Word: cobainã
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When I first learned of Cobain??s death in the fifth grade, I couldn’t have cared less. I knew none of his songs, and close to nothing about grunge, until a few months later, when a friend made me a mix that included “Teen Spirit” and “Polly,” and I soon owned every Nirvana album. Now, between the poster of 5-year-old Kurt on my door in Quincy, the antique Fender Mustang (my first guitar, and the one famously endorsed by Cobain) my guitar...
...hear a Nirvana song on the radio, I understand all over again why their music has such lasting appeal. When juxtaposed with Limp Bizkit’s overbearing machismo, Creed’s creepy blend of pop and religion, or John Mayer’s annoying, emo voice, Cobain??s gut-wrenching howl and skillfully dissonant guitar-playing are as refreshing as a brick in Sean Paul’s face. Today, 10 years after Cobain??s suicide, his music appeals to us for the same reasons it did in 1991, when “Smells...
Something intangible about Cobain and his music has earned him titles like “Rock’s last great star.” Scarily enough, he reached out so far to people that some of his fans even mimicked his suicide. While the mysteries surrounding Cobain??s death undoubtedly contribute to his legend, I don’t believe they are the primary explanation. Because, frankly, it’s hard to imagine that Enrique Iglesias or Ja Rule would elicit the same reaction if either of them decided to put a shot...
...real answer to the mystery of Cobain??s appeal is that beneath the flannel shirts, torn jeans, intermittent hygiene and biting sarcasm that came to define the grunge movement, there is an unspoken but powerful ideology that Cobain inherited from the likes of J.D. Salinger, William S. Burroughs, Dylan, Robert Johnson, Led Belly and even James Dean. Uniting all of these artists is the cult of the anti-hero, a philosophy which has resonated with generation after generation of disaffected youth. While every new proponent of this ideology has offered his own interpretation of its time old principles...
...extraordinarily benign about his sense of alienation from the testosterone-driven culture of his home town, his avid defense of gay rights and his firm belief that women, rather than men, should rule the world. But if Cobain is a saint, then we must reexamine our definition of sainthood. Cobain??s brand was not one founded on moral perfectionism, guilt or self-flagellation, but one that upholds sincerity and human decency above status and personal achievement, and is willing to forgive and occasionally to embrace the flaws that make us human. Now that Cobain is long gone...