Kurt Cobain would have been 50 today

I loooved Nirvana so much back in the day (I too missed out on them at the time but I got into them roughly in 2003 or so when I started my teen years). They were the perfect band for me at that age, I think I needed those lyrics and melodies.

To be honest listening to them today a lot of the music and lyrics feel very juvenile, childish/childlike, whiny, or rudimentary. Some of that is the effective simplicity of the songwriting, some of it is probably because it reminds me of that age where I myself was an annoying angsty teenager (and because I look back on that period with embarrassment, my Nirvana stan days, the music is maybe tainted a little ), and some of that is probably because due to his untimely death we never really got to see Cobain develop and mature as an artist into making proper adult music.

However I will always have a soft spot for their songs (I still bump Bleach and In Utero from time to time!), and even more so because they were kind of a 'gateway band' to (IMO) more interesting and compelling artists that I could relate to more. If I wasn't such a Cobain worshipper I mightn't ever have discovered Hole, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr., Smashing Pumpkins, The Meatpuppets, Sonic Youth, Babes In Toyland, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, The Melvins, L7, Tad, Husker Du, Teenage Fanclub, Candlebox, The Jesus Lizard, Love Battery, Janitor Joe, Veruca Salt, Mudhoney, Gumball, etc.

I don't have a favourite song by Nirvana, but these 3 are cute and the first three that came to mind:

Right! I mean goddamn 

Love Kurt! I really miss him and what he brought to the culture. He was a great songwriter, singular lyricist, had a fantastic, raw voice for his music, and my youth wouldn't have been the same without him. I also want to note that one of the things I loved most about him is that he was a proud feminist! That was refreshing at a time when we had been inundated with misogynistic hair metal bands.

I have to be honest. I don't listen to Nirvana as much these days because the music can get a bit repetitive after awhile. But I will always have a lot of respect for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. They were very important in my life. Nirvana was really my gateway into rock music! I wouldn't have discovered a lot of bands without them.

As for the music itself, as I said it can be repetitive after listening for awhile. However, In Utero is still interesting to me only because after the commercial success of their monumental Nevermind album, they went to a place that was a bit strange and twisted, and yet the great songwriting was still intact. I loooooove "Milk It" most of all. Other Nirvana songs I love: Sappy, Dive, Come As You Are, Lithium, Dumb, School, and Sliver.

Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want The Truth?

Kurt Cobain is almost never discussed honestly or in any realistic context whatsoever.......it's like people are discussing their favorite unicorn in Fucklandia or what America will do with its huge budget surplus::

* Creator of 1 all-timer album - Nevermind (1991) - a popular one too which almost never happens - and certainly not to that extent .........a very deeply flawed, at times great-ish, but overrated follow-up - In Utero (1993) and a so-so debut with maybe 2 to 4 songs of merit (Bleach, 1989: About A Girl, Negative Creep, School, Blew) ............. several ace non-album tracks (You Know You're Right, Even In His Youth, Been A Son, Sliver, Verse Chorus Verse)

* Live - I saw em thanx4asking - they were punishingly powerful but not in a relatable or connective manner - they were rather like watching a pulverizing demolition machine..........

* As great as Nevermind is - where does it stand compared to others in its own 1991-1992 era: Slanted and Enchanted, The La's, Loveless, Copper Blue, My Brain Hurts ............. Like The Beatles - when you raise it (wrongly) - above its relevant contemporaries to a mythic status - you misrepresent a whole lot about a whole lot

* He was not "the beginning" of anything - he was rather "the end" of most things - if you don't think so, you missed the whole 80s Indie era and probably think the 90s was a lot better than it really was........

* Like The Beatles Sgt. Pepper - Cobain - also great like that album was - spawned much more bad Art than good - in the same style at least:

His "bad qualities" - Dour, in a way that just grinds you down - a hard to discern sense of humor (he had it, but like most depressive junkies - it gets lost and overwhelmed) - and an easy to mimic aesthetic formula borrowed from the Pixies: the loud / quiet / loud dynamic template that was really begging to be copied.......and seemed lesser when it was mimicked in his case ........... though it wasn't really of course .......

* In fact much of actual best Rock (but not all) that followed him culturally - just like with Sgt Pepper - can be read as a reaction against him specifically: (the early) Oasis, (the early) Strokes, Exploding Hearts, Libertines........those bands were all hedonistic, sexual, overly stylish by comparison  - all 4 of whom made a single album every bit "as good" (imo) as Nevermind too btw ...........and they were practically stylishly Glam Rock by comparison  

* Chris Ott in the video below sums him up - and takes the bullshit romanticizing out of him .......one of the best analysis pieces in Rock in the last 30 years.........not written by.......um............. me   .............. It's 21 minutes - but dead right (no pun) .........

No I don't think that is.......although like most great Rock and Roll he had a lot of contradictions around him too........and one of them would be the effect a non-Indie record (Nevermind) had on the Indies:
 
He was the last in the line of the American Indie Great Period which had existed ~ for a decade run prior - of producing highly acclaimed non-major label albums consistently - such as Wild Gift, Damaged, New Day Rising, Life's Rich Pagaent, Daydream Nation, Surfer Rosa, You're Living All Over Me and dozens of others - one of the great eras in US Rock.......

The best US Rock made around Nirvana's post-Nevermind era - 1992-1995 - is by bands who either existed before Nevermind and were on Indies already (Pavement, Screeching Weasel), were on a de facto major label (Sugar, Rykodisc) were on a major label and existed prior to Nevermind (Hole's Live Through This - not great to me but great singles), or um, were not even a band (Liz Phair)

The music that sucked -  "spawned much more bad Art than good" by new bands post-Nevermind was on majors anyway - because like Chris Ott said in the vid - everyone saw dollar signs.......and went a little mad.......

Joaquim who falsely called me a Nirvana hater, a racist, a bully and a sexist - that was a joke people........all of which are untrue - except the bully thing.......you can read my Kurt Cobain thoughts above ^........and I saw them 30 years ago when I was 2.........

RIP ......30 Years Gone on Friday, April 5th

One of his very best songs imo.....