You may have asked yourself “why is Kurt Cobain the top trending term on Twitter today?” Because today is the late grunge pioneer’s birthday, that’s why!
Born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, Cobain is most well-known as the frontman for the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. An experimental and minimalistic musician, Cobain helped to define the grunge genre, which ended the 80s “glam rock” era in the early 90s with darker yet catchy tunes and lyrics that focused on themes of existentialism, loneliness, and depression.
Love him or hate him, Cobain helped to revolutionize modern music, and Nirvana is popularly seen as the defining band of the grunge scene (though I, myself, prefer some Alice in Chains).
Cobain died on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27 of an apparent suicide (though some circles of fans debate that to this day). Cobain’s legacy, his personal life and his death remain subjects of strong interest in popular culture. Here’s what Twitter users are saying about the late Kurt Cobain on his birthday today (some of these tweets contain links to archival footage, images, interviews, a ton of cool stuff):
“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”—Kurt Cobain
— Jack Dorsey (@jack) February 19, 2013
Happy birthday, Kurt Cobain. Your legacy will live on forever as you are an icon to the music industry. Thank you for your music. — music (@wearethosefans) February 20, 2013
Here’s a picture of Kurt Cobain with a cat. He would have been 46 today. twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew… — Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) February 20, 2013
Kurt Cobain hand-wrote this list of his favorite albums – twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/…
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) February 20, 2013
On what would have been his 46th birthday, some photos of what Kurt Cobain would look like today if he had lived.
— Interview Magazine (@InterviewNews) February 20, 2013
Hard to believe Kurt Cobain would have been 97 today if he hadn’t died from eating Fish McBites. 🙁 — Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) February 20, 2013
Happy bday Kurt Cobain. #RIP — Jarrett W. Payton (@paytonsun) February 20, 2013
Happy Birthday Kurt Cobain! I still wish you would tell me what Teen Spirit smells like
— Drink.Burnett’s (@_Burnetts) February 20, 2013
Today Nirvana’s #KurtCobain would’ve turned 46. In honor, here’s our last interview w/ the guitarist from 1992 ow.ly/hSHQC #RIP
— Guitar World (@GuitarWorld) February 20, 2013
I’ll be listening to #Nirvana all day in honor of the late great Kurt Cobain.
— Trey Davis (@TheOtherTrey) February 20, 2013
What would Kurt Cobain say about the music industry today?
— Erica Holloway (@erica_holloway) February 20, 2013
I would say happy birthday to Kurt Cobain, but that would mean Courtney Love would sue me for using his name. #nirvana #kurtcobain
— Jake Payne (@JakePayneSports) February 20, 2013
Happy birthday to my hero kurt cobain , a wasted life but what a life , it’s better to burn out than fade away twitter.com/stammeringdave…
— Dave Williams (@stammeringdave) February 20, 2013
Here’s Kurt Cobain performing David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” with Nirvana on MTV Unplugged in 1993. It’s one of his final performances, and in my opinion, one of his finest.
[iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/fregObNcHC8″ width=”420″ height=”315″]
Kurt changed my life with his insightful and surreal music and lyrics. I only wished he could have stuck around to make more to listen to for future generations. I was compelled to compose a portrait of him In Memoriam recently on the anniversary of his death on my artist’s blog at https://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-memoriam-kurt-cobain-and-lane-staley.html Drop in and tell me your memories of his music and how it’s affected you.