Kurt Cobain was an important voice of Generation X. It's really too bad he married Courtney Love. (In my humble opinion) his poisonous wife just committed her second act of treason against him. The first occured when Courtney Love sold Kurt's private notebooks - back to when he was in highschool - to a publisher to make the book Journals. She was paid $4 million dollars for the journals which to Cobain were considered intensely personal. She sold him out for the money. There were also tons of issues about releasing some recorded material after Kurt's death but she clashed with the other bandmates and basically wanted everything to herself. She has now committed the ultimate sin against her husband who was the most anti-corporate artist of his time. She sold 25% of her majority stake of his works to a company to be used as they see fit for a reported $50 million dollars. Love owned 98% of the songwriting credits while Dave Grohl and Krist Noveselic each own a 1% stake. So, it won't be long before we hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being used for 13 year old girls deodorant commercials. It makes me sick. I used to have major problems with artists who sold their music for commercial use. Most of it wasn't "art" in the first place and most of the artists that did it were writing songs to make money in the first place - so who cares? Then, in succession, Robert Plant did it, Sting did it, Rush did it...I couldn't wait to see who would be next. I was really disappointed when Rush did it but at least they didn't hand over their catalog. They simply sold 17 seconds (with no vocals) to Nissan to use in a Maxima commercial. Still, Zeppelin, Sting and Rush - easily 3 of my favorite 10 bands taking the easy money bothered me in some small way. I guess as popularity fades, money is needed to sustain a quality of life that has come to be expected. However, I would think Sting and the members of Zeppelin have $100 million in the bank. Back to Courtney - she obviously doesn't. She has an on again off again drug problem and she is constantly fighting legal battles to keep her daughter in her custody. She needs the money. However, selling Kurt's songs wasn't even the wrong thing to do. She could have sold them to Grohl and Noveselic, who would have bought them and used them properly. Instead, she continues her feud with them by selling out to a freaking corporation. May the flies of a thousand camels nest in her armpits. I hate the woman. I don't know how she can sleep at night. And yes, I picked the ugliest picture of her I could find to include with this rant. Bitch.
3 comments:
i read once where Moby said the same exact thing. My arguement would be that's fine if the artist is making the choice. Kurt would not have made this choice. Someone made it for him.
I'm not sure that's entirely true. She sold 25% of her rights to a publishing company, and pocketed $50 million. While it's safe to assume that they'll be a Roto Rooter commercial featuring "Drain You", I wouldn't jump off the Evergreen just yet. Love is a staunch supporter of artist's rights.
Two things of note: first, having a song in a commercial doesn't necessarily ruin it. Someone asked Iggy Pop why he let "Lust For Life" be used in a commercial, and he responded that if someone wanted to pay him a quarter million to play thirty seconds of a song about drug recovery in a commercial about cruise ships... who was the real sucker?
Second, and most Seattle natives will tell you this: Nirvana benefited very much from right-place-right-time syndrome, and the historical importance that everyone has cast upon them should be tempered by the fact that if they hadn't blown up big, someone else would have. The Pixies (and others) were pushing the same act years earlier. Nirvana just happened to push out an album just as heavy metal and pop were hitting a big lull.
I absolutely already know about all the other bands before them and you're leaving out the biggest in my opinion in mudhoney. that wasn't my issue and you're bringing something to the table that isn't part of my complaint. i even reiterated this in my 1st added comment and i'll use it again to shoot down your theory about iggy pop...that's fine because iggy pop made his own decision. he didnt die and have someone else make it for him. kurt would have never done this and courtney knows it. that's my issue. and no, nobody knows what he would have really done, but that's not a valid excuse because he never had the chance to make it for himself. you can't argue that point, you just can't. sorry.
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