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All in All is All We All Are:
Looking
Back on Kurt Cobain
by Pat Barnum
Of
all the things that can be said of Kurt Cobain, above all, he articulated
the despair and anguish of his generation. While everyone shies
away from "generational spokesman" labels, there is no getting
around that the essence of Nirvana's music was despair and that it struck a
universal chord with America's youth. Whether Kurt knew it
or not (and he likely didn't), his band's 1991 arrival into
the mainstream was huge because, as with the 1964 Beatles, it happened
to be perfectly in tune with the national mood.
Perhaps the greatest musical tribute that can be made to Kurt Cobain is that, like 9-11 and the Civil War, contemporary rock is now viewed in terms of before-Nirvana and after-Nirvana. Their early-90's arrival was rock 'n' roll's watershed moment of today's generation. Before Nirvana, alternative rock truly was the alternative; since Nirvana, "alternative" has become mainstream, and mainstream rock as we knew it ceased to exist.
Kurt Cobain turned not only music, but pop culture itself, on its head. Who can erase the image of the exasperated, blond-haired punk rocker ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" video) invading the high school basketball game; the band whose subversive, ominous drone had the effect of exposing Mr. Popular as the pretentious fraud he was. Kurt Cobain held no secrets, and to listen to Nirvana was to hear a soul unveiled: rage, apology, tenderness, hopelessness, and no messing around. Fans did not listen to Nirvana to "rock out." They listened to look into a mirror, to self-medicate. Kurt was also the pioneer of self-deprecation with Radiohead's "Creep," Beck's "I'm a Loser Baby," and other pop icons following the lead.
Cobain obliterated the rock scene as we knew it and enabled a whole new (and better, I might add) world to develop. In this way, he did not simply change music, he changed the music market. Virtually all important acts since then, from Weezer to Tool; Smashing Pumpkinsto Linkin Park; and even The Dave Matthews Band to the "pop punk" movement, owe their success to the change Nirvana wrought on the musical landscape.
Amazingly, Kurt Cobain brought about a rock 'n' roll philosophy which was the complete opposite of the one that preceded him. As we all know, the 80's was the golden era of the macho-hedonistic-glutton rock championed by Motley Crue, Guns 'n' Roses and Bon Jovi. Then comes this introspective, politically conscious, highly aggressive sound from Seattle, rendering the hair bands - quite literally overnight - as obsolete as the tape cassettes they made their millions with. Nirvana, in the tradition of the Beatles, Led Zepplin, and Pink Floyd, made rock 'n' roll a thinking affair again. They rescued us from the hair bands.
It seems to me we should regard Kurt Cobain as we would a favorite drink. That drink is delectably good, full-spunk with flavor, and makes us feel so good inside. But we know that if we get too close, too familiar with its magic, there is danger. The problem with Kurt Cobain was that he meant what he said when he wrote the song "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die." You can't listen to his music without hearing your own dangerous songs. Unfortunately he got too close to his songs, and we are left to lament his loss.
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