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First of all, I'll start by explaining why I decided to do this post, on this specific topic. And it's quite simple. There are trends in social networks, 500 usd t-shirts, from capitalist brands with the name and logo of Nirvana, and the Z generation doesn't have the slightest idea of who this guy was... I'm not a purist, don't misunderstand, but something does make me a lot of noise... How long has it been normal to leave behind what we once loved? I don't know if it happens in any other field, but in music and culture it's something that repeats itself eternally...
Frances Farmer, artist, feminist activist and writer inspired Kurt Cobain to the point of naming his only daughter after himself. We're talking about someone who became a father in 1992, and Farmer had passed away decades before... Che Guevara fought against capitalism, perhaps harder than Stalin himself, literally died in the mountains of Bolivia doing what he considered to be the cause of his life... Decades later, the very system he opposed not only profits from his image, but turns it into a myth and takes it everywhere; even becoming a symbol of the LGBTQ struggle...
So, on balance, what is my point? We all know that rock gave us one last icon of music, of his generation and a true genius with the death of Cobain. When he did what he did with his life, I was less than 2 years old. I'm the same age as his daughter. I didn't belong to those Generation X kids who felt, lived and adopted the Grunge philosophy as a movement and avant-garde for their lives. I did grow up with the myth and the legend. I loved Nirvana for as long as I can remember. And I never met anyone who knew them or, at least, could identify a song.... Everything changed when I talked to kids in a high school, in the middle of a working day...
For reasons unrelated to rock, and culture, I work in a government agency in charge of teaching and educating about sensitive issues; such as violence prevention and legal assistance in that area... We were having this brief chat in a local high school auditorium, and suddenly I see a kid, no more than 19 years old, wearing a Kurt t-shirt, with the fantastic Nirvana logo and the words ‘With the Lights Out’. Knowing what those letters mean, I wink at him and point my finger in approval at his T-shirt. To which he, with crossed arms and a frown on his face, I said quietly, ‘What are you referring to?’, and I waved my hands at him, indicating that it was his T-shirt and what it said, and he replied at the end of the conversation, ‘Ma'am, I bought this shirt because I like your logo’ (The “logo” was literally the cover of the album ‘Nevermind’ [1991]).
That kid had no idea what he was wearing.... I insist, I'm no purist or conservative but, if Kurt, Dave and Krist, in less than 40 years are starting to be forgotten.... Everything you, and I, and anyone you know, will also be less than nothingness itself. It sounds like a trick of philosophy but it's pure Grunge minimalism. Kurt himself couldn't have thought of such a thing. It's amazing how our worries seem so vital when in reality they are minuscule... One guy, with his friends, changed the most powerful genre in the history of music 31 years ago, and the generation immediately after mine (I'm Millennial, they're ‘Z’) don't even recognise a genius anymore. It's part of life, you know? Likewise, and to be fair, I've also known 19/20 year olds who cover Nirvana and still love Kurt... But the moral is intact....
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