Cobain was any musical genius or the voice of our generation or any of that crap. And I don’t think Nirvana was anything groundbreaking, either. I personally find them to be a bit dull. If anything, the Nirvana phenomenon was really a matter of perfect timing. But I was there and part of it all, regardless.
It was '91 when Nevermind came out. This was a time when people were pretty jaded, I think, with the music scene as a whole. On one side we had a lot of buttrock from the likes of Poison and Warrant, and on the other side we had the “alternative” with stuff like Depeche Mode, B52’s, and They Might Be Giants (yeah, radical stuff, I know). I’m not even discussing the fixed variable of pop since that is really a constant which will always be around and is kind of irrellevant to the discussion at hand. I’m basing my paradigm through the eyes of a So.CA kid with radio stations KNAC (“hard rock/metal”), KROQ (alternative), and KIIS (top 40).
When Nirvana hit it was something different and it seemed to “connect” with a LOT of kids. We were, as a whole, bored, jaded, confused, and angry . . . and we didn’t particularly know why. I think it’s just a product of being Suburban, white, and normal. Nirvana didn’t try to distract us from our unpleasantness like so many Shiny Happy People have. Neither did Nirvana try to EXPLAIN things in a futile manner like so much “punk” (telling us we were supposed to be pissed because of our parents, our government, our churches . . . ad infinitum). They just sort of ECHOED our feelings. Kurt was one of us. He did NOT have the answers. That’s why he was loved and that’s why we identified with him.
And so he became a figurehead of the times. Lost, confused, sad, angry . . . I don’t recall Nirvana ever telling us we needed to save the Tibetan Rain Forests to Cure AIDS for Gay Whales or any of that crap (Krist probably did later on, though). They just made a bunch of angry noise that a lot of angry kids felt sounded a lot like the internal angry noise they couldn’t themselves figure out how to get out.
And so it went for a couple years, and Nirvana became the biggest thing on the planet. A nice effect was that a lot of other bands and artists (many of whom had already been around for some time) started getting to come along for the ride. MTV read their cards right and gave a nightly video show called “120 Minutes” which put forward a lot of these previously overlooked artists (yes, MTV used to play videos). Suddenly people were hearing for the first time Sonic Youth, Rollins Band, Iggy Pop, Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails . . . all kinds of stuff.
But, as would also happen, when one band “makes it” (Nirvana) they make, by default, a template. And what a horrible template it was. Suddenly everything from Seattle or that sounded like something from Seattle was being commoditized and the “grunge” sound was packaged in a nice radio-friendly manner with the likes of Candlebox, Collective Soul, and God only remembers what other garbage (this same movement would eventually birth the likes of Creed and Nickleback – thanks, Kurt).
So, Kurt died in 1994. And appropriately so (no, I’m not trying to sound like a dick here). He was unable, apparently, to reconcile all the madness that he was caught up in and the whirlwind around him. He was still the same loser kid WITHOUT any answers. But he was that same loser kid with mega-million-dollar contracts, international touring schedules, Rolling Stone interviews, etc. Mo money, mo problems, yo! A drug habit at this time was NOT going to help things. The problems got worse and the drugs did too. He also had what could arguably be considered the most volatile and unhelpful wife at the time.
We needed Kurt to die. We needed a Christ figure. We needed our John Lennon, our Elvis, our Jim Morrison, and we needed him to die . . . or it just wouldn’t work the way things are supposed to. He couldn’t become a God without first having his crucifixion.
And so it came to pass . . . here we are, 20 years later.
In all honesty, I’m not really a fan of the overall impact that was made by Kurt or the band. I didn’t like the way that things that were previously “underground” became Wal-Mart staples. I liked it before. I liked when being a loser and being angry and looking for release and reflection in music required more of an effort on our part. I used to steal money from my mother’s purse so I could drive 30 miles to my favorite record shop in Huntington Beach (Vinyl Solution – it sucks now, don’t bother) and SEARCH for stuff that meant something to me.
I don’t like when the youth gets their rebellious voice and meaning served to them on a silver platter, wrapped in a box, with a nifty bow on top (oh, hi there, Hot Topic!). All of this is 1000 times worse now with the explosion of the internet (kids can get anything and everything now with a couple mouse clicks).
I RESPECT Kurt and Nirvana for the meaning it all held at the time. And I think I understand WHY it had meaning to us all at that time. It had meaning because of it’s LACK of meaning and lack of pretense.
I respect it and I understand it.
Just don’t ask me to give a shit about any of it NOW.