Kurt and Courtney Nick Broomfield’s 1998 documentary Kurt and Courtney is arguably his most well known film for both the controversial reactions to its subject and the subject itself in equal measure. The documentary explores Kurt Cobain’s life and the possible causes of his untimely death, particularly the involvement of his then wife Courtney Love. Over his filmic career Broomfield has built a repertoire of varying and experimental documentary techniques. In Kurt and Courtney Broomfield becomes as much a character in the documentary as its namesakes through his active involvement in the film’s narrative. This has lead critics question the Broomfield’s impartiality, and by extension the credibility of the documentary. Broomfield’s Kurt
and Courtney is his first foray into what is now classified as a ‘Les Nouvelles Egotistes’ directorial style where the director becomes the focus of the documentary alongside his topic. Other filmmakers such as Michael Moore, Louis Theroux and Michael Franti have all employed this practice to create successful documentaries on a wide range of topics. protagonist docs either present info or the quest for info
People make bad choices in life every day, some may be recovered from whereas others have fatal consequences. A reporter named Jon Krakauer wrote a biography called Into The Wild which is about a young man named Chris McCandless who makes a fatal decision which lead to his demise in Alaska. Aron Ralton's book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place is about his near death experience from making a bad choice. His perseverance and problem solving skills become his salvation in the hot and dry terrain of Utah. Chris and Aron were both eager for adventure and both had a love for nature and the outdoors. Chris died because he lacked Aron's prior knowledge of survival tactics, making Chris ill prepared for his journey.
Puck and Natty It all began with an interracial rap group called Puck & Natty. One half of this group was Berkley graduate Stephan Jenkins. Together, this duo's fifteen minutes of fame came on the 90210 soundtack, which gave Jenkins enough to buy groceries. The group eventually split, and Jenkins was on his way.
Jerry Garcia’s life was filled with wonderful things, many of which he never expected in the first place. After an almost fatal heroin overdose in 1986, “ Garcia philosophically stated, ‘ I’m 45 years old, I’m ready for anything, I didn’t even plan on living this long so all this shit is just add-on stuff.’ ” (“Garcia”) This attitude shows why Garcia did all of the things he did and even how some of them came about. Garcia, who “functioned as the preeminent pied piper of the rock era,” led a life of great artistic ability which he used in many ways(“Grateful Dead_ Rockhall”).
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.
The definition of an outlaw is “One that is unconventional or rebellious”. Billy the Kid and Jesse James were two notorious outlaws, both icons of the Wild West. Billy the kid, a hard headed criminal with no mercy, a ruthless killer that so many men and women were afraid of became a problem that the law could not put up with. On the other hand Jesse James became an organized crime boss that tried to strike it rich by rebelling against the North. Jesse James also became a large problem to the law. Both men had a story to tell, two different stories that when compared, are not very different at all.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
Suicide is the most accepted theory to Kurt Cobain’s death, gaining support from not only the Seattle Police Department but Cobain’s own family at the time of death. Cobain was reported to have been clinically depressed for the majority of his life and was crippled with severe drug addiction. In photographs taken of the body viewers can plainly see the medical bracelet for the drug rehab center he had broken out of. He was completely dependent on heroin and was quoted saying “This is the only thing saving me from blowing my head off”. Band members also reported that Cobain was disconnected from his friends and family during his final days. Photos of Kurt Cobain’s body have been stated to show Cobain splayed out on the floor with a shotgun firmly gripped in his hand and a box of
The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their “teenage anthems” (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, “...here we are now, entertain us”(Stuessy, Joe). “Smells like Teen Spirit” was Curt Cobain’s “attempt to write the ultimate pop song”(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). The style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very “innovative” or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. “A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics” (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history.
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.
This paper is an analysis of the grunge movement, an exploration into genre classification, audience and artist identity and how it is related to media and cultural capital. This paper will also highlight the vast difference between literary perception of the movement (analysis and articles written about grunge) versus the perception of inhabitants of Seattle that witnessed the grunge movement as it happened (extracted from interviews in the grunge documentary, Hype!).
They got caught up in a shootout between two gangs. Politicians and Ministers were quick to point the finger at today’s music. influencing gun crime in the U.S. The minister for tourism said, ‘The hateful. lyrics almost connote a culture killing is a fashion accessory”.
Although “Thriller” is beloved as a classic 80’s pop music video, it manages a successful dive into the social and political issues that make zombie flicks so great. Pulling from a history of work on zombies, Michael Jackson packs so much history into such a concise package. Through using the texts of Amy Devitt and Kerry Dirk we are able to uncover Jackson’s experience and social commentary in “Thriller”. He simultaneously writes a hit song, revolutionizes music videos, and still remarks on the societal problems of the early 1980’s. However, the story goes much further than that of a number one hit. “Thriller” owes its success to an important cultural figure that looms as large as
In 1970 a two-hundred and thirty minute documentary was released entitled "Woodstock." This documentary has set the standard for other documentaries to come. This documentary covers a three day festival that was held in August of 1969. The festival symbolized the ideas of the late 1960’s in terms of music, politics, and society in general. The documentary depicted the event as a major love and drug fest.
I was reminded of this reading because I feel that Hendrix’s performance is a strong example of how different methods of hearing sound create totally different experiences for the listener. While listening to music through an iPod can be isolating, hearing a song live can be a completely different and riveting experience. Bull states that “sound itself is normative, mediating and reflecting the cultural predispositions of the listener who gates experience” (Bull, 2007, p.8). Rather than using sound to isolate the crowd into their own internal thoughts, Hendrix bounces the sound he generates from the crowd back to the stage, and a forceful silence arises. I see the audience's “cultural predispositions” to be altered and expanded upon by the fact that they lived during the time of the Vietnam War. Through language, which can be any system of representation, we are able to “use signs and symbols to represent or re-present whatever exists in the world in terms of a meaningful concept, image, or idea” (Du Gay et al., 2013, p.7). While the audience members all had their own thoughts and feelings about what was going on at the time, Hendrix uses his performance to create a unified feeling of advocating for
There is a paucity of academic literature on Jim Morrison, yet a reasonable amount of popular literature, which I am engaging in my evaluation. Scholarship on dead celebrity fandom has progressed in the last decade; however, in 1998, John Frow (1998, 200) claimed that “we lack almost completely the tools to make sense of [the process by which dead celebrities are sacralized].” My hope is that by outlining the role of Morrison in self-propagating his own myth, combined with a posthumous documentation of this process, I will contribute to literature on dead celebrity fandom.