A Lifetime Later, Kurt Cobain's Legacy Lives On

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Generation Z Nirvana fans appreciate Cobain 27 years after his death

Written by Rachel Hale, Culture Editorial Assistant

Like many others, I often find myself falling into YouTube rabbit holes when there are inevitably more pressing matters of business. But occasionally, suggested videos lead to a goldmine, as was the case when I came across footage of Nirvana playing at a New Haven, CT venue in the days leading up to the band’s ascension to rock glory, sparking an insatiable curiosity about lead singer Kurt Cobain that has yet to be extinguished.

Relief came in the form of eBay user sfdirtymonkey, who sold me his copy of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 1994 tribute to Cobain in all its plastic-wrapped glory. Its 28-page spread provided days’ worth of introspection; the slightly yellowed pages show signs of age, yet time gives the piece, and Nirvana’s music, a new clarity on Cobain’s legacy — a lifetime after his death by suicide on April 5, 1994, the musician’s story is finding resonance with a new generation of nonconformists.

These fans know they’ll never get to see their favorite band perform, yet they take solace in a cornucopia of Nirvana-related content that ‘90s teens never had, from introspective biographies and documentaries to Cobain’s journals themselves. Last April, Post Malone and a makeshift band hosted a livestream Nirvana tribute that raised over $500,000 toward COVID-19 relief and has since racked up over 15 million views — While a large portion of those was likely nostalgic Generation X fans, another sector was their growing youth base (Kreps, 2021). The live stream is an example of a larger social media presence, which Cobain himself arguably would have disliked had he been around to witness it, that has created a new space for fans to connect. Their base traverses from Tumblr “stan” accounts to Tik Tok montages and Instagram throwback posts, interconnected in spite of time change and geographic distance.

Some Nirvana tunes have gained renewed attention amid the popularization of an internet age “alt” aesthetic reminiscent of the riot grrrl, rave grunge and heroin chic looks popularized in the ‘90s. In September, Soundcloud user blaccmass created “Smells Like Drill Spirit,” a fusion of Nirvana’s “Feels like Teen Spirit” with Pop Smoke’s “Got It on Me,” prompting @spiceywaterr’s slowed-down Tik Tok version that garnered over four million views and created a viral dance challenge (blaccmass, 2020; spiceywaterr, 2020). Many TikTok and Instagram accounts have witty usernames like @cobainscigarettes and @come_as_kurt, with some reaching nearly 50,000 followers. A distant remanent of the venues Nirvana once packed with concert-goers, today’s fans convene in comment sections of these platforms to express appreciation of the band or obsess over the conspiracy theories surrounding Cobain’s death, from suspecting a forged suicide note to those that go as far of accusing wife Courtney Love of murder.

Long before Nirvana reached diamond-certified glory, Cobain, like many, was a teen who struggled to conform in his hometown of Aberdeen, WA. An end to Cold War paranoia and rise of latchkey kids impacted by divorce and working parents made Gen X idiosyncratic and detached, creating the optimal breeding ground for Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl’s “Nevermind” album; millions of teens resonated with the band’s nonconformist howls of rage, putting them on a lightspeed rail to fame and a No.1 spot on Billboard’s album chart (Rutherford, 2016). Emotive tracks like “Come As You Are,” “In Bloom,” and the corrosive anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit” put a time cap on the materialism and glam pop of the 1980s and ushered in unhinged, angsty grunge in its place. Yet at some point, these songs were no longer Nirvana’s, but those of a generation hailing Cobain as their messianic leader — whether or not he wanted the role.

Today’s Generation Z fans, raised on the catchier alternative pop-rock ballads of Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco and Twenty One Pilots, recognize that predecessors like Green Day, the Foo Fighters, Alice and the Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden all can be traced back to the grunge epoch Nirvana set in motion. Yet unlike those who lived through the height of Nirvana’s mainstream fame, perhaps this generation appreciates his legacy from a more realistic perspective, removed from the portrayals that saw him as an untouchable figure. Aided by a more thorough understanding of Cobain’s fight with mental illness that only time could’ve shown, it’s clear that his paradoxical outlook on the world was not so different from the struggles teens face today — amid a rising mental health epidemic, suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 10 to 34 (CDC, 2021).

While the last decade has been highlighted by EDM-infused pop and a growing SoundCloud rap genre, artists’ struggle with fame remains, with talents like Juice WRLD and Lil Peep dying at just 21 due to drug overdoses and XXXtenation and Pop Smoke dying by gun violence suspected to be linked to a robbery and gang activity. Hence, the shock factor that once surrounded Cobain’s death has dimmed in a demographic already numbed by headlines of school shootings and news of another classmate’s suicide. For these fans, Cobain is not so much a hero as he is representative of the commonplace struggle that is 21st-century teenageritis.

As Anthony DeCurtis starts in the Rolling Stones tribute that now holds an esteemed spot on my nightstand, “Kurt Cobain never wanted to be the spokesman for a generation, though that doesn’t mean much: Anybody who did would never have become one” (DeCurtis, 1994.) But Cobain was also a friend, husband and father, whose struggles with mental health deduced him to a statistic in a mental health crisis that has only worsened since the time of his death. Today marks the sobering truth that the artist has been dead longer than alive, and even as Gen Z fans find solace in the same abrasive ballads followers have connected with since Nirvana’s origins, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of future the band could’ve had if Cobain accessed proper help. Still, whether young or old, fans who ponder and appreciate the eternal complexity of the artist can rest assured knowing that 27 years after his death, his legacy is as alive as ever.

Sources:

blaccmass. “Smells Like Teen Drill.” SoundCloud, September 01, 2020. https://soundcloud.com/user-290523936/smells-like-teen-drill.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.“Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 23, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html.

DeCurtis, Anthony. “Kurt Cobain: 1967-1994.” Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, June 2, 1994. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kurt-cobain-1967-1994-100298/.

Kreps, Daniel. “Watch Post Malone’s Nirvana Tribute Concert for COVID-19 Relief.” Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, March 15, 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/post-malone-nirvana-tribute-concert-covid-19-relief-989987/.

“Nirvana – The Moon, New Haven 1991.” YouTube, 1994. Posted August 13, 2013. https://youtu.be/a-0sr5k6jPw.

Rutherford, Kevin. “Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’: 9 Chart Facts About the Iconic Album.” Billboard, September 23, 2016. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7518783/nirvana-nevermind-nine-chart-facts-anniversary#:~:text=When%20Nirvana’s%20Nevermind%20was,week%2C%20according%20to%20Nielsen%20Music.