Did you like Nirvana, daddy?
There’s a British First World War propaganda poster that has a young girl sitting on her father’s knee asking, “Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?” The father looks wistfully into the distance. Will he admit to doing nothing, thus admitting cowardice to his beloved daughter? Or will he be able to proudly tell of his heroics fighting the Hun on the western front?
A day of reckoning is approaching, dear Kulturblogger, if it hasn’t already. Soon one of your children will ask, “Daddy (or mummy), did you like Nirvana?”
I remember the day when I discovered The Doors, as all indie kids eventually do. I asked my parents whether they had been fans back in the day. Negative. What about Floyd? Nope. The Who? No. The Beatles? Only the early stuff.
I love my parents, but they are culturally dead to me. Thankfully, I am not doomed to repeat that shame. Sometime in the next decade, my children will discover Nirvana. They will ask me whether I was a fan. I will look them in the eye and say, “yes, my dears — do you want to borrow my copy of Bleach?” That will seal the deal. Any old blagger can claim their love for Smells Like Teen Spirit, but if you can reminisce over Floyd the Barber, speak knowingly of “the drummer before Dave Grohl”, and show them a copy of Heart Shaped Box on blue vinyl, their eyes will glisten with tears of pride.
The Bleach reissue is good, all growling grunge and wail. It still has the rough edges of the original but with some of the meat injected with a digital steroid or two. It’s a discovery to remember how good Krist Novoselic’s bass was, particularly on Love Buzz, and the live B-side — Portland in 1990 — transports you to the genesis of something wonderful, like meeting Siddartha on the way to the Bodhi Tree. Yes, I’m a fan, but I’m a cool dad because of it. Better brush up on your Bleach or risk scarring your teenagers forever.
Posted on November 30, 2009, in Music. Bookmark the permalink. 23 Comments.
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That is only if your kids think Nirvana is cool. They might hate it.
What if your answer is “they were okay. But I thought they were hugely overrated compared to some of their peers.” Will that make you cool or uncool to your kids?
My friend the Brit, I am sorry for you. I thought it was general knowledge that only Pink Floyd and Zeppelin could turn the hearts of the children to their fathers.
I must be the coolest parent ever? Having seen them play a dorm party on Halloween night, 1988. I even own a copy of their very first record single. (I win!)
But I was never very into them. Soundgarden, Tad, Mudhoney were always way more intense. (I’m with BTD Greg.) So there goes my cool factor.
Actually, my kids are already old enough to ask me what I was into as a teenager. Somehow my story of meeting Bono when I was 16 just doesn’t have any cachet for them. But they like to brag to their friends that I saw Metallica on the Justice tour (twice), even though they hate Metallica (my kids are too cool for Metallica, who have sold out, but their friends are still impressed). My boys are very into the current wave of thrash metal taking over south Cali.
I will have to answer, “Yes – but I preferred the Pixies.
I’m pretty sure my kids already know what music I dig based on what I regularly play at home and in the car.
Greg,
Too cool and therefore uncool.
I like Gigamesh’s answer better.
I always make a point of telling my kids that I’m not cool. (Either that, or I exaggerate it and tell them I am the coolest dad in the history of ever–something they recognize as blatant sarcasm.)
My musical tastes have rubbed off on them, somewhat. There’s still lots of stuff I like that they don’t, but here’s a partial list of music my kids like because I liked it first: They Might Be Giants, Regina Spektor, Vampire Weekend, The Old 97′s, Sufjan Stevens, The Shins. So far they have avoided the Disney-machine (Cyrus, et al.).
… or if you can show them a xeroxed flyer you tore off a telephone pole on Capitol Hill right outside your apartment when they were playing the hole-in-the wall bar down the street.
With my luck, my kids will probably never ask me…
Awesome. Good review, Brit.
I thank you, SG, for reminding me of the Tao of Kur(d)t.
Tracy, you still have that show flyer? I wish I had all the ones I collected as a teen. They’re long gone.
Just remember, coolness is relative. My son has a friend whose mom dated Lemmy. And my other son has a friend whose dad knew Dave Mustaine. (My kids go to the same high school Dave Mustaine went to.)
Here’s a video of Nirvana covering “My Best Friend’s Girl.”
Probably my favorite thing that Nirvana has done – even if Nirvana is playing the song as a joke.
But I really like the Cars.
This is my fave Nirvana song:
I’m afraid that it’s an unrealistic dream to think our kids will get interested in Nirvana (or the Pixies, or Pavement, or Fugazi, or whatever). As one of the world’s biggest rock fans it saddens me to admit that it’s a dying art form for most young people. My kids will more likely ask me if I was in Lil’ Wayne (or more likely Jay Z, 50 Cent, and Eminem). It’s like if you asked your parents whether they were into late-era Beatles and they said, “no, I didn’t get into that rock and roll stuff, I was a Coltrane fan.” That would be cool, but wouldn’t have won any points with the 15-year-old me.
Or am I way off on that? I might be.
“Or am I way off on that? I might be.”
I think you may be way off. Guitar Hero and Rock Band have totally revitalized classic rock (and metal and even 80s hair bands) for kids today. So I don’t think rock is a dying art form. Hip hop seems to be going strong, but who knows? I doubt my kids will ever be into it.
My teenage kids totally dig rock, old and new. They haven’t really gotten into Nirvana yet (they do like Pearl Jam), but when they do, I’ll be right there to tell the story of how I was living in the Seattle area when Nirvana hit it big…
But that story can’t possibly top my true claim to coolness as a teenage groupie for The Go-Go’s.
My kids listen to all my music – the beauty of digital music making file sharing so easy. I have also found some new music through them – Rilo Kiley comes to mind.
I didn’t see the Go-Go’s, but I totally rocked out when I saw Belinda Carlisle in concert (Opening act was Breathe).
Oh, man. I LOVE Breathe…
I very well might be wrong. My sense is based, essentially, on what’s made available on the radio in my area (the Portland, OR area). We have one metal station, and one alt rock station. Then a couple of hip-hop stations (I think, maybe more though).
The thing is, the alt rock station spends a lot of time playing throw-back stuff – early 90s alt rock and 80s post-punk/new wave. Maybe that’s cause the young kids like that stuff, but I’ve assumed that a big reason for that is that a huge percentage of the station’s listening base is people from prior generations. That is, because there aren’t enough young people tuning in to alt rock radio these days, it can’t survive on current music alone. It has to pull in the 30- and 40-somethings to stay alive.
Maybe it’s just that young people don’t listen to the radio at all. But I don’t think so. The hip hop station plays new music all the time. They appear to be able to survive entirely on a young audience. So I’m not really sure what it is.
I want to believe that rock (and specifically “alternative” rock) is a live art form. I think it is magical stuff. But it seems like, as far as current music goes, it’s been largely relegated to the underground.
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came on the radio today and my 15yo son sang along with Weird Al’s lyrics. He doesn’t know the actual lyrics, only Weird Al’s version. Made me proud.
I never got into Nirvana. When they were big my favorite band was The Who. My dad has excellent taste in music and my favorite stuff is still mostly what he introduced to me too. Thanks to him I know you can love The Beatles and the Stones, the genius of Woody Gutherie, Pink Floyd is overrated, never assume Bob Dylan has already written his greatest song, there is good country music(Cash, Waylon Jennings etc.), drugs are bad but they can help make great music, Emmylou Harris is a goddess and there would be no punk rock without The Who. I hope in 20 years my kid’s favorite music is the same stuff.
The Who is my husband’s all-time fave (did they ever write a bad song? no) and they were my kids’ first fave, when they were toddlers.
Our youngest son once asked my husband what his dream band lineup would be, musician-wise. My husband said Pete Townsend, Keith Moon, John Entwhistle and Roger Daltry. Kinda hard to argue.