Nirvana: A look back

The following piece is by Joseph R. Atilano, an authority on popular music.

Looking back, it’s hard to grasp the overall impact that Nirvana left behind. The importance of its music and how one album entitled “Nevermind” was the precursor of it all. It has been more than 20 years since Nirvana came into the awareness of mainstream listeners and exploded to become a worldwide phenomenon. Yet to this very day we are still feeling the residual effects of its influence on the music of our modern day bands.

Back then, most of us knew, after purchasing the album and listening to it, that this was something that would “stand the test of time”. It was unlike anything we had ever heard before. The music was raw, intense, yet melodic and conveyed a message. Prior to the arrival of Nirvana there wasn’t quite anything like it musically in any way in mainstream music. During the late ’80s we were exposed to hair metal bands and glam-rock. It was in Seattle that a new sub-genre of alternative rock was brewing and starting to make its presence felt, but it was only with the album “Nevermind” that the mainstream listeners felt the rise of what ultimately would be dubbed as “Grunge”. When “Nevermind” became a commercial success and a chart-topping hit, this is what ultimately made “Grunge” a new sub-genre and the most popular form of hard rock at the time. After Nirvana became such a huge phenomenon, other labels rushed to the Seattle area to find another band that could match Nirvana. Instead, they got imitators and bands that weren’t in any way on the level of Nirvana. This isn’t to say that the bands Alice in Chains, Sound Garden and Pearl Jam weren’t great. They were. But among these bands, Nirvana was the catalyst that made everything work. This is where the “Grunge Movement’ started and it all came from Seattle.

Despite all the success and critical acclaim it gained, how Kurt Cobain felt disenfranchised with the sudden rise to fame he was experiencing has been well-documented. Here was a truly gifted musician who just wanted to make a decent album from the music that influenced him in his formative years such as music from the likes of “The Pixies” and “The Melvins” which were also popular fixtures in the early developmental years of “Grunge” in Seattle. But “Nevermind” sparked something far greater than Cobain could ever imagine. Some critics have said that he wasn’t prepared for the rewards and pitfalls of fame. But the way I see it, if he weren’t ready, then, in no way could he have written the songs he wrote; nor talked about subject matters that anybody barely touches anymore and about subjects that we wouldn’t hear in “radio-friendly” stations. Nirvana made the labels give creative control of the subject matters of their bands currently signed. It led other bands to emulate and pattern themselves after Nirvana. That is why there is such a term called “Post-grunge” — a musical term defining bands that came to prominence after the untimely passing of Kurt Cobain. In his wake the so called “Grunge-movement” lost its anointed leader and the whole scene started to gradually fade away in the late ’90s. I still can’t comprehend how short he got to live his life. Here was a musician who died at the tender age of 27. Many critics could argue he wasn’t able to reach the peak of his artistry and creativity and the prime of his career. That is true. Most musicians would have the time to grow musically and their music would show maturity through the years, but the “Nevermind” album was just a sign of things to come. It he didn’t die, who knows how many more masterpieces he would have made? When you listen to the said album, in those tracks you could hear his suppressed rage because of his feelings of loneliness and alienation. This is where another important grunge term called “Angst” got its origin. Aside from all the important music terms they were credited for popularizing, it was the structure of his songs that got the most praise and imitation. A perfect example of this was the song “In Bloom” wherein he starts out with a snarling riff and then a screaming chorus. This is a prime example of a song structure that has been emulated time and time again. For one, “In Bloom” had a chorus that was impossible to not sing along with. Thus, he was combining pop sensibilities in that particular song whether he was aware of it or not. This is the kind of genuine artistry that Kurt Cobain had, wherein he could create songs from his most personal feelings that happened to connect to the heart of a generation. When you study and try to understand the different movements in music, the grunge movement in mainstream music was arguably started and ended by Kurt Cobain. He was the perfect embodiment of that sub-genre — that’s what he was and that’s what he was portrayed to be by his loyal fans and by the entire record industry, in fact. There will always be ongoing debates and attempts to debunk the mythic-icon Kurt Cobain. He is one of those musicians who sadly, we will never see again in our lifetime. But to hear people talk about him, to hear his songs and to be able to see that his work is still praised, appreciated and even re-issued every couple of years, show he was able to do enough during his short life span to leave an indelible mark in music history.

We music aficionados will always have varying opinions and we all do because we love music. But there are a few things that unify us and we all can agree that the historical and cultural importance of Nirvana can never be questioned. A lot of adjectives have been used to describe its music. Its albums have been reviewed to death and still, there is always something new that we discover about the band and there are more questions that will always linger in the back of our minds. What if Kurt were still alive today? Would he be able to create such songs and release albums that are in every serious musician’s collection? I honestly think it is a big yes to all those lingering questions because creativity and artistry do not get old. It’s just like fine wine — it only gets better with age. But if he were still around, I wouldn’t know how he would react to the kind of mainstream music we have today. We have to be in another plane of existence to ask him those questions. In time we will get the answers we seek. However, he is now in good company with other famous members of “Club 27” such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse. “Club 27” is a list of musicians who all died within the age range of 27. We can only imagine the music they are making together! They would be a sight to behold. In closing and reflecting... as we get older, the songs still remain as young as ever. Each time we get disheartened and frustrated with the current state of music we hear everywhere, just listening to the “Nevermind” album can cure that frustration, and while peacefully listening to it, it dawns on me how one man who has been dead for more than a decade can seem so alive in our hearts and minds. It’s simple. It is because his music has never left and will live on forever.

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are” — a Kurt Cobain quote.