The Cobain Conspiracy
Many people have heard or were even fans of the famous band Nirvana. Even if the name isn't entirely familiar, songs from them are popularly known because of the band's great success. On April 5, 1994, the world lost a legendary rock singer, Kurt Cobain. Being the front man of the successful band Nirvana, he created a new era of rock called grunge. Along with the predictable troubles of fame came difficulties in Kurt's life, struggling with his drug addiction, spasmodic behavior, and medical problems that were never examined nor treated. One might agree and say yes, it is obvious Kurt committed suicide but many others beg to differ. His death greatly affected Nirvana fans and some began to speculate that his death, in fact, was not a suicide. Even though Kurt Cobain's life was difficult with the fame and his bipolar disorder, his death isn't believed to be suicidal because, he and his wife, Courtney Love, were on bad terms; he was leaving behind a two-year-old daughter, and Nirvana was at the height of its success.
To truly understand an individual like Kurt,
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starting from his earlier years makes it much apprehensible. Kurt was born and raised in a small town outside of Seattle called Aberdeen ("Kurt Cobain Journals”). At a young age it was perceived that Kurt was not the normal child; he had a special spark in him that his family noted early on. Like many other musicians, his talent was revealed as a child and nurtured and commended by those around him including his grandmother, Iris Cobain. She was a significant person in Kurt’s life and was the first to notice his often-unruly behavior saying, “He was basically cheerful, but there was a rage to him.” Although Kurt had a developing mental problem, he was exceptional at drawing and playing music. When people would praise him, he’d withdraw to a sulky mood. Author Michael Martin claims, “Kurt’s life was full of contradictions. He was talented but had little respect for his abilities.” The one thing that took a toll on Kurt’s life was his parent’s divorce. They divorced when Kurt was nine in which Kurt’s condition grew worse. “He felt abandoned, angry, and depressed.” Another close relative who often admired Kurt was his uncle, Chuck Fradenburg. “On Kurt’s 14th birthday, Chuck gave him an electric guitar. Kurt used the guitar to express his feelings of anger loss." (Martin 7-13). For the remaining of his adolescence, Kurt battled with his feelings that conflicted with his social life. His family had grown aggravated with his sporadic mood swings and he had a difficult time staying focused in school. He had such a brilliant and a creative mind that the lessons taught in school often uninterested him leading him to drop out. Dropping out may have been a bad idea to his parents but it abled him to spend more time brewing his musical gift. With his handed down electric guitar Kurt begins writing music, singing in local grunge bands ("Kurt Cobain Journals" 1). In 1986, he moved to Olympia, Washington and formed Nirvana with bassist Krist Novoselic; Dave Grohl later joined in 1990 ("Kurt Cobain Journals" 1). Nirvana gave Kurt something he never had before: a place to belong and to express himself. They even recorded their first album, Bleach, with an underground label, which was a proud success for Kurt and the rest of the band. It wasn't long before the musical trio was discovered by Geffen Records and signed to them May of 1990 (Martin 22). Getting the record deal motivated Kurt and gave him the confidence to write and record more music. Nirvana later released another and most successful album to date in 1991. " Nevermind, their second album, was selling 400,000 copies a week upon release” (Martin 22). With Nirvana in the spotlight and Kurt being the lead singer, the pressure began to slowly close in on him as his bipolar disorder resurfaced. This caused Kurt to turn to drugs for comfort or some type of relief. Everyone seemed to be pleased with Nirvana’s success except for Kurt. He often wrote songs that appealed to the teens of the 90’s grunge rock era. He sang about surviving child abuse, broken homes, drug addiction, obsessive love and occasionally having a good time (“Kurt Cobain Journals”). Another popular band that arose in the 90's was the band Hole. Front woman, Courtney Love, fell in love at first sight with Kurt at a Nirvana performance in Portland, Oregon. It was fairly challenging to sustain a relationship with a condition like Kurt's. His disorder often caused him to have terrible mood swings. His bandmates, Courtney Love, and even Nirvana fans felt the wrath of his unintentional rage at times. Kurt and Courtney still decided to tie the knot and get married. Although their marriage was far from perfect, Courtney remained his wife for divorcing Kurt would only hurt her band's newfound success and debar her access to Kurt's large income. Courtney Love later birthed a daughter named Frances Bean Cobain in 1992. After Frances's birth Cobain began to feel insecure about being a great father to Frances and always worried he wasn't a suitable father figure for her as told by his grandmother, Iris (Burlingame 112). "Kurt loved his daughter Frances Bean too much to leave her alone" ("The Facts"). It was obvious Kurt loved Frances with all his heart for he planned to complete rehab in order to raise her soberly; so killing himself leaving his only daughter without a father is a very illogical and irresponsible decision. April 5, 1994, Kurt had committed suicide, but his body wasn't discovered until April 8th (“Kurt Cobain Journals"). It had been ruled a suicide with a shotgun wound to the head with a lethal dose of heroin injected which is to believe was taken before the self-inflicting wound (“Kurt Cobain’s Handwritten Note…”). The amount of heroin detected in his blood was so immense that he would not have been able to do anything but sit and drool which leads to the pondering of how he was even able to conjure the strength to pick up a shotgun and kill himself. Contrarily, earlier that same year the police were called to his home confiscate his guns for suicidal prevention purposes (Burlingame 137) therefore Cobain had no weapons in his possession at the time of his death. There were no fingerprints ever found on the weapon or injection needle in conjunction with a suicide note found near his body not written in his own handwriting ("A Cobain Conspiracy?"). The suicide note itself is one of the main key points that lead many fans to believe Kurt's death had been planned and that he had been, in fact, murdered. The note read: "Do you Kurt Cobain take Courtney Love to be your lawful shredded wife even when she's a bitch with zits and siphoning all your money for doping and whoring…" ("Kurt Cobain's Handwritten Note…"). It was later discovered that Love had written the note herself as a personal joke. The police had kept the note a secret for some time before releasing it to the public but when it was released it caused much controversy among the fans of Kurt Cobain.
The storm grew as Love's fame skyrocketed to stardom. She was offered starring roles in films and even appeared on several talk shows, some of which Kurt had previously disapproved or rejected during his career. It seemed as if she had benefited greatly from her husband's unfortunate death and hardly grieved at all. "Hole released its most successful album, Live Through This, a few days after Cobain's body was found" (In Defense of: Courtney Love"). It was later found out that Kurt was in the midst of divorcing Courtney; he also made a new will NOT including Courtney in which he had not signed yet (“The Facts”). Could this be more reason for her to off her husband before she had no more access to his bank
account? Overall opinions conclude that Kurt Cobain's death had not been a suicide but only ruled so by the police under the influence of the widowed Courtney Love. Love may have already known of Kurt's suicidal thoughts and/or attempts and may have helped rather than interfering with them. Conspiracy theorists have published many websites referring to Cobain's death as planned and post many theories as to how it may have occurred. So many questions remain unanswered such as 'if he had taken enough heroin to overdose, why would he turn around and shoot himself?' Some believe Courtney Love had Cobain killed for selfish reasons such as her own father, Hank Harrison. Harrison has done many interviews sharing his opinions on the topic. In the end, numerous signs point to Courtney Love when researching the late, great Kurt Cobain's unfortunate death.
This is probably one of my favourite CD’s of all time. It has so many of Nirvana’s greatest hits. I think (and I’m probably the only one) that Nirvana is a lot like Marilyn Manson in many ways. They completely created a new genre, and have the largest modern cult followings. Nirvana totally brought grunge to the world, and Manson brought us Alternative Music.
Kurt was in love with music since the age of two. He was brought up in a
The most mysterious and unusual for of death, that is intended to end the life of a person with his suffering leading to inestimable amount of suffering for the people around the deceased. People say that death is the last state of life and ending the last state of life though an uncommon end is a bit odd. In 1996 in the Los Angeles Roxanna Roberts wrote “The Grieving Never Ends” and has expressed that how much people around the deceased had to suffer after the suicide. The word “Suicide” is a selfish act committed by people that are blinded by their own suffering and don’t realize the pain they will bring to others around them. Ending the life in such a manner will not only disturb peace in one self but also bring destruction on others in
The lead singer and song writer of alternative rock band Blue October, Justin Furstenfeld explains on a suicide prevention video that he has “battled with bipolar disorder, psychiatric tendencies as well as anxiety issues throughout much of his life and admits he self-harmed during his teenage years and has reoccurring suicidal thoughts” (Freunde fürs Leben, 2010). Many songs that he wrote are about his mental illness and problems he faced because of it.
Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the infamous band Nirvana was discovered outside of his Seattle home three days after his death by Garry Smith on April 8, 1994. While Cobain’s official death certificate reads suicide, many theories have cropped up over the years that claim to explain neglected attributes to the original case.
Many people from the 1900’s contributed to the evolution of the history of rock and roll. However, Jimi Hendrix was the rock legend who changed the way music was made and he raised the bar for the rest of the music industry. Jimi was born in 1942, in Seattle, Washington, he had a difficult childhood, being raised by a young mom who had Jimi at seventeen and a dad who eventually left and started another family, he was often left living with relatives. He only saw his mom a few times before she eventually died in 1958. In many ways music became a sanctuary for Jimi since he grew up not having much. Jimi loved blues and rock and roll and when he was sixteen Jimi got his first acoustic guitar and taught himself how to play. Shortly after he began
There possibly isn't an album in history that is as genre defining as Nirvana's Nevermind. Released in 1991, it single handedly was responsible for the birth of what became to be known as grunge and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone (Stuessy, Joe). It reached number 1 in 1991 and was the first album to bring Seattle grunge to the mainstream audience (Stuessy, Joe). Nevermind is a mix of slow, dark songs and fast paced grunge rock songs. With its grinding guitars, pounding drums, and lead singer, Kurt Cobain's distinctive voice, Nevermind found a distinctive way to fuse alternative punk with 70's rock (Nirvana, Nevermind).
Before diving into Cobain’s musical rebellion, it is important to be briefed on his background to understand his reason, his ability to relate to teens, as well as his essence, of resistance. Cobain grew up in the small down of Aberdeen, Washington where his parents raised him until their divorce when Cobain was only eight. After the divorce, Cobain was shuffled between family members and he soon started exhibiting signs of rebellion-such as his use of drugs- that he later expressed through his music (Spirit Interviews). In high school, Cobain was seen as an outcast because he couldn’t fit the masculine jock persona. Cobain even reflected on his inability to relate to...
Cheng, Andrew, Keith Hawton, Charles Lee, and Tony Chen. " Influence of Media Reporting of the Suicide of a Celebrity on Suicide Rates: A Population-based Study. "
Music can also help people, particularly those going through painful times (such as adolescence) to understand that they are not alone and that other people have the same feelings that they do. After grunge-rock superstar Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994, one fan wrote to Rolling Stone magazine describing how the music of Cobain's band, Nirvana, made her feel. "I could be feeling like total shit," wrote Carrie Loy, "and hear a Nirvana song and end up feeling renewed afterward.
Recent speculations have fans, reporters, and investigators questioning the death of musician Kurt Cobain that was a reported suicide case. Cobain’s body was found with shotgun wound to his head on April 8th by an electrician at the couples Washington lake house. The same day Cobain’s body was found, news was released that the singer had committed suicide. With lack of investigation Cobain’s body was cremated 6 days after his body was found. The Seattle P.D. withheld the shotgun for 30 days before it was processed for fingerprints; the shotgun was then given back to Courtney Love to be discarded. The Seattle P.D. also condoned the greenhouse that Kurt Cobain’s body was found be torn down. With that, questions arise on whether or not the death was a suicide or a homicide in the matter. Did Courtney Love the beloved musician’s wife plan and set up the death of her
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