“Measure 9 goes against American traditions of mutual respect and freedom, and Nirvana wants to do their part to end bigotry and narrow-mindedness everywhere”.
“Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, 1992, regarding a piece of Oregon legislation that would have eliminated protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation”.
Nirvana and Progressivism
Seattle sound or grunge is a style of music born out of the late 1980s and especially the early-mid 1990s that was born out of Washington State. Grunge is a style of rock music sub-culture that became commercially successful due the popularity and success of bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and many others. The underground grunge movement that rose to extreme heights due in part to Nirvana’s album ‘Nevermind’, quickly died in 1994 after Kurt Cobain committed suicide, just two years after ‘Nevermind’ was released. However, grunge bands, especially Nirvana, pushed feminist viewpoints in a dingy, underground rock scene that led to the rise and popularity of more feminist bands in the post-grunge scene.
Nirvana is a legendary rock band known for their grunge sound. The band was made up of lead vocalist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl (at the height of their popularity). Nirvana won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and multiple MTV Music Awards. In their short tenure, they only made three studio albums and two of them topped the US charts. Nirvana isn’t just a best-selling rock band, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain especially constantly pushed progressive ideas and feminist ways of thinking.
Grunge rose to popularity in the early 1990s with Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ being released in 1992. ‘Nevermind’ would go on to become one of the most influential and best-selling albums of all time. In the late 1980s however, before the rise of grunge, music was dominated by white, macho, rock and metal hair bands. These ‘hair bands’, given this nickname because the lead singer often had large and crazy hair, were often homophobic, sexist or demeaning towards other races or groups of people. One very popular band of the 1980s was Guns n’ Roses. Kurt is quoted as saying that Guns n’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose is a “sexist, racist, homophobe and you can’t be on his side and be on our side”. Guns n’ Roses guitarist Slash has even come out recently saying that the #MeToo movement has caused him to open his eyes and realize that some of their songs such as ‘I Used to Love Her’ and ‘Back Off Bitch’ are incredibly sexist and offensive towards women.
Kurt Cobain often in interviews and articles spoke candidly about his acceptance of LGBT+ and women’s rights in a time in the early 1990s when these were not very popular opinions in the metal, and rock scene. Nirvana would often defy gender roles, dressing in dresses or women’s clothing for their shows and in one interview Kurt exclaimed that he wished he could “get rid of the homophobes, sexists, and racists in my audience. I know they’re out there and it really bothers me”. Kurt spoke in an interview: “I am definitely a feminist. I'm fucking disgusted by the way women are still treated. It's 1993 and some people still think we're in 1950s. We need to make more progress. There needs to be more female musicians, more female artists, more female writers. Everything is dominated by fucking males and I'm sick of it!”.
Nirvana rejected cultural norms and stereotypes in multiple ways during their short tenure before Cobain’s suicide. The often wore female clothing or wore clothes that didn’t sport the ‘typical’ rock band look. Nirvana often performed at benefits for women’s and civil rights. They played a benefit in the early 1990s that opposed Measure 9, a statewide ordinance for the state of Oregon that would prohibit protections for LGBT+ peoples. Nirvana and Cobain’s wife Courtney Love played and performed at many different LGBT+ benefits including Rock Against Rape, a concert for First Strike Rape Prevention, a Los Angeles nonprofit, and they raised over $50,000 for the Tresnjevka Women’s Group, a Croatian organization that assists rape victims in Eastern Europe.
Nirvana and Kurt Cobain were pioneers of just how visible and apparent rape culture was and was going to be. He is quoted as saying: “The problems with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What needs to be done is teaching men not to rape”. One of Nirvana’s more controversial songs is titled ‘Rape Me’ off their 1993 album ‘In Utero’. This song receives a lot of mainstream hatred and confusion because many people don’t dive into the meaning of the lyrics, they only hear the title of the song and are disgusted. This song, however, is female-empowering, stating even if you rape me, you will never hold me down, hold me back or control me. ‘Rape Me’ was meant as a blunt, laser-focused anti-rape anthem for the 1990s. Another anti-rape anthem is ‘Polly’ from Nirvana’s album ‘Nevermind’. ‘Polly’ is meant to be taken as a satirical approach to male rape culture as the song is from the perspective of a rapist who is holding a girl as prisoner until she escapes. Two more songs written and performed by Nirvana that perpetuate feminist ideals are ‘Sappy’ and ‘Been a Son’. These songs are explicitly feminist and many grunge bands of the time purposefully avoided imagery that objectified or degraded women. Women were no longer dancing or scantily dressed. Women in grunge music videos and imagery were often portrayed as equal, participatory or ban members themselves. Many of these songs however are often confusing or misunderstood.
Post-Grunge Feminism and Riot Grrrl
The path paved by Kurt Cobain and Nirvana led to a more accepting viewpoint of feminist and progressive viewpoints. By the late 1990s more progressive bands were able to break into popular culture without having to hide their ‘radical’ politics. The most famous of these feminist bands that were grown in the post-grunge era were bands that fit into Riot Grrrl culture. Riot Grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that came out of Washington State, the same place where Grunge is accepted to have originated. There are many that attribute this movement as being the kick-starter to ‘third-wave feminism’ or a more post-feminist approach. Author Helene Shugart argues that third-wave feminism is less of a new wave and more of a sub-culture of feminism brought on by Generation X. Riot Grrrls often addressed issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism and female empowerment.
Riot Grrrl is a movement that sent feminism skyrocketing forward. Plastering their ideals all over popular media and creating direct action strategies in the 1990s. Their brand slogans such as ‘girl power’ and ‘support girl love’ became one of the most recognizable brands of the 1990s and became feminist powerhouse. Their mantra was ‘do it yourself”, a way to fight back against a patriarchal, male dominated society and music industry where women often handed their work off to bigger groups to perform.
Riot Grrrl was comprised of many bands and people that all attempted to spread the same message of female empowerment. Riot Grrrl could be identified in any town or place. Someone or some group that identified as feminist or sang about feminist issues in their regional area would be considered a ‘riot girl.’ Some of these independent ‘riot girls’ even grew into their own feminist punk bands such as Lunachicks, L7, the Nymphs or Babes in Toyland.
Countless bands throughout the late 1990s released feminist anthems or songs with clear feminist undertones crediting the Riot Grrrl movement as a driving factor in their lyrics or outright calling Riot Grrrl out in their songs as Bikini Kill did with their song ’Double Dare Ya’. This song patronizes the patriarchy before ending the song with a curtain call that rings, “You do have rights!”.
Riot Grrrl movement bands such as the aforementioned Bikini Kill often let women come to the front row of their shows and prohibited men from being in the mosh pit to protect women and allow them to have a safe time. Riot Grrrl bands often spoke at their shows about issues in their societies such as when Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail stated “not only do we live in a totally fucked-up patriarchal society run by white men who don’t represent our interests at all, but we are in a country where those people don’t care if we live or die. And that’s pretty scary”.
After Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, his wife’s band Hole, went on to make more music eventually being associated with the Riot Grrrl movement with her powerful feminist ideas.
Alanis Morrisette and Jagged Little Pill
One of, if not the most influential and feminist artists of the 1990s is Alanis Morrisette, especially her third studio album, ‘Jagged Little Pill’. This album takes on a post-grunge sound and topped the charts in 13 countries selling over 33 million copies worldwide and is still one of the best-selling albums ever made. The album won 5 Grammys including Album of the Year and made Morrisette the youngest to ever win that award until 2008 when Taylor Swift won with her album ‘Fearless’.
Many online articles and female authors credit Jagged Little Pill and Alanis Morrisette as teaching them what it meant to be a powerful woman in the 1990s. The album reflects a young woman who refuses to compromise who she is for someone else’s needs, in this case an ex-boyfriend/powerful man in her life. Above all the album encourages women to be themselves in an unrelenting way and to change who they are for no person or system. All the songs on ‘Jagged Little Pill’ are volatile, unedited, honest and a look into what it’s like to be a discriminated female in the music industry, especially a woman in rock music.
‘Jagged Little Pill’ is still considered a powerful ‘do it yourself’ anthem for feminism and lines up with the ideals set forth by the Riot Grrrl movement. It was empowering for women to see and incredibly popular female rocker and not just something like the Spice Girls another popular female group at the time. The Spice Girls fit into what a patriarchal society saw a female group as. A group of sexy, attractive women, singing and dancing their pop songs. Alanis Morrisette shattered this stereotype with her wildly popular songs, rock/post-grunge attitude and stylings. Current popular alternative rock singer Aleksandra Denton of the band Shura said that ‘Jagged Little Pill’ made her, and others feel that is way okay, as a woman, to get angry and show their inner emotion, and not just be a stereotypical quiet female.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s clear how early progressivism from grunge bands such as Nirvana paved the way for a large-scale feminist movement following the fall of the band after Cobain’s death. Nirvana’s ideas behind feminist theory and their practicing of feminist ideals and notions led to a more accepted and popular portrayal of gender and feminism in the media in the following years. The representation and empowerment of women in the media as a direct result of the grunge movement out of Washington State influenced the rise of a new cultural female-empowering movement in Riot Grrrl and led to more feminist artists such as Hole, Alanis Morrissette, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and The Julie Ruin.
A clear message of female-empowerment, acceptance, understanding and anti-patriarchal notions set forth by the most popular band of the early 1990s led to a feminist movement that allowed women to reach new heights in reaching equality. The ideals put forth by Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love link directly to a new wave of feminism or, at least, a new sub-culture of feminism for Generation X and the future. All these factors led to a more positive portrayal and representation of feminists and women in media and a more positive reaction to female works of art and music in the 1990s and 2000s.
Bibliography
“15 Of Kurt Cobain's Most Inspiring Quotes, From Standing Up to Bigotry to Embracing Feminism (Photos)”. TooFab, TooFab, 20 Feb. 2017, http://toofab.com/2017/02/20/kurt-cobain-nirvana-50th-birthday-lgbt-rights-feminism-equality/
Akyurek, Yagmur. “Nirvana: A Legendary Feminist Grunge Band”. Affinity Magazine, 27 Aug. 2016, http://affinitymagazine.us/2016/08/27/nirvana-a-legendary-feminist-grunge-band/
Banks, Alec. “Kurt Cobain: Why His Feminist Comments Are More Relevant than Ever.” Highsnobiety, Highsnobiety, 22 Sept. 2016, www.highsnobiety.com/2016/09/22/kurt-cobain-feminism/
Garland, Emma. “Alanis Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill' Taught Me Everything About Being a Woman”. Vice, 10 June 2015, www.vice.com/en_us/article/6az3zg/alanis-morissettes-jagged-little-pill-taught-me-everything-about-being-a-woman.
Gibsone, Harriet. “Is Jagged Little Pill the Most Feminist Album of the 90s?”. The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 June 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/jun/15/jagged-little-pill-alanis-morissette-most-important-album-90s
“Grunge.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Dec. 2019, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge.
Lifton, Dave. “Slash Admits Guns N' Roses' Songs Are 'Sort of Sexist'”. Ultimate Classic Rock, 10 Sept. 2018, http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-sexist-lyrics/
Reyes, Matthew. “When Nirvana and Pearl Jam Stood Up for Feminism”. Medium, Cuepoint, 20 Sept. 2016, http://medium.com/cuepoint/when-nirvana-and-pearl-jam-stood-up-for-feminism-96ec0b5c13.
“Riot Grrrl”. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Dec. 2019, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_grrrl.
Yarrow, Allison. “How the Riot Grrrl Movement Sold the World on Girl Power”. The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 7 July 2018, http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-riot-grrrl-movement-sold-the-world-on-girl-power?ref=scroll
Zeiner, Linnea. “Grunge Feminism: Performing Gender Paradox in Queered Plays of Hypertexuality”. Academia.edu, 2015, http://www.academia.edu/20089450/grunge_feminism_performing_gender_paradox_in_queered_plays_of_hypertexuality
Hopkins, Susan. “Hole Lotta Attitude: Courtney Love and Guitar Feminism”. Social Alternatives, vol. 18, no. 2, Apr. 1999, pp. 11–14.
Hopkins, Susan. “The Monstrous and the Dead? Courtney Love and Feminism in the 1990s and Beyond”. Feminist Media Studies, vol. 18, ser. 2, 2018, pp. 318–321. 2, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1436901
Saraco, Margaret. “Where Feminism Rocks: From Riot Grrrls to Rasta Reggae, Political Music in the '90s Is Raw and Real”. On The Issues, vol. 5, no. 2, 30 Apr. 1996.
Shugart, Helene. “Isn't It Ironic?: The Intersection of Third-Wave Feminism and Generation X”. Women's Studies in Communication, vol. 24, no. 2, 2001, pp. 131–168., doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2001.10162432
Strong, Catherine. “Grunge, Riot Grrrl and the Forgetting of Women in Popular Culture”. The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 44, no. 2, 2011, pp. 398–416., doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00839.x.
Wald, Gayle. “Just a Girl? Rock Music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 23, no. 3, 1998.