Kurt Cobain killed the Prom Queen

Kurt Cobain has been dead 15 years today. So have a lot of other people, but they didn't front Nirvana so they're not getting my attention right now.

I was browsing the interwebs and came across an article on MTV.com by James Montgomery. Here's the link if you wanna check it out: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1608772/20090407/nirvana.jhtml

He seems to think all the sincerity and idealistic hope in punk rock died with Cobain. I have to agree that the world seems to be lacking sincerity like Cobain had, but it isn't dead. Not by a long shot. It's not dominating the charts like Nevermind did (well mostly, but I'll get to that in a minute), but at least in the underground it's alive and well, fighting for it's survival against outside pressure. In the 15 years since Cobain cut short Nirvana's path to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands like Thursday, Thrice, Anberlin, Killswitch Engage, and a ton of other bands have put out killer sincere albums. No rockstar ambitions, nothing but raw emotions and of course all of these bands are ignored by MTV and Rolling Stone. I have no idea who Rolling Stone's target audience is but they must listen exclusively to rap music and indie music, oh wait that's college kids....

I digress, what's killing sincerity is a combination of underground elitism and a crumbling music industry. With the way the economy is now it's almost impossible to imagine Nirvana blowing up, I mean seriously look at pictures of the guys in Nirvana from the early 90's. No A&R person would touch those dudes with a 40 foot pole. The underground today is more content with destroying every band that comes up as not being enough. Not indie enough, not metal enough, not hardcore enough, just not enough. Thanks to that, we now have "screamocrunk". Seriously.

But step back, ignore your prejudice and listen to some new rock music. Listen to "Tommorow I'll be You" from Thursday's "War All the Time". Tell me when Geoff Rickley starts screaming at the end "I'm calling from your house/in your room/ in your name/lying in your bed" you don't feel that?! Or what about Thrice's "Stare at the Sun", aren't all we just praying for a mircale too!
There are t0o many awe inspiring songs out there and they're aren't getting attention. They're totally there, just look for them.

Honestly the biggest example of how insincere mainstream rock music is would be "Prom Queen" by Lil' Wayne. Not because the song isn't sincere, because it is. That song, more than anyother in recent memory, is a shining beacon of sincerity. Can Lil' Wayne play guitar? kinda, he's awful. Can Lil' wayne sing? Kinda with the auto tuner, but not really. Yet "Prom Queen" just oozes all the things I love about Rock and Roll. You don't have to be good at anything, you just have to want it. He just did it. He made a song and threw it out there. Against all kinds of career advice, he just did it. That's the spirit of punk rock I fell in love with. If you want to do something, then do it. As sad as it is to say, Lil' Wayne put out one of the most sincere popular rock songs of the last year.

I don't think sincereity is dead and I don't think Kurt Cobain killed anything but himself. If you want to find music made by people with heart and soul, you're going to find it. If you dont, you wont. Even worse, if you want to give yourself status you're just going to marginalize it.