Kurt Cobain
 

Just wondering...the radio station up here [and MTV, I assume] made a big deal over the anniversary of Kurt's death. My question is, why is his death turned into some big, memorial day?

Sure, he did some amazing things musically, but he blew his brains out leaving his daughter to be raised by her freak of a mother. He didn't die of cancer. He wasn't murdered for political reasons. He wasn't even run over by a drunk driver.

I just don't get it...

I'm with you, and as far as doing some amazing things....I don't really see that either. If their music came on the radio, I could stand to listen to it, but I wouldn't call any of it "amazing".

I just don't get it...as well

Well, he was in the first group to populize a new style of music, and invigorated a very stagnant music scence that had been reduced to hair metal and R.E.M. Personally, I never liked Nirvana, but I appreciate that they shook things up, and I really liked much of the non-grunge that followed them.

hair metal rules!!!

I have to give credit where credit is due, and agree with you redlemon on the fact that the group brought about a change in music that led to the breakout of other better bands, but I still stand by my original comment about Mr. Cobain not doing anything amazing.

Hair metal did rule, but by the time Nirvana came around, hair metal was Winger and Warrant, so it was pretty much dead by that time.

They did the same thing up here (play Nirvana for a REALLY long time) yesterday. I thoroughly enjoy Kurt Cobain. I think people react too harshly to the allegations of him being one of the best musicians ever. Just because you don't agree with that statement doesn't mean he sucks! You gotta remember.......this man wrote some AWESOME songs. While I agree that he isn't the best musician that ever lived, I also agree that he was one hell of a artist. I guess it makes more of an impact on your life if you pretty much grew up listening to his tunes. I'll never forget Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium, In Bloom, Heart-Shaped Box, Lake of Fire, that awesome The Man Who Sold the World cover, All Apologies, Come As You Are, Sliver, Drain You, or any of the other memorable songs he let us hear. 'Tis forever etched in my mind. Whenever I hear Smells Like Teen Spirit, it reminds me of growing up and how grungy it was at that point in my life.

You also have to realize that not everyone is convinced that it was suicide.

Nirvana was revolutionary. They were the Led Zeppelin of our generation with the way they completely changed music and got it out of the drone stages.

I'm sure there were 10 year marks of the deaths of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, etc.. in the papers way back when, all of whom died from some self-inflicted (of sorts) method.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. i dont think he did it himself and i never will even if there is absolute conclusive evidence that he did.

couldnt of said it better myself so i wont try.

Nirvana's music was outstanding and they have been my favorite band for a very long time now. Kurt Cobain's death was an extremely sad day for me.

You mean aside from giving birth to modern music?

Smells Like Teen Spirit was overplayed for quite a while. But when I first heard it when I was 21 I remember thinking, Damn, this band is gonna be big. In '91, music needed Nirvana. I wish Kurt would have chosen not to off himself, or if he was shot, I wish it didn't happen. I can't help but to think of the great tunes we have missed out on because of his death. At least Dave Grohl kept going. The Foo Fighters are great. But having Nirvana making records for another 10 years would probably have been damned fine.

I still think he was murdered

Did Courtney Love pull the trigger?? could be!

I also am a huge fan of his music... I still to this day listen to 3 of his albums at work (Nevermind, In Utero, Unplugged)

I also try to practice some of their songs on Bass guitar... some are easier than others

This may be deviating a bit, but I find the same phenomenon surrounding the anniversary of Tupac's death. Many people I know regard him as some sort of messiah for the black race. To me, he was just another rapper who lived by the gun, and ended up dying by it.

Tupac was just a wanna be gangsta, he died because he involved himself with that kind of lifestyle. Same with Biggy. now, bring on the flames, as I'm sure a lot of you feel that Tupac and Biggy were the shiznit. Lol.

no arguments here. "Live by the sword, die by the sword" frequently does hold true.

I expected a lot of people to support tupac and biggy. I think fame got to them, and then they got into that east coast vs west coast silliness. They should have all worked together to promote rap/hip hop. I think it's ludicrous to devide a genre based on location. Know what I mean?

I think it was just the 10 years anniversery, because I didn't hear a thing about his death last year, so we prolly won't hear about it for another 5-10 years.

To me its because if he was still alive the music we listen to right now could be different he was very different and creative. He deserves the best!!!!!!!

Tupac is still alive! Well, a lot of peeps say so. Tupac has sold more records since he was declared dead than when he was alive. As with Kurt Cobain, there are conspiricy theories about Tupac's death. But when it comes down to the death of Tupac, again, I think he was trying to be big thuggin', and that's what got him killed. Yo.

Yeah, I don't understand it either. The only musician I feel this way about is John Lennon and that's because he meant so much more than just music. Personally, I don't see Cobain coming anywhere near Lennon, but maybe its a generational thing.

I'm not a huge Beatles fan so I won't comment on Lennon or any Beatle for that matter, but I think Kurt Cobain was a damned fine musician and it's a shame he's dead. Nirvana is honestly my favorite band, so this is in fact a biased opinion lol, but it's how I feel on the topic of Kurt Cobain.

Well, that is what I meant by Amazing...personally the fact that the Foo Fighters were born out of his death was a blessing--not a Nirvana fan for the most part.
I guess my proiblem is that I am not a conspiracy theorist and figure he was a depressed drug addict that didn't have the guts to go on and blew his brains out...I see no reason to celebrate him.

Do you think the pendulum would have swung so swiftly back to bubblegum pop music had Cobain still been alive? Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, etc. didn't last many years after Nirvana's demise, and out of the ashes of grunge arose the boy band and britney.

That's pretty much what I was going to say.
It's the 10th anniversary of the death of the most important musician of the 1990's, of course a big deal is going to be made of it. I still remember where I was when I heard that Kurt died and I think most people my age (I'm 25) do too. It was a sad day and now we remember it 10 years later.
Personally I cant believe it's been 10 years since we've heard Nirvana (aside Unplugged, Muddybanks and the recent collection).

That's because of the wonderful 20th century technology of sound recording, as in tapes and CDs.

Nirvana is my favorite band. There was a truth to Nirvana's Lyrics. Why isn't Kurt as good as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis or Jim Morrison.

The fact is that Kurt had a huge impact on music. He was an artist and he died too soon. Just because he lived and died 30 years after these other great artists doesn't mean he doesn't deserve as much respect.

If Soundgarden's demise led to the birth of Audioslave, I wouldn't call that a bad tradeoff.

Rollingstone Magazine agrees with you. Pick up their latest issue: "The Immortals".