Music is inherently rebellious no matter what time period. Music has always been a way to rebel, whether it’s writing a song, singing a song, or even listening to a song. The band Nirvana, mostly active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, led by Kurt Cobain, was the definition of disobedience, but disobedience that was very accomplishing. Cobain gave author Oscar Wilde’s words: “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is a man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion,” justice through performances, recognition, and songs to spread awareness regarding great issues in society.

The band Nirvana used disobedience through performances and recognition to be the voice of youth against restrictions of an older generation. Nirvana did not follow rules often, and specifically the lead singer, Kurt Cobain. In general, Kurt Cobain was never one to follow “social norms.” He was one that people were envious of because of how rebellious and defiant he always was. Nirvana received an abundance of criticism from listeners because of the band’s clear attacks on corporate America and commercialism. For one, Nirvana was selected to perform at the British music chart television channel, Top of the Pops. On November 27th in 1991, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl performed for the show, as they were in 9th place on the music chart, but a policy of the show was that they had to perform and sing with a back track, so they could not actually play their instruments. The three decided to have their own fun on the stage, which ended up being one of the most iconic music industry mockeries in history. Cobain sung “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with a distorted voice, standing still pretending to strum his guitar offbeat from the track, while his bandmate Novoselic swung his guitar above his head and the drummer, Ghrol, was randomly hitting the drums offbeat, and one of the drums even ended up on the floor. Undoubtedly, they were upset with this policy and wanted to make a mockery of the show, which they very much achieved. In fact, the crowd was going crazy and absolutely loved the chaos and craziness that the band brought to the stage. Kurt Cobain is known to have always criticized corporate America, which is what he was doing here–he exceeded the rules to prove to people that the order and policies from companies is nonsense. The irony is that they were attempting to stop a punk rock band from using their instruments–their instruments are what makes rock music rock music. In fact, this is not the only time the band has done something like this. At the MTV Music Awards in 1992, the band was supposed to play their song called “Lithium,” but started off with their song “Rape Me,” a very controversial but misunderstood song, to briefly panic MTV before quickly changing to performing “Lithium”. And Nirvana achieved what they wanted–MTV panicked and almost stopped the broadcast. Because MTV was so nervous about negative backlash from audience and critics, Cobain was very adamant about performing the song to mock them, just like he had done in 1991 in Top of the Pops. With this, Cobain wanted to criticize big corporations like MTV, as he was well known to dislike corporate America. He believed corporations only did things for the money, not for the fans, or for awareness, which is exactly what Cobain was trying to spread with this song. Cobain was striving to spread awareness regarding sexual assault and make it more relevant in society to help resolve it or make it somewhat better, but clearly MTV, like many big corporations, did not care about it. However, Nirvana didn’t only rebel with performances. Also in 1992, Nirvana had a photo shoot to be on the cover of the Rolling Stone. They were all supposed to wear three suits to commemorate their new fame and success as a band, but obviously Cobain wouldn’t do that. So, he showed up to the photoshoot with a t-shirt that said “Corporate magazines still suck,” which, not to state the obvious, was extremely ironic as he wore a shirt criticizing corporate magazines on the front cover of a big-shot magazine. All he wanted to do was be truthful and transparent to his audience, as he felt like he owed that to them, which many celebrities, especially today, do not do. One thing about Cobain’s acts of rebellion was that it is just him being real and down to Earth, which is what people need in life–they do not need the nonsense and rubbish that corporate media feeds them. And clearly, Cobain did not like being ordered around, as he did something similar at the Top of the Pops performance mentioned earlier. But, in fact, it “went on to become one of the most iconic RollingStone Magazine covers of all time” (Worn Free). With no doubt, in the end, Nirvana used their fame and credibility to rebel against corporations, having good outcomes that satisfied them, their audiences, and society in itself.

Music has always been an artist’s way of rebelling; through the lyrics, the rhythm, the tempo, ect., of their songs. Hence, Nirvana was disobedient to society, strongly through their songs specifically. One being their song named “Rape Me”. This song was released in December of 1993 in their album called “In Utero”. Obviously, this is not a title of a song that you would ever see really, and not something that people want to see at all. So when this song was released, Cobain received a lot of backlash for it, as some thought he was “normalizing” rape, but meanwhile, they were just misunderstanding the whole concept of the song. Cobain wrote this song for female empowerment, as if the female was singing the song, while being strong and fighting back to someone. But even without the subject of rape, back then, feminism and women empowerment was unordinary to come from men–he was rebelling against social norms to empower women and bring light to a heavy, sensitive subject. He was reaching to bring justice to this subject, which he did achieve by releasing this song. The subject of rape was not talked about enough then, and with this song, no matter if it was appreciation for the song or criticism of the song, the subject was still being talked about and recognized more than it was before. There was also another song called “Polly” that discussed the same issue, but from a different perspective–the rapist’s perspective. “Polly” was based on an abduction case regarding a 14-year-old girl that was abducted, tortured, and raped by a man. Later she was able to escape, supported by lyrics, “Polly says her back hurts / She’s just as bored as me / She caught me off my guard” (Nirvana). The girl had caught the man “off [his] guard,” leading to her escape. These lyrics emphasize the strength the girl had to come up with an idea and pull it through to escape, which Cobain wanted to convey to his listeners. Unfortunately, the message Cobain was trying to convey wasn’t understood, similar to “Rape Me”. Like “Rape Me,” people did not discuss this topic enough and the band wanted to break that barrier and spread more awareness regarding women empowerment and make people, like men, realize the significance of this issue. Awareness like this coming from men was unusual, like said before, but Cobain clearly made it a mission of his to go against society to make sure this subject was openly talked about more. Novoselic says, “The only chance she had of getting away was to come on to him and persuade him to untie her. That’s what she did, and she got away. Can you imagine how much strength that took?” (Far Out Magazine). For more insight, “Polly” is viewed as one of Nirvana’s darkest songs that they have ever released. One last song that sort of launched Nirvana’s disobedience through music was their top song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. This was an “anthem” for many in Generation X. This song rebelled against a few things, one being the older generation of teen’s parents. This song revolved around teen life, and how crazy it was. It related to many teens then in Generation X, supported by lyrics regarding being “stupid and contagious”. It represents the ambivalence of them, and how different they were from their parents and millennials. This song helped many teenagers identify themselves and become who they felt they were supposed to be, which Cobain wanted–he wanted them to cherish their adolescence. Not only that, but many believe this was a mockery of normal rock that was around in that time, with lyrics “Here we are now, entertain us” almost like he is waiting for the everyday, cliché rock bands to entertain him, but in a sarcastic way. Today, though, this song is their mainstream song, so less rare and unique as it was back then, but that is not what Cobain intended. Overall, through his music and lyrics, Cobain made incredible progress in society with disobedience.

Even though Nirvana had many followers and believers, some were definitely not fans of them. Many would allude to Cobain’s psychological issues, like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Bipolar Disorder (BPD), and, not to mention, his issues with substance abuse, specifically heroin addiction. People would blame his abnormal behavior and songwriting on these issues, claiming he was too unhinged and unstable. They would dismiss him and the awareness he was trying to spread, believing that his music was meaningless, which is absurd, as Nirvana was one of the few artists/bands in the 20th century to spread awareness about global and national issues. People would even use his death to justify their hatred for him or his genre of music, attempting to say that they were right all along. Never should critics dismiss an artist and their work because of extremely difficult personal issues they had to face. Cobain’s work was like no other; he spread awareness through harsh but true songs and lyrics, giving light to many issues in society, like women empowerment and large corporations, as discussed earlier. He had a strong voice in society, as he used his fame and recognition to give back to society and benefit it, which is unfortunately not something that is seen a lot today. He was always real to his fans; the Kurt that was on stage was the same on television, as in real life. With this, he promoted social rights for every person on Earth, being the biggest supporter for equality for minorities. As a white male, this was almost unknown and very powerful–he launched many conversations and talks regarding minorities and equality problems, giving them the attention they needed to be addressed and important in society. Hence, he was a great example for not only his generation, but many generations to come. Many quote that Cobain “is one of the most influential songwriters of all time” (Far Out Magazine). He redefined the music industry and life itself for many years, not just then, but in the future. So, although people may blame his mental issues for not liking him as a person or his music, Cobain has shown time and time again that even with a troubled life, he fought it and deserves all the love and respect in the world. 

It is very clear that Nirvana as a group made disobedience the act of rebelling into their way of sculpting music and society into what it needed to be, educating people for years to come, even until today. And, even with Cobain gone, many would make him proud living up to the lessons he tried so hard to teach. Through performances, public spotlight, and their music, the band rebelled against older generations and society to make the world a better place. And remember, the only thing Kurt wanted was everyone to “Try to love one another right now!” (lyrics from Nirvana’s song “Territorial Pissings”).