This week music writers around the nation will be writing about Kurt Cobain on this, the tenth anniversary of his suicide. Many will be eulogies, but I never knew the man. Many will write about his music.
Nirvana was more important than its music. They changed the culture of the industry.
There was study done a few years ago, one which you can do in your spare time, where they showed that words like \icon,"" ""diva"" and ""hero"" were used more today than ever before. Somewhere along the line Mike Myers became an icon, as did Toby Keith and Pat Buchanan. But Kurt Cobain was an icon in ways other icons weren't-he was the focal point of rock 'n' roll for a time who never seemed to peak, only plateauing for his death.
Nirvana was an outlier of rock, the kind of band that only wrote songs that worked, and Cobain was at the head of it. He was the first grunge writer who de-emphasized the aggressive sound Alice in Chains and Soundgarden sported, creating fluid, accessible music. Nirvana was the band of ""Come as You Are,"" a group who truly invited all kinds of people to underground rock and not just the plaid wearing hipsters.
But the lasting impact of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana was not the music. For all the greatness Nirvana brought to the genre, grunge was a dead end. As far back as Candlebox and as recently as The Vines, the bands which emulated Nirvana's sound failed miserably, and soon after the end of Nirvana, the Soundgardens and Pearl Jams went far into the background. Grunge's staying power was linked to the great band that brought it to the surface. After that, there was nothing. So why does Nirvana matter 10 years later?
It was their affect on other bands that came from the same underground scene they did. Unseen bands, fonder remembered than appreciated at the time, were playing outsider music throughout the '80s. The indie-culture at the time was just being formed. No one had attempted to start their own label to record their own music on a small scale until Black Flag started SST in the early '80s, with few magazines to review their work, few radio stations to play them, and few venues to play in. While the indie circuit is difficult now, it was impossible then. There were very few ways to make a living on an independent label. No one promoted the bands because no one saw the value of a band which played music they wanted to rather than that the public was asking for. Henry Rollins' mom would bring him enough sandwiches to last the week so he wouldn't starve.
A few times, '80s indies tried to jump to major labels. The stress of the big leagues broke up H??sker D?? and Public Image LTD. And without a fiscal success, no one cared what was going on underground. Bands were doing brilliant things and no one was noticing. Toward the end of the '80s, Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth left the indies to be used as magnets for young groups who respected them. It worked. Geffen's Sonic Youth attracted Nirvana from its series of indie-contracts, and would lead to Nevermind, an album perenially named in the top 10 of all time, recorded in Nirvana's own style rather than a more commericially viable one. They led the way for individualistic bands to go pop.
It led to an underground explosion. Suddenly indie-labels got songs on the radio and indie-albums went gold. Wax and Dinosaur Jr got on MTV. Everyone got on the radio. No one had to change their sound to go pop.
It's been said that kids with guitars these days don't know what selling out means, what, with small labels artists who look to make it big and big label artists with immense indie cred. But if it's true its for the better and not the worse. That a band like The Raveonettes can be distributed by Columbia Records when they couldn't have been 15 or 20 years ago is a good thing. That we have a network of indie zines and college radio set up which prevent bands like TV on the Radio from slipping through the cracks is fantastic. This is the lasting legacy of Nirvana, that bands no longer have to make the choice between playing their style of music and making enough money to buy groceries.
And if its good now, it was great 10 years ago. Brands like Warner Bros. were signing bands like The Poster Children and Wilco knowing that there would be no money in it. The hope was that signing another Nirvana would pay for the Sonic Youth to attract them. Labels aren't quite as permissive now, Wilco was famously forced out of Reprise. Still, college rock has become a career above a calling. College hip-hop is growing in its wake. Good music, so much good music, was saved as a result of Nirvana
Nirvana's music was great, but it wasn't where their greatness layed. That was in their ability to attract people to subculture music, to the sea of Mission of Burma's and Fugazi's who deserved more attention. Remember Kurt Cobain for his music, but appreciate him for saving so much more
