Kurt Cobain
For our modern day hero we used the singer and
songwriter Kurt Cobain from the
band Nirvana. This punk Seattle band moved
almost mainstream almost overnight.
Nirvana caught on fast and changed
rock and roll music forever and molded the
music of the 90’s, alternative.
Cobain had an enormous amount of talent but
unfortunately his life was cut
short by a still controversial suicide in his
Seattle home. On April 9,
1994, his body was discovered. He is a hero for many
of today’s troubled
youth because his music influences how these troubled kids
feel. They are
able relate to Cobain and his music. Kurt Cobain was born in
1967. He
lived with his sister and parents two hundred miles away from Seattle
in the
small logging town of Aberdine. His aunt, who helped him form his first
band,
introduced him to music at a very young age. His parents divorced
when
Kurt was only seven years old. Torn up by his parents’ divorce, he
went to
live with his mother in a trailer. After the divorce, Kurt was forced
to look at
his life in a different light. Kurt became extremely anti-social,
had few
friends, and was picked on in school because kids thought he was gay
or weird.
Kurt started writing poetry at the age of thirteen, and when he
was 14, he
received his first guitar. Throughout high school he was in many
bands- Fecal
Matter, Skid Row, Brown Cow, The Sellouts and Pencap Chew.
He formed Nirvana
during his senior year of high school with his friends
Chris Novoselic and Dave
Grohl who Kurt called "the world’s best
drummer." Shortly after the band
was formed, Kurt dropped out of high school,
and his mother kicked him out of
the house. Homeless, he lived under a bridge
at the end of his street. It was
here that he would spend time alone writing
his own songs. From his parents’
divorce to his mother pushing him out of the
house, Kurt had become even more
alienated from other people and life. He was
very detached. Kurt hated the music
of big rock bands like the Sex Pistols,
Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. He felt
their lyrics were sexist and pointless
with no meaning. Kurt was a very
sensitive and emotional person, a
characteristic that showed through all of his
songs. Eventually he became so
famous that he a cult following. The songs
exemplified the kids’ world. In
the song "Dumb" Kurt sings, "I think
I’m dumb" over and over again to
show how his years of neglect from his
peers at high school and his family
made him feel as if he was to blame. Kids
relate to his music because it
portrays how the world was so cruel and how he
and the kids’ were treated
badly. He was responsible for the most creative
rock music of the last
decade. Kurt didn’t have to hide behind face paint or
wear tight clothes to
grab attention as the other rock stars. He wore flannels
and jeans, something
that every other kid wore, and he wasn’t ashamed by it.
In one song "Come
As You Are" Kurt sings "Come as you are as I want you to
be." He wanted to
show the youth that they don’t have to follow the crowd
and do something
someone else wants them to do to fit in. Every modern
alternative song has a
tint of "Nirvanaism" in it. Just like bands that
followed the Beatles, many
groups that followed Cobain tried to sound or copy
his same music pattern. In
his music he didn’t communicate in complete
sentences or elaborate arguments.
Instead his lyrics were a stream of conscious
insights that inspired and
appealed to the short attention span of his audience.
We picked Kurt
Cobain as a hero because he is different than the conventional
hero who just
goes out and saves lives. Kurt was an emotional leader for the
troubled
youth, and he gave them a place to escape from a life that was hard to
live.
His music gave them a hideaway from the harsh realities of the real
world.
All they had to do was listen, and they felt instant relief
because they knew
that not only they felt the way they did. They could relate
to Kurt and his
fragile emotions. In the song "Rape Me" Kurt sings; "Rape me,
my friend.
Rape me again. I'm not the only one. Hate me. Do it and do it
again. Waste me.
Taste me, my friend. My favorite inside source, I'll
kiss your open sores.
Appreciate your concern. You'll always stink and
burn." This shows how he
believed society took advantage of him because he
was weak and emotional. These
kids relate to Kurt. Kurt once said that he
would rather be in pain than fame.
His words and music make him a modern
day hero.