Fanfiction : Music : Nirvana Changes The World
By Kellyanne Lynch
20 September 2001, 3:24 PM
Disclaimer: These are my own thoughts. I have neither had in the past nor have now a connection with Kurt Cobain or Nirvana.
Summary: an essay I wrote for my counseling principles and practices class. It's written as a response to an article in Entertainment Weekly.
Rating: PG
* Please email dearjoan@mikeypower.com with questions, comments, theories, complaints, words of wisdom
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This is going to sound like such a Generation X statement. But really, Nirvana changed people.
This article from Entertainment Weekly focuses primarily on how this band changed the music scene - more specifically, how short-lived this change was. At the time when Nirvana gained national attention, hair bands, power ballads, and generally flashy acts were in style. Nirvana was not a hair band. Nirvana didn't do power ballads. Nirvana, by any stretch of the imagination, was not flashy. These guys graced the stage in flannel shirts, old T-shirts, and threadbare jeans. They epitomized grunge.
The over-hyped, arrogant rock star lost attention as Nirvana's front man Kurt Cobain became a household name. Cobain, the guy who wanted to use ugly cheerleaders in his music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit - if he had to have a music video. The guy who only had a few guitar lessons, then quit, but nonetheless was able to fill arenas, playing a $20 guitar he'd bought from a pawn shop.
During interviews, Cobain would lean back in his seat, smoking a cigarette, and vaguely answering questions. He didn't appear all too interested or even aware of his impact on the public. He didn't seem like someone who was aiming to change people. In his posture and attitude, he did not behave in a manner fitting for a helper. But perhaps all he needed to do was write songs that actually meant something, expressing the Rogerian concept of genuineness.
People were probably unaware that they desired change, and were most likely in the precomtemplative stage. Whatever music or culture in general is trendy, people tend to readily accept. They eat it up without a second thought. Perhaps there were some out there who recognized a lack of substance in early 90's music, which was generally the dregs of 80's pop. There may have been some people in a contemplative stage. Nirvana took many people into the preparation stage, where they started to connect with gut-spilling, raw, pure emotional lyrics and tunes, ones that weren't dressed up and painted like an 80's hair band.
Nirvana's Nevermind did not just change some people's musical tastes. It changed these individual's thoughts and feelings. Many adolescents in particular found that they could identify with Cobain's lyrics. Through the songs' genuineness, they found that they were not the only ones feeling isolated, alone, and depressed. Nirvana helped people come to terms with themselves.