In the first quarter of the past decade, any kid with their antennae trained to pop culture knew and understood an object called Kurt. A lonesome, doleful guitarist from the United States’ Pacific north-west had emerged as one of the early 1990s’ most recognisable artefacts.
Ten years ago, Cobain’s notoriety as a disconsolate artist was set in concrete when he took his own life. The founder and songwriter of grunge rockers, Nirvana, Cobain was discovered dead from a self-administered gunshot to the head.
It was three days before an electrician found Cobain’s body in the greenhouse above the garage in the musician’s Seattle home. It was three days before many of so-called Generation X were stunned to learn that their anti-hero had given up his fight.
To gauge Cobain’s popularity is simple: He claimed enough airtime, ink and eyeballs to be a bona fide celeb. To assess his legend and his resonance is a trickier affair.
For the young adults of the early 1990s, Cobain articulated an era of particular angst through gesture and song. The day news broke of Cobain’s suicide earnest pop sociologists appeared on television to warn parents to remain vigilant upon discovering Nirvana CDs in the home.
After Cobain’s suicide, the music industry quickly assessed how much money it could make. Fortunes and careers were founded on the back of Cobain’s death.
Not the least remarkable of which was that of his shrill widow, Courtney Love. After delivering a televised, obscenity-peppered eulogy, Love slimmed down, toned-up and racked up some notable public achievements.
These feats, including a Golden Globe award and certified platinum status for her album Celebrity Skin, were made all the impressive for the fact they were earned by someone so contentedly talent free.
Cobain openly rejected the corporate machinery of the entertainment industry and the racism, queer-baiting and misogyny familiar to rock’n’roll. He gave the middle finger to mainstream culture, but did so with the kind of fractured, attention-deficient laziness characteristic of his age-mates.
Cobain was the agonised loafer. Suffering nearly all of the talk-show-friendly indignities of his generation including divorced parents, the amphetamine Ritalin and dyslexia, he somehow emerged to critique it all.
Cobain remains an underachieving superhero that enunciated our peculiar laziness like no other.
Sorry guys, I did not find any threads to write something on Kurt, and I am a real lazy bum to request a new thread on Kurt.