By Kazuki Nakata

The movie "Last days" was released on March 18 this year. This movie is about Kurt Cobain who was the guitarist and vocalist of Nirvana. In 1994, he committed suicide with a gun at the pinnacle of their popularity. This movie is strange because it was produced only for people who know Nirvana. If people who are not familiar with Nirvana watch this movie, they will not be able to understand what is happening on the screen.

The main character of the movie is Break, who looks like Cobain. The entire movie is filmed showing mostly his back until his death in the final scene. You could say there is no story at all, but that is the reason it is real for his fans, because they may think a lot of things about Cobain's death. This is also a film that each person may have their own interpretation of after watching the movie.

A Nirvana tribute album consisting of only Japanese musicians was released on the same day as the premier of "Last days." One interesting point is that the group Shonen Knife (who contributed to this album) once toured with Nirvana and Cobain was said to be a fan of theirs. The tribute album is unusual because there are no Nirvana cover songs on it. The all songs on the album are original, but you can find Nirvanaﾕs great influence on Japanese musicians.

It was announced that "Never mind," Nirvana's masterpiece album, was chosen to be added to the National Recording Registry (NRR) in the Library of Congress on April 5, last year. By being included in the NRR the album is deemed as important culturally, historically, or artistically and it must have been released more than 10 years before its inclusion.

Nirvana disbanded with Cobain's death. However, Nirvana is capturing the spotlight all over the world again more than 10 years after his death. Why is Nirvana still loved so much by their fans?

What is the reason their album "Never mind" suddenly carried Nirvana to stardom? There must be some reason that this album became so popular. Mainstream music from the 80s to the beginning of the 90s was just noise of the economic bubble era and was called Party Rock. It had a very bright pop music tone to it compared with Nirvana's sound. Singers' appearances and showy stage performances were more important than the songs themselves because the commercial side was emphasized.

In the U.S., contrary to the economic expansion, the gap between winners and losers gradually widened. Further more, a recession followed from the expansion of the military, such as President Regan's Star Wars plan and the Gulf War. Party Rock separated gradually from young people's hearts because it was not reality or truth. Young people in those days were tormented by troubles, uneasiness, loneliness and despair, and thier futures already seemed to be lost. They were dubbed "Generation X" by the media. They found the melancholy, irritation, despair, and anger they felt themselves in this album. Nirvana grabbled Generation X's heart in the blink of an eye with the gloomy poetry that life was not pleasant and there are only hard things and hopeless anger. As explained above, only a few of their songs are bright. Rather, we often become gloomy listening to their songs.

The intro to the song begins with an overwhelming force and changes to an easy guitar riff and it is an excellent song that skillfully in the contrasts violence and calmness. Cobain calmly sings "Hello, hello, hello how low" three times as if he fears something and it is an especially impressive point. "Hello" and "how low?" is a pun. Maybe he was despairing about the situation of the U.S. at that time. Cobain's sudden screams sound like he is venting some frustration along with his powerful guitar riff. Even if we analyze the contents of the lyrics closely, we can't understand them clearly. However, this song reflects young people's gloomy hearts and how they felt uneasy about something they don't actually know. They donﾕt understand it and they don't know how to vent about it. In addition, there were many young people from around the world who empathized with their songs.

This album established negative themes of heaviness, darkness and reality on center stage, which the music scene avoided in those days. Cobain was the loser's hero, so to speak. He just did what he wanted to do, he sang what wanted to sing and he wore a shabby shirt and ragged jeans. However, he became that generation's star. This attitude of his can be seen as rebelling against the establishment and he affirms young people are alright just as they are.

Even though times change, the situation in America is almost the same as then. And present Japan endures a prolonged recession very much like the U. S. during the first Gulf War.　This is causing the gap between winners and losers to widen gradually in Japan, too. Nirvana's music continues to have deep emotional meaning even though10 years have passed. That is why their popularity never fades away.