I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar — it actually belonged to my mother — and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana’s ‘Lithium.’ My hair dangled so low over my face that I couldn’t see the crowd in front of me as I shouted ‘yeah, yeah’ in my squeaky teenage voice. I had almost forgotten that less than a year ago I had been a kid whose excitement came from waiting for the next History Channel documentary. It was during the awkward, hormonal summer between seventh and eighth grade when I first heard Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ The song shocked my senses — until that point my musical cosmos consisted mainly of my father’s Beatles CDs.
In Justin Pearson's memoir, From the Graveyard of the arousal Industry, he recounts the events that occured from his early years of adolesence to the latter years of his adulthood telling the story of his unforgiving and candid life. Set in the late 1970s "Punk" rock era, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry offers a valuable perspective about the role culture takes in our lives, how we interact with it and how it differs from ideology.
Cobain, the lead guitarist, writer and singer for a band called Nirvana shook the groggy music world with the release of Smells Like Teen Spirit from the album Nevermind over twenty years ago on September 10, 1991. Nobody ever imagined that the simple four-chord progression would ever grab so much attention that it would hit number 6, let alone the Nevermind album knocking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboards. (Shmoop) The fact that a grungy, distortion filled song became such a radio hit proved that Nirvana’s shy singer was now the much needed voice for the youth. New found fame hurdled the little known Cobain into the limelight almost instantly; hungry fans gobbled up and imitated everything they could about him. No longer were kids interested in listening the pop music that saturated the 80’s; they now had music that voiced how aloof they felt about their existence. Kids who were misunderstood by their parents and elders, finally...
Occasionally a strobe awakes from its narcoleptic slumber to wink at the nocturnal nation cavort across fog flooded floors. I sit in the shadows. I am an island ( not in the geographical formation sense, but rather in the Simon and Garfunkle sense). Music seems so tainted; its freshness extracted by the incestuous industry. Get an acclaimed producer, and make a video to show how pretty your band is. Become a whiney lesbian folk singer professing cynical prophesies with an acoustic ax, a violent criminal that uses his vehemence as an art form, a diva whose love songs are darker than her exposed panties, or perhaps a greasy haired bar-chord master with a chip on his shoulder and a heroin needle in his arm proclaiming how hard life is in suburbia. There must be something new in rock's tepid arena, and not just another "underground" sound that is this week’s salt-lick style. There must be a band out there in the very nucleus of pop music that will not take its precious history and throw it away. That will endure to "stand on its shoulders," understand it and explore its depths to form new music (Percy 49). There must be a band that has a lead singer who wrote a poem about Neil Young vomiting, and then had the audacity to name the band after it (Park). There is. This is Soul Coughing.
On Monday March 25, some members of the baseball team, my girlfriend, and I traveled to Murray State University to watch a concert performed by Nelly and the St. Lunatics. It was a terrible night to go anywhere because it was raining and storming the whole way, but there was nothing that was going to stop us from going to the concert. We where all so hyped up about it and couldn’t wait to head out. My brother, who attends Murray State, had gotten us excellent seats about seventy-five feet away from the stage.
The subject of this writing, is on a man who changed music; a man on the level of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. This individual is Kurt Donald Cobain from the revolutionary grunge/rock band, Nirvana. While some people would never consider Cobain to hold a major role in the shaping of our music and culture today, they haven’t taken the time to look around. Many people overlook the fact that music played a huge role in the lives of Americans during the 90’s. Someday history books will probably
Our entire lives have been shaped by the events happening around us. Along with us many factors in our day to day lives have evolved too, including musical genre. One such genre is rock. Rock is a genre for the youth, by the youth, it has evolved to stay with the times and stand up for what’s right. In this essay I will prove why rock is a good example to show how genre has been defined, maintained, constructed and negotiated through the past 60-70 years since the very first Proto Rock song came out.
Although the style of ‘Rock music’ is easily adaptable to many different sounds, it is still thoroughly identified by its definingly amplified rhythm. The sudden worldwide popularity of rock and roll resulted in an unparalleled social impact. Rock ‘n’ Roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language in a way few other social developments have equaled. The social impact is so large that rock stars are worshipped worldwide. In its early years, many adults condemned the style of music, placing a stigma on its name, and forbid their children from listening and following its ways.
Rock and’ roll has been credited with the birth of the so called generation gap, the difference in values and attitudes between one generation and another, especially between young people and their parents. It might have broken the last few vestiges of the traditional boundaries of the family, but it was not the instigator of the break itself. What started this shift were the decades following the end of World War II.
When I was in elementary school, I loved to read. I was a total nerd back then ... okay maybe I still am, but one thing has changed. Now I don't so much like reading. My favorite poet was Shel Silverstein, who wrote "Where the Sidewalk Ends." He seemed like he was a total hippie, but that's cool because I like hippies. My grandma is a recovering hippie. I like her too. Anyway, Shel Silverstein wrote about the coolest things. He wrote about magical erasers, eating whales and a boy with long hair flying away from people who were taunting him. He captured all of the things that I loved without knowing that I actually loved them. Now you may ask, how does this hippie relate to our graduation? Well, he wrote a poem entitled "Traffic Light" and this is how it goes:
Here, they rid themselves of average, familial and school-age problems and bask in the glory of teenagerdom, drinking from their Holy Grail of liberty. Here, listening to “the music that made everything so good” (2), they finally taste the maturity they yearn for.
The well-known riff of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” opens Andreas Dresen’s movie Changing Skins (Raus aus der Haut, 1997). The film opens in a crowded music club where young people are dancing ecstatically, turned on by pulsing rock and roll. This could be a trite depiction of youth culture if it were not located in a country that suppressed this kind of music: the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It is therefore worth reflecting on the social and political controversy in the former East Germany that, finally in the 1970s, permitted the performance of rock music and even imports from the capitalist part of the world. By the late 1970s, different kinds of rock music were not only an integral part of Western youth culture but also commonly heard but not always accepted in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc.
In closing, the undoubtable influence of music, more specifically of Rock ‘n’ Roll on American society is responsible for a number of changes to the status quo. These range from sexual liberation and racial desegregation all culminating with other influences to create an intergenerational identity. Despite the desperate attempts of older generations to smother these influences, these changes ultimately shaped the years that followed, molding the country into what it is today. Along the way these changes as well as individual involvement in them has also eased the lives of many through empowerment and a feeling of community and purpose. Despite a lull and renewal Rock ‘n’ Roll continues to serve as an agent of influence and change in today’s youth culture and continues to burn in the heart of past generations of loyal fans.
When you think about your high school years, I’m sure we all have exceptional and dreadful memories. I’m sure all of us remember who was voted most popular, best dressed, who were the misfits of the school. If you want a glimpse of the different social classes in high school watch Mean Girls. Cady Heron is a freshman who for most of her life was home schooled and lived in Africa. Upon her first few days of school being the “new girl” she doesn’t quite fit it, until one day she accidently receives an invite from Regina George the most popular as well as the most hated girl in school to sit with her and friends at lunch. Soon after, she pretends to like them and hang out with them for inside information. During her investigation, she turns into
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana affected many people and still do today. With their album, Nevermind Nirvana shaped and created grunge music. Before Nirvana had come along, alternative had been classified as a “tax write-off” for most major labels. According to a quote from Matt Habeger from diffuser.fm, “At the time they were all into bands like Mötley Crue, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Poison and the rest. I felt that I was supposed to like this music because the older kids did, but I didn’t really understand or relate to it. Then ‘Nevermind’ came out and completely obliterated that whole era of music.” While reading through the article, it made me realize how many people's lives changed when listening to Nirvana’s music.
This article demonstatres how important Kurt Cobain was both as a rock and roll icon and a philosopher. His songs which he recorded himself are still popular today, over 20 years after his death. The author argues how Cobain influences other young artists and his effect on the direction of the music industry.