The man whom the world sold: Kurt Cobain, rock's progressive aesthetic, and the challenges of authenticity

Musical Quarterly

Volumn 84, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 713-749

  Mazullo, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 63549116772     PISSN: 00274631     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/mq/84.4.713     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London and New York: Routledge, 1995)
2. and Becker, Art Worlds (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982)
3. David Fricke, "Blood on the Tracks," Melody Maker, 29 Oct. 1994
4. reprinted in John Rocco, Nirvana Companion: Two Decades of Commentary (New York: Schirmer, 1998), 231
5. The process of double tracking was used extensively by the Beatles during their recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios in the period directly prior to Bowie's emergence as a recording artist. John Lennon is particularly noted as a pioneer in the technique as applied to vocals. The use of variable tape speeds is referred to as "flanging." See Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962-1970 (New York: Harmony Books, 1988)
6. On progressive rock as a form of bourgeois oppression, see Chris Cuter, "Technology, Politics, and Contemporary Music: Necessity and Choice in Musical Forms," Popular Music 4 (1984): 279-300
7. On this subject see Jan Muto, "He Was the Woman of His Dreams: Identity, Gender, and Kurt Cobain," Popular Music and Society 19, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 69-86
8. Though the scholarly literature on Nirvana is sizable, discussions of the music itself are hard to come by, despite articles that claim otherwise. See, for instance, Duane R. Fish, "Serving the Servants: An Analysis of the Music of Kurt Cobain," Popular Music and Society 19, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 87-102, in which the author refers solely to Cobain's lyrics
9. Sarah Ferguson, "The Comfort of Being Sad," Utne Reader (July-Aug. 1994): 62
10. On this see Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997)
11. I will discuss the cultural politics of grunge below. On the subject, see Thomas Shevory, "Bleached Resistance: The Politics of Grunge," Popular Music and Society 19, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 23-48
12. "Ripped Jeans and Faded Flannel: Grunge, Youth, and Communities of Alienation," special issue, Popular Music and Society 19, no. 2 (Summer 1995), ed. Sharon R. Mazzarella and Jan Muto
13. Dawn Anderson, "It May Be the Devil and It May Be the Lord . . . But It Sure as Hell Ain't Human," Backlash, Aug.-Sept. 1988
14. "The Emergence of Art Rock," in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, ed. Jim Miller (New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1976), 225
15. Richard Middleton, Studying Popular Music (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990), 27
16. For another use of "progressive rock" in this sense, see Sheila Whiteley, "Progressive Rock and Psychedelic Coding in the Work of Jimi Hendrix," Popular Music 9, no. 1 (1990): 37-60
17. Wilfrid Mellers, Twilight of the Gods: The Music of the Beatles (New York: Viking, 1973), 86
18. According to one commentator, the track's title was "a generic name for the monumental pastiche of sonic delay that would close many Nirvana concerts." See Chuck Crisafulli, Teen Spirit: The Stories behind Every Nirvana Song (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 55
19. Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (New York: St. Martin's, 1991)
20. Michael Azerrad, "Inside the Heart and Mind of Nirvana," in Cobain, ed. by the editors of Rolling Stone (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), 35. Similarly, David Fricke's voluminous writings on Cobain for Rolling Stone include many references to the Cobain-Lennon connection
21. On this, see also Norma Pecora and Sharon R. Mazzarella, "Kurt Cobain, Generation X, and the Press: College Students Respond," Popular Music and Society 19, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 3-22
22. Everett Carl Ladd, "The Twentysomethings: 'Generational Myths' Revisited," Public Perspective (Jan.-Feb. 1993): 14
23. David Gross and Sophronia Scott, "Proceeding With Caution," Time, 16 July 1990, 56-62
24. See Malcolm McLaren, "Personal History: Elements of Anti-Style," New Yorker, 22 Sept. 1997, 90-102
25. Kim Neely, "On the Road to Nirvana," in editors of Rolling Stone, Cobain, 59
26. Gina Arnold, Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana (New York: St. Martin's, 1993), 3
27. Lorraine Ali, "Kurt Cobain Screamed Out Our Angst," New York Times, 17 Apr. 1994
28. See Lionel Trilling, Sincerity and Authenticity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971)
29. Mark Schaller, "The Psychological Consequences of Fame: Three Tests of the Self-Consciousness Hypothesis," Journal of Personality 65, no. 2 (June 1997): 291
30. See Mark Mazullo, "Fans and Critics: Greil Marcus's Mystery Train as Rock 'n' Roll History," Musical Quarterly 81, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 145-69