Remembering Kurt Cobain's Lasting Legacy On His Birthday

Kurt Cobain (Twitter @kurtcobain)

JAKARTA - Kurt Cobain should be 53 years old today. However, even though Nirvana disbanded after Cobain's death in April 1994, the frontman's legacy and work remained immortal.

Before Nirvana was famous, pre-Nevermind, they played a show at a club in Victoria that was then called Forge and is now called Districtt. Andrew Murray, assistant teaching professor for the department of English at the University of Victoria, was at the event on March 8, 1991 and remembers it well.

“I remember them playing quite a few songs from their first album Bleach. I remember them playing the Velvet Underground song entitled Here She Comes Now, which I had never seen beforehand, ”said Murray, launching peninsulanewsreviews.com.

Murray has also seen Nirvana perform in Vancouver before, but said the venue's low ceilings and Forge's grunge feel made the show unforgettable.

He remembers how bassist Kirst Novoselic could barely stand upright because of Forge's earth-like interior.

"He couldn't really stand up the way he wanted because if he did he would be banging his head, whereas Kurt Cobain was a very small man so he was pretty comfortable," said Murray.

According to Murray, Nirvana played for about an hour. It was a memorable performance for Murray before Nirvana made it big with his second studio album, Nevermind.

The Nevermind album was worked on at music producer Butch Vig's Smart Studio in Madison, Wisconsin about 1900 miles from the city of Seattle in May 1991. At that time Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl spent weeks recording and mixing songs. such as In Bloom, Lithiuim, Smell Like Teens Spirit, and Come As You Are.

In the process of making this album, in the eyes of Krist and Vig, Kurt Cobain had a big enough role in determining the final result. One of them was when the mixing process, which initially was so chaotic, ended almost perfectly after Kurt decided to turn off all trebles in order to produce sound characters like Black Sabbath music.

However, when Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991 via Geffen Records, they had no idea that this album would create a global cultural shift. The single Smells Like Teen Spirit appeared on the waiting list of major American radio stations requested by fans who had ordered the Nevermind album.

Then, Nevermind successfully perched at the top of the American Billboard charts in January 1992, beating Michael Jackson's Dangerous album 'The King of Pop'.

This success earned Kurt Cobain the title of 'The Father of Grunge', while Nevermind was then considered to have lifted grunge to the top of the world rock throne as well as opened the gates to the presence of Green Day's Dookie album and his Smash The Offspring.

Furthermore, Cobain et al succeeded in getting rid of pop culture and the wave of hair metal as well as replacing the popularity of punk where in the 90s the punk subculture experienced a massive mass misconception of its true roots.

Ironically, Kurt Cobain decided to end his life on April 8, 1994 in the midst of success. To date, Nevermind has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and Cobain is still fondly remembered.

Happy birthday Kurt Cobain, you will always be missed.