Nirvana were always a chronically misunderstood band and in many ways they still are Throughout their career, they were loud and proud allies of feminism and queer rights Unfortunately, their massive success paired with their raucous sound and sardonic habits, meant that many of their messages got overlooked or forgotten entirely. But make no mistake, Nirvana's music is loaded with social messages, and their words were regularly backed by their actions in public statements and interviews, let's take a closer look Kurt Cobain was raised in the small town of Aberdeen, Washington. An upbringing that helped shape many of his worldviews. As a teenager, Cobain found that he didn't really fit in with the town's culture, thinking it was small minded. In a 1993 interview with Jon Savage. He explained how this affected his views on a woman I just always felt that they weren't treated equally and they weren't treated with respect. Especially because of the way that Aberdeen treated women. I mean just in general, you know women were totally oppressed in small towns like all over America You can see this reflected in a song like 'Been A Son', where Cobain reflects on the biases He saw against women This song is sung from the perspective of a misogynist father, who abuses his daughter simply for the fact that she was born female This perspective on women's oppression can also be seen on 'Sappy', a song that dates back to a late 1980s demo. In this song Cobain sings of how women are often shamed for their sexuality and discusses the ways that men can be controlling and emotionally abusive of women The chorus of 'Sappy' sings "you're in a laundry room" Hammering home the message about domestic servitude. While Aberdeen birth many of Cobain's feelings towards women, his feminist leanings were really brought out when he moved to the nearby city of Olympia Olympia was the epicenter of "RIOT GRRRL", a movement of underground feminist punk Cobain was good friends with some of the woman driving this movement, including Toby Vail and Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill In fact, it was Hanna who inspired the title of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' when she spray-painted the phrase Kurt smells like teen spirit on a wall The ride girl movement frequently and openly discussed issues like domestic abuse and rape. Themes that would make their way into Nirvana's music as well One of Nirvana's most famous songs took the issue of rape head-on 'Rape Me'. The song stirred up controversy But it's clearly an anti rape song. It sings of the truth that people are often raped and assaulted by those closest to them The chorus of the song brings up the fact that sexual assault is astoundingly common In an interview with Spin Magazine, Cobain explained the defiance that he was trying to get through on the song It's like she's saying, 'Rape me, go ahead, rape me, beat me. You'll never kill me I'll survive this.' In a 1991 interview with NME Cobain shared some of his thoughts on rape, thoughts that still hold relevance today The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there. It's pretty remarkable that this was a conversation Cobain and Nirvana were having nearly 30 years ago Their approach to these topics was uncomfortable. They wanted to bring to the public eye the brutality and frequency of these crimes, 'Polly' is an example of just that Bassist Krist Novoselic explained the meaning of this song in that same NME interview, saying it was based on the story of the abduction of a fourteen-year-old girl 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? Unfortunately, this message was lost on many of their fans. At one point two men even assaulted a woman while singing 'Polly'. This devastated Cobain who called the men "Two wastes of sperm and eggs", and said "I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience." Nirvana's sang about this disconnect between artist and audience on 'In Bloom' Ironically one of their biggest hits, that song is about the fans that represent the things Cobain hated; machismo, sexism, racism and homophobia The chorus of the song sings about how these fans love his music, but don't understand what it's saying In case there was any questions as to Cobain stance, he wrote a clear message on the sleeve of 'In Utero', the band's final studio album. "If you're a sexist, racist, homophobe or basically an asshole, don't buy this CD. I don't care if you like me, I hate you." 'In Utero' is Nirvana's most overtly feminist album, featuring songs like 'Pennyroyal Tea', a song empathizing with a woman seeking an abortion and 'Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle', which tells the story of a golden age actress who was persecuted by the media and institutionalized against her will. It wasn't just the words they saying, Nirvana spoke with actions too, they were one of the headlining acts for the first ever 'Rock for Choice', a series of pro-choice benefit concerts They also rallied against 'Measure 9', an initiative to add a homophobic amendment to Oregon's State Constitution At one point the band even turned down an opportunity to tour with Guns and Roses After hearing Axl Rose make sexist and bigoted comments. More than just a moral stance, this was turning down millions of dollars, because they didn't condone the behavior of another musician Nirvana are, and should be, remembered for many things. But I think their feminism and social activism often gets buried Coming out of the male-dominated rock scenes of the 1980s, Nirvana helped start conversations that are still happening today In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that much of Nirvana's music and many of their actions are even more relevant today, than ever before Hey everyone, thanks for watching. I wanted to use this video to bring light to a really good organization No Means No is an internationally acclaimed training academy for sexual violence prevention, intervention and recovery for women and children. Their goal is to help end rape around the world They train youth instructors from extreme risk environments to deliver empower a dual gender course that teaches girls to set boundaries stand up and defend themselves and teaches boys to challenge rape culture and ask for consent and intervene if they see a woman being attacked Stanford University researchers found that in Kenya, empower dropped rape rates by fifth percent and groups like the World Health Organization the CDC UNICEF and The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children have all endorsed No Means No Worldwide No Means No is trying to spread its program throughout sub-saharan Africa over the next five years and Eventually throughout the entire world If you want to help go to their website and leave a donation or just spread the word and let more people know about no Means no worldwide and the work that they're doing Thanks again for watching
"What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape"
Saying that nowadays would attract a mob of fragile males attacking Cobain for being an anti-male sjw
Kurt Cobain was woke af, which is interesting considering he is, in many ways, and idol of modern masculinity. I really wish that some of today's young men would take inspiration from that instead of getting angry about fucking shampoo commercials on twitter.
cobain was really good.
maybe i'm just an asshole but dave grohl really bummed me out when he said he wanted to be welcoming to trump supporters at his shows or whatever. it probably mostly annoyed me because i thought the way nirvana treated their reactionary fans was cool
Holy shit. I didn't understand what In Bloom was about until now.
Fuck me, activism is constantly commodified. You see it constantly. Cobain's beliefs have been filtered and strained to the point where not even 2% of people who like Nirvana know about his politics.
Capitalism wants its musicians to be ciphers who create consumables, and those who dare to have an ideology will eventually be watered down.
Paul Ryan liking Rage Against the Machine is the perfect example, and so exemplary of this hellworld.
Kurt is one of the people I really wish was still around. I read his diary as a teenager and it really opened up my eyes to a lot of the lyrical content of Nirvana songs.
I'll have to wait until later to watch this, but yes, they definitely were.
Kurt has become so whitewashed by the media (which I guess is ironic since he's white) and I hate it. He was super radical and politically conscious, but everyone just wants to remember him as the tortured soul who played MTV Unplugged.
That's was incredible, I had no idea how woke Kobain truly was.