Why Kurt Cobain Was The Last Real Rockstar.

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Utkarsha Srivastava
Jul 27, 2019   •  82 views

The music of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain once had teenagers in its grasps. Twenty-five years after Nirvana frontman’s suicide, some would argue that the music has never been same since. His voice is unmistakable and there is no doubt that for many people he still remains the last real rock star.

By the time of his death, Kurt Cobain had become the voice of his generation, the most influential American musician since Bob Dylan. During his short, explosive career, his pioneering music with Nirvana, tempestuous marriage to Courtney Love and struggle with heroin all ensured he was never out of the headlines. But in private he was increasingly ill at ease with his fame - and confided his fears to a series of notebooks. He also filled them with doodles, cartoons and drawings, love letters, lyrics and his plans for Nirvana.

Cobain spoke out against the Nazi Punk movement and he was a rare rock star who championed gay rights and feminists. With Cobain and Nirvana the “grunge” scene was born , the music and the fashion and it still hasn’t gone away, remember those ripped jeans? He used to think of his music as “musical freedom”. He was a face of suicide and some people got help as numbers suggest that the number of suicides in Seattle after his death decreased substantially. Cobain matters the most because he is the last of his kind. He had a star making charisma and we haven’t seen that since his death in 1994.

The biggest difficulty Cobain faced was the misfit between his passionate politics and his escalating fame. As someone who could write that 'I am going to fucking destroy your macho, sadistic, right wing, religiously abusive opinions,' Cobain was consumed with guilt about the way fate singled out Nirvana above all the other grunge contenders of America's Pacific northwest. 'I feel so incredibly guilty for abandoning my true comrades who were the ones who were devoted to us a few years ago.’

’Smells like Teen Spirit’ was an anthem for the 90’s filled with raw emotion , angst and sung from the heart by a frontman whose own personal story of rejection made a deep connection with a young audience. Many argue that his continuing impact in music and far beyond means Kurt Cobain still matters and more than ever. With Nirvana the music has always been about the internal process of the singer not some flashy cherry coloured pop video song. Anyone on the outside could and still does associate with Cobain.

He was the last star to have touched an entire mainstream generation. The songs were his voice. Cobain's charisma, genius and music were all really about him. We haven't seen one that spanned everything, so we can definitely conclude that he was the “ Last Real Rockstar”.

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