Readings:
- Simon Frith (1994) “The Voice,” from Performing Rites
- Kurt Cobain, excerpts from Journals
Listening:
- Nirvana tracks on Blackboard, (also, video above gives a sense of Cobain's emotional range)
Posting:
- Cobain's Journals excerpts
For Class Discussion:
- How can Frith's article be used to understand Cobain's writings, lyrics, singing and performance style?
10 comments:
Question: I feel that Cobain, especially from the video on the blog site, taps into some kind carnal sensitivity and pain that no other artist we have focused on has. Compared to Jeff Buckley, who is arguably equally as sensitive, can Cobain, or Buckley for that matter, be argued as more masculine on basis of subject matter of their lyrics?
Artifact discussion:
I started by watching Cobain’s video on the blog website. I was struck by how deeply emotional and consumed Cobain was in his music. He didn’t open his eyes on camera until a break of a very dramatic part of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” towards the end. His voice cracked and he looked deeply pained by the song. It made me think that whomever Cobain was singing about had broke his heart or he could easily relate to the lyrics of the song.
Thus, I already had an image of the Cobain that I would read about it in his diaries. I was imagining someone who was introverted, pensive, pained, but troublingly smart and thoughtful. I was not surprised when I started to read the excerpts of Cobain’s journals discussing activism, people of his past, and ways that society could be radicalized rationally. It reminded me a lot of Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals, where Alinksy writes about how you can organize a community through disorganization and rise up against society if the majority of the community disagrees with current standards. I feel Cobain would be one of those revolutionaries. However, what did strike me as odd in his journals was his lack of imagination and almost apathetic attitude. It would seem like someone with so many ideas and talent would have an active imagination and ways to implement those ideas. Maybe it was his sickness or substance abuse, but there was underlying pain in his journals that counteracted the intelligent and vivacious person. It made me curious, is it masculine to live in a slump of pain, always working out your emotions or pathetic?
Discussion Question:
The Firth article states that there is an “‘unnatural’ and ‘effeminate’ rock use of the falsetto” in some songs. Would Cobain’s screaming passages be considered “unnatural” or “effeminate” in context of his songs’ lyrics or his time period?
Artifact Discussion:
Usually when I do blog posts, I do the readings before listening to the songs on Blackboard and the blog. This time, I decided to listen to half the songs before doing the readings and half the songs afterwards. This strategy proved to be very interesting, for I have impressions of the Nirvana songs before and after being changed by the Firth article.
The first song that I listened to was “Hairspray Queen”, and it seemed like an angry song, for throughout much of the song Cobain seemed to be screaming about something, perhaps a woman. Then “Mr. Moustache” came next; though it sounds less angry, it still seems like Cobain is agitated in this song. Its lyrics seemed pretty out-of-the-ordinary as well – examples of such lines are “Fill me in on your new vision / Wake me up with indecision” and “Show me how you question questions”. I was not really sure of what to make of these lines, but I did think of them as unique.
Then, after I read the Firth article and Cobain’s journal excerpts, I realized how revolutionary in thought he is – some of the ideas and observations noted in his journal were very philosophical and thought provoking. In his journal, Cobain mentions liking to “blame [his] parents’ generation for coming so close to social change and then giving up after a few successful efforts” in addition to more anarchist thoughts. This indicates that he does a lot of thinking about society and how unsatisfied he is with it. He even mentions praises women and African Americans for being suppressed but handling it well – he apparently does not like to tolerate oppression.
I listened to “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” on the blog and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before listening to the other two songs again, and that was when the lyrics of these Nirvana songs began to make more sense in relation to Cobain’s writings. The radical lines to which I referred earlier definitely connected with the ideas presented in the journal excerpts, and the harshness of Cobain’s voice conveyed more than just frustration – it conveyed a depth of emotion. This emotional side is very evident in “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, in which the lower, deeper voice of Cobain in most of the song contrasts with the higher-pitched screams. Although both voices sing the same lyrics, the deeper voice shows a calmer, more introverted side of the singer while the screams demonstrate a more visibly sorrowful and disheartened side of the same person.
Question:
How to women and minorities feel about Kurt Cobain?
Artifact Discussion:
I’m a little confused by Kurt Cobain’s diary. His point of view seems to be extremely compassionate. He recognizes the power he has as a white male and appreciates women. He respects the contribution of African-Americans to the music culture and recognizes that black people create many of the new musical forms. Yet, the lines about his inaction strike me as horrific. He says he likes to “infiltrate the mechanics of a system by posing as one of them, then slowly start the rot from the inside of the empire.” He does not seem to use his power for any good. He has so many fans and a lot of money, but he seems to complain and rot, rather than solve. He claims others are unaware but it does not seem like his awareness makes him any better. He does not positively contribute to the problem that men “decide whether all other isms still exist.” Rather he blames his parents generation and likes to “complain and do nothing to make things better.” It is funny to me that he likes punk rock because that to me is a white male genre. He says women are the future of rock but he has no women in his band. Furthering that argument, when I hear his songs I hear a white man screaming. There may be a call for change but his voice is very droning and hard to understand. It makes sense to me that he used so many drugs because of his inactivity. His drawings and sayings are so dramatic and intense it seems like he is depressed.
Question:
I found Cobain to be oddly similar to early crooners like Vallee in his singing of emotional songs in an untrained voice. However my perception is that Cobain’s fanbase was mostly male. Has Cobain solved the problem that Vallee had by adding a masculine image and instrumentation? Is there something about Cobain’s music that appeals to men in a homosocial way?
Artifact Discussion:
I want to start by saying that my impression of Kurt Cobain before the listenings and readings was that he was a drugged-out albeit musically talented anti-establishment rocker. I associated him with the movement of Grunge Rock. Therefore upon doing the readings and especially after watching the video on the blog, I was certainly surprised to rediscover him as Emo.
Cobain looks and sounds like he is about to cry as he sings “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”. He is surrounded by candles and blue lights on the stage. There is even a cello player. It almost seems like he is at a funeral. This departs from the rocker notion that I had originally held. I knew that Cobain was a sad figure, but I was surprised to see that he was in our section about the “Emo”. After seeing this video, I understand the connection. Kurt Cobain’s performance is about as emotional as it gets, and he really does remind me of other notions I have about Emo bands.
I felt this even more so in “Hairspray Queen”. The words of the song are almost impossible to figure out, but it really doesn’t matter. The emotion and sound of his voice are more important. I think what Cobain does best is giving “body” to his voice as Firth describes.
After reading his diary I feel differently from Spencer in that I understand him better. He definitely seems compassionate and lets his emotions about the problems he sees in the world spill out into his music. While he may not have “done” anything to correct the problems, I think he was one step from that in singing about them.
Question:
In the article, Frith discusses how Frank Sinatra made good use of the microphone in his singing, and how many singers never really learned how to use a microphone properly. To what extent did the microphone affect (probably negatively) the success of other singers such as Rudy Vallee?
Artifact Discussion:
Most of Kurt Cobain’s songs portray him as an agitated, angry, white male who is anti-establishment. In his songs, Cobain seems very emotionally connected to his lyrics. It is as if he directly connecting with his lyrics; as the performing artist, he embraces and experiences the lyrics, perhaps because he truly feels and/or has experienced the words. Cobain’s songs are often about questioning norms. In the video on the blog page, Cobain squints his eyes and digs into the music, seemingly focusing on the meaning of every word. This relates to Frith’s article where he discusses whose voice we hear when we listen to a song. For Kurt Cobain, I think the audience definitely hears Cobain as not only the performing artist, but also the lyricist and an interpreter of the meaning. We look to Cobain as a person to observe what his songs mean.
After reading Cobain’s journal excerpts, my notion was confirmed that Cobain is a revolutionary character. However, Cobain also seems depressed. For instance, one of his excerpts reads, “I like to complain and do nothing to make things better.” It seems that this attitude is passive and not very in line with masculinity. Other vulgar notions in the journals such as, “I like to impeach God. I like to abort Christ. I like to f*ck sheep,” create a view of Cobain as an extremely mad and crazy individual. The strong, almost violent statements may seem masculine to some people, or they might appear to be statements coming from someone who is insecure, which would diminish their masculinity.
Cobain displays a wide range of vocal styles in each of his songs. Did Cobain wish to convey various emotions through these stylistic shifts within songs?
Cobain’s emotional performance of Where Did You Sleep Last Night conveys Frith’s idea that a vocalist’s personal life cannot help but infiltrate his or her artistic expression as in the case of Billie Holiday who “was able to give that which she couldn’t help expressing aesthetic shape and grace” (Frith, 186). This expression of emotions is especially apparent in the verse of Where Did You Sleep Last Night in which Cobain screams the lyrics. Despite the fact that Cobain misses many notes and belts out the words of the song with a loud, shrill voice, his voice is oddly beautiful in this verse because of its emotional depth. As a listener, I feel the sadness in his lyrics and his personal pain. I do not know the backstory for this song, but I am convinced by his wide range of emotions—from sadness to desperation and anger—that Cobain has been deeply hurt by a woman in the past.
Cobain truly uses his voice as an instrument in all of his songs. His vocal style changes from song to song and even varies within the span of individual songs. In my favorite Nirvana song, Heart Shaped Box, Cobain begins by singing in low tones in a relaxed manner. He quickly crescendos and escalates into loud exclamations in the chorus, returning to his relaxed singing style in the next verse. He takes his listeners along with him on his personal emotional rollercoaster ride.
question: The article discusses voice as a multi-faceted entity: as an instrument, as a body, as a person, and as a character. How is the relationship of these aspects portrayed in the music of Kurt Cobain and how has he been able to reconcile who he is as an artist and who he is as a person who experiences like any other, loss, grief, joy, etc? Is the intimacy we often feel from musicians or with music as authentic as we perceive it to be? Are we more connected to the song or the person singing?
discussion:Particularly from reading some of the excerpts from his journal, I got a sense that Cobain was a very opinionated guy but that he had a connection with femininity and masculinity that was different from anything I’ve ever understood. He seemed to speak a lot about hegemonic ideas that had seemingly prevailed in historic society:called them out and then gave his own ideas about female superiority and origins of music. His discussions about lactating, about his puberty, about dolls, and the like seemed to reveal parts of him that were both in touch and out of touch with human sexuality as he spoke a fluid talk about his own identity. I didn’t completely feel like I knew him once I read, but I got the sense that there was much more to know, and that though these thoughts give a reader intimacy with his personhood, they don’t explain everything. They do emphasize his meditations. Throughout, there are recurring themes of gender, sexuality, references to opposition, to movements; to what it meant to be bold and what it means to be a sellout/ conformer. One may sense that he loathes conformity but the very essence of it, to him, is the only way to bring about change, that it’s an “inside job”. His writings were interesting; I wasn’t always clear on what they meant. But when listening to his song and watching the video that was posted, showing his emotional and vocal range, what I understood to be his voice was both a part of and apart from what I read in his entries. I could kind of understand the complexities of what Frith was discussing about voice, and wondered how Cobian’s “voice”, played out through the intersections of skill, talent, emotion, performance, and who he was, served his audience to either draw them to him and/or to his music?
Question: From looking at the video posted on the blog page what are some similarities that you can see in Cobain and recent artists Jeff Buckley or Rudy Vallee? There is something about Cobain's voice in the beginning that makes me think of Vallee. Did anybody see this while watching the video?
Discussion: The Frith article talks about how the audience responds to the voice of the singer. When I listen to music I find myself more attracted to artist and tracks that I can respond to in a honest way. A lot of what I tend to look for in music is the sound of the artist voice. As listeners it can be difficult sometimes to understand why artists use certain voices and emotions with in their songs. In the video I think Cobain did an exceptional job displaying his shift in emotions throughout the song with is voice. He started out very soft in tone and got louder throughout the song. Emotions seemed to build as the song progressed. I don't know if he meant to do this but it really seemed like he was building up his emotion in the beginning only to let his true feelings out in the end of the song. I really enjoyed this song and the way he delivered it to his audience.
Question:
Kurt Cobain said he rejected hardcore partly because it was "too macho." So, if masculinity didn't mean being macho, what did it mean to him?
Discussion:
Kurt Cobain's journals are fascinating. He writes that "censorship is very American." To a certain extent, I agree with him that modern civilizations employ censorship in a detrimental way. But I'd also want to point out that a young man who writes things like "I like to abort Christ" and "I like to fuck sheep," who sings anti-establishment things like "spite of my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage," has a large following. I've never heard anyone talk like that except Howard Stern, and I just find it curious that people who say things calculated to make the masses uncomfortable have fans that flock to them.
Before I read all of this, I pictured Kurt Cobain as someone who was very angry with "the system" and his rung on the socioeconomic ladder. And now, I realize that it may not have been anger about his position so much as it was anger on behalf of other, marginalized groups. I'm actually quite surprised that someone so young is acutely perceptive of these issues. But I realize that he probably had friends that were impacted by different forms of marginalization and that he felt for them.
Cobain talks about being turned off by macho masculinity when he's explaining why he doesn't like "hardcore." And Frith talked about how as soon as we hear a voice, we decide if it's male or female and then start making assumptions about that person's identity. When I hear Cobain, I can tell it's a male voice, but I don't associate it with "macho" masculinity, even when he's screaming. (I think it's because there's an emotive quality to his voice.) I guess that's in keeping with the writing in his journals.
You know, I was never really down on Kurt Cobain, but I have a lot more respect for him now.
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