Utkarsha Srivastava

WHY KURT COBAIN WAS THE LAST REAL ROCKSTAR ! The music of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain once had teenagers in its grasps. Twentyfive 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 he died, Cobain had become one of the most influential American musician since Bob Dylan and was the voice of his generation. Everything in his short and explosive career, from his pioneering music in Nirvana, his tempestuous marriage to Courtney love and his struggle with drugs, ensured that he was never out of the public eyes and 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. ‘I feel so incredibly guilty for abandoning my true comrades who were the ones who were devoted to us a few years ago.’ KURT COBAIN ’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 effectively 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”.