Kurt Cobain A look Into the Life and Career of a Legend; A Proposal Kurt Donald Cobain was the

lead singer/songwriter of the band Nirvana, until April !""# when he $o%%itted sui$ide& 'roubled b( depression, $hroni$ sto%a$h proble%s, and an addi$tion to heroin, his ail%ents in his personal life showed through in his %usi$& )is %usi$ evolved fro% the hard *punk* sound of their first albu%, to the intelligent *tell all* tales of his fourth and final albu% In +tero& 'hrough his %usi$ he $hanged an era of ,lost souls-, to a generation with a vision of who the( were& 'he songs he wrote and pla(ed $aptured the attention of the world, but also brought hi% the fa%e and fortune that led to his downfall& 'he pain and the hate of his life filled the lines, tough hidden under his sar$as%& )e $ouldn.t take the voi$es in his head that had plagued hi% all his life, that $o%piled with his dislike of the fa%e $aused hi% to end his own life& 'he life that gave hi% no /o(& 'he first ti%e I heard Nirvana the( $hanged %( life& I was sitting in $lass and one of %( friends tapped into the P&A& s(ste%& )e hooked it up to his 0alk%an and started pla(ing 1%ells Like 'een 1pirit, Nirvana.s first single& I was sitting in $lass da( drea%ing and suddenl( I was pulled out of it b( this a%a2ing sound& A few se$onds later the prin$ipal shut off the song, but b( that ti%e I was hooked& Later that da( I went to the re$ord store and bought their se$ond first and se$ond albu%& I took the% hi% and threw the% into the CD pla(er and fell in love& 3inall( I $ould identif( with %usi$, the words that poured fro% the speakers spoke %( life& +ntil that %o%ent I had no dire$tion and felt alienated fro% the rest of the kids %( age& 4ut Cobain.s %usi$ tou$hed on what I was not able reali2e at %( age, that being (ourself is all right no %atter what the *trend(* /unior high s$hool kids thought& 'hough I would not understand the i%pa$t of his %usi$ or what his words %eant to hi%, and that those songs would pull %e through the hardest ti%es in %( life&

5esear$h 6uestion )ow did his depression influen$e his %usi$, it show up in his work7 8utline and 1our$e 1u%%ar( 1in$e the first ti%e I heard Nirvana and their %usi$, it had an i%pa$t on %( life& 'hough I never stopped to think about the %eaning behind the a$tual words that were spoken& 3ro% the ti%e that Nirvana started ba$k in !"9:, the( have $hanged fa$es both on the inside and the outside& Kurt Cobain was born in a s%all town in Aberdeen, 0ashington in !":;<0ilson =>& )e grew up in a broken ho%e and had %an( proble%s along the wa(, be$ause of his h(per? a$tive nature nobod( in his fa%il( wanted hi%<0ilson =>& )e was passed around fro% aunts and un$les, to his grand parents& )e started his $reative pro$ess first through art<0ilson =?@>& 0here b( later he turned down two art s$holarships to art s$hool, and never did finish high?s$hool& 'hen when he was ! he started pla(ing the guitar, also he found the underworld of drugs<0ilson @?#>& )e pla(ed the guitar and did drugs b( hi%self until the age of !9, when he /oined his first band<0ilson ! >& I intend to show how the events of his earl( life influen$ed the $ourse his life took, and how it would later be found in his %usi$& Also the a$tual words fro% the songs hold a great deal of insight to his life& Also the progression of his first band.s, to the final trio that would %ake histor(& I have three different kinds of resear$h resour$es; a book, video, and the l(ri$s to all of his songs& All of these give different looks at the life of Cobain and what eAa$t events lead to hi% $o%%itting sui$ide& In %( opinion out of the resour$es I have the l(ri$s of his songs paint the $learest pi$ture; whi$h also are open to individual interpretation& 'he words along with the knowledge of his life, will be the instru%ent on how to gauge his depression fro% the basi$ ,punk- sound of his earl( %aterial, through the and how did

,pop?ro$k- phase, to the ,stor( telling- of his later work& )is for$eful sound and his for$eful stage perfor%an$es, or onl( one side of hi% %usi$all(& As evident in the intense a$ousti$ perfor%an$e that he did for the B'C ,unpluggedseries, he proved to ever(one that saw the show that he had su$h a love for what he did& 'hough it was evident that he looked in pain, whether it was fro% his sto%a$h pains or his depression is unsure<0ilson :D>& B( resear$h has been fo$using on the wa( Cobain.s life has shaped his %usi$ fro% the earl( (ears up until his death& I also want to fo$us on the severit( of his heroin use and depression, and prove how the in$rease of both of these affe$ted what he wrote, and what was the sour$e of the depression& B( resear$h so far has led %e to believe that these two s(%pto%s in$reased fro% his view of the hope and sin$erit( during that point in life& 4e$ause the biggest points of drug abuse o$$urred after he dropped out of high s$hool, during the fa%e of Nirvana.s albu% Never%ind, and after that he had tried to $lean hi%self up in re?hab, to no avail<0ilson !!>& I a% using all of these resour$es to find out the $o%%on thread that ties together his depression, to his sar$as% in his writing, and if the sar$as% was his wa( of %aking fun of hi%self for feeling the wa( he did& I want to put all of these Euestions about his depression and the hidden %eaning of his l(ri$s together to show the how the depression he felt %ade its wa( to his %usi$, and how the fa%e of his %usi$ fueled his desire to end his life in April, !""#&