The two bands Kurt Cobain modelled Nirvana on
Part of what made Kurt Cobain so compelling was the fact he was a truly unlikely star. In the decades that preceded him, American audiences lapped up clean-cut popstars who typified the dreamlike commercial image of the country’s influence. It fed off the star’s willingness to be in the limelight, creating a toxic feedback loop designed for endless influxes of income.
Within that mould, there wasn’t much room for a greasy-haired grunge rocker who wore oversized ripped clothing and regularly broke commercial protocol. However, as an army of alternative fans became disillusioned with the American reality in which they lived, those attributes became more endearing or perhaps more importantly, authentic.
Cobain experienced somewhat of an alienated adolescence. Struggling to make friends after realising how different everybody seemed to him, his sophisticated and observational mind rendered him socially isolated. Divorced parents and a lack of friends made him grow even more inward, leaving records as his only source of conversational company.
Classic rock legends Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and The Stooges gave Cobain a deeper understanding of melodic structures, but his position as a societal outsider saw him marry those sensibilities with darker, more obscure lyrical narratives. While the sonic sentiment of classic bands appealed to him, the lyrical glamourisation of sex, drugs and rock and roll alienated Cobain, and it wasn’t until the emergence of Punk that he felt truly part of a musical community: “[It said] everything. It was the anger that I felt. The alienation,” he stated.
What came after was the development of an iconic alternative voice. His twisted storytelling and penchant for structural melodies were married with a rousing rhythm section forged by Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. Together, they thrust grunge into commercial realms, spearheaded important cultural conversations, and shed light on a view of America from society’s fringes.
No matter how alternative your narrative is positioned, if it generates a swell of success, the commercial expectations will eventually come knocking. The question for artists like Cobain, is how do you navigate those waters to suitably nourish the livelihood of your band, without neglecting the principles that made them famous in the first place?
One year after the release of their seminal album Nevermind, Cobain was arguably the world’s most famous frontman. When Rolling Stone were given the opportunity to run a cover story on the band, he turned up to the photoshoot wearing a T-shirt that read ‘corporate magazines still suck’.
“On my way there, I just decided, ‘I’m going to write something on my shirt that’s offensive enough to stop getting our picture on the cover.’. This way I could say that I actually played along with it and still didn’t get picked to be on the cover. I wasn’t necessarily challenging Rolling Stone, saying, ‘you suck’ and ‘we don’t want to have anything to do with you, but we’ll still use you for our exposure’,” he told The Advocate in 1993.
“Rolling Stone sucks, has always sucked, and still sucks just because they have a hip band on their cover,” he said. “We’re not as cool and hip as everyone thinks. Having us on the cover isn’t going to make Rolling Stone any cooler. Ever since this band has been popular, I’ve always thought of us as just a ’90s version of Cheap Trick or the Knack. They had two sides of appeal that made them kind of a cool band-a commercial side and kind of a new-wave side. We have that”.
It was a nut that Cobain never really cracked, but ultimately, something that has made his lyrics more resonant today. The battle between commercialism and authenticity still runs rife among modern artists, and Cobain’s unapologetic portrayal of an artist unwilling to conform to commercial expectations laid the blueprint for punk in the modern, more digital age.
