Former Nirvana Members "Dismayed" Over Guitar Hero 5

[Brockyman]

BOO-FREAK-A-DEE-HOO! I'm tired of these so-called artist (and artists wives) going on and on about "their music, their legacy, their hate of the mainstream."

Like it or not you Nirvana assholes, your music is mainstream now. While I do feel sorry for Kurt's family and friends, his weak psyche, his bitching about "mainstream" society, his love of sticking needles in his arm, and his f*cking psycho wife robbed us of the chance to see what he really thinks about it. There is the off chance that he would have grown wiser with age and realized he could make great music and be part of the mainstream instead of a grunge reject, and liked the idea of music games to bring his art to a new generation.

Also, Activision isn't so stupid that they'd put Kurt's likeness in the game without getting the legal stuff sorted out.

 

[sanzo]

Think I'll just throw in my two cents about what it means to be "mainstream"

I don't think being popular has much to do with it, but what happens to bands after they become popular. If a band becomes popular and they suddenly change the way they've always played music, that's mainstream.

Just because a band is popular doesn't mean they're mainstream; playing music people like doesn't make you a sell out, changing your music so people will like it does

 

[vickyyfar]

This reminds me of when Doc Martens tried to use an image of Kurt to sell their shoes, and Courtney again threatened to sue until they took the ad down.

I think it's kinda sad that a 45 year old woman would sell her dead husband's image, and then turn around and deny it all when things went bad. I don't like Courtney at all.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I may make Kurt Cobain now and make him play J-pop just to piss you all off.

That would certainly piss me off, but not because I care about Kurt Cobain or the legacy of Nirvana, as I think that band sucked (but then so did every other Grunge band) - I just find the concept of anyone intentionally playing J-pop inherently aggravating.

 

[Lusulpher]

I think the point is that this is a guy who wrote "Rape me" as a love letter to the corporate recording industry. I'm sure that the other members of Nirvana have a pretty good idea how the man himself would react to seeing his image playing random songs in a video game. Love signed the contract, though. . . so no going back.

This.

I'm not a fan of the man or his music--far from it, in fact--but I think this is just despicable and awful. Obviously though, I blame Love every bit as much as Activision, since she apparently signed away Cobain's image without even reading the fucking contract...

If Cobain where alive today I'm more than sure he would refuse to even come near Activision. We all know that Love has been a media whore ever since she got together with Kurt, so who knows what would've really happened if he where alive today. But this is the kind of things he hated, and actually stood up against.

I am a HUGE fan of Cobain. "Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5," the company said.

The woman simply cannot stop killing him. It's her parasitic nature that makes this an outrage. Jimi died accidentally, no one suspects murder over the impending divorce, or his girlfriend's friends owning the murder weapon, or his wife selling him his own bipolar medication, etc, etc...

This woman creates tragedy for her own profit. HE will be playing songs of people who made songs that IMITATED his style, copycatted and mocked, by proxy, worldwide. Nice. I get more disappointed in Humans, daily. Has anyone seen his MTV Live where he tried to promote the Meatpuppets, a REAL band? Instead of crap, like Kiss.(No matter how much you love them from youth they are mediocre)

And the saddest part is most of his songs have lyrics describing/predicting this ugliness.

Aero Zepplin, Doll Parts, In Bloom, Rape Me, Miss World, Blandest, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Celebrity Skin, are all his(and most of the good Foo songs are ABOUT him). He WAS the Beatles of the '90s.

RIP Tupac, Cobain, Lennon. Next people will be selling Che Guevara merchandising. -_-

 

[theultimateend]

I got a question!

If I take the first rock band, make a custom character that looks just like Kurt Cobain and name him Kurt Cobain, what is the difference between that and this?

Its just pixels either way right?

The difference is you wouldn't be profiting off of his image like Activision are (if it made a difference in the sales, that is). Me thinks that Cobain wouldn't have had a problem with that.

I guess I don't understand what Kurt was so upset about in the first place.

So what is music is commercial? That just means allot of people listen right? Who cares is some corporation is making money off your music, that didn't stop other bands from making beautiful music.

"Don't stop Believing" is a great song, doesn't matter if you hear it on your mp3 player or MTV right?

Well the problem many people have with commercialism is that it uses manipulation to make things popular.

It isn't about finding talented people it is about convincing folks that a person is talented. You may think I'm bullshitting but it is no different with bottled waters. Quite a few studies have been done (one by penn and teller even) where you provide folks with tap water but give it a fancy name, people will say they actually taste the difference when it isn't any different.

Your brain decides how you take in all stimuli, if someone convinces you enough they can convert how a stimuli is processed.

So yeah, that's why I think people dislike commercialism. Because it takes your run of the mill singer and makes folks praise them when there are equally talented singers in every graduating class of every high school in the entire world.

When true talent arises though it does tend to be pretty obvious. For instance when you hear something but have never heard of it before and love it. That sort of thing.

Now you got "dont stop believing' stuck in my head...but I only know the chorus...oh god the horror.

 

[yeliw]

Just another example of the weird cult of cobain. Wouldn't make all the news sites if it was Hendrix or Blind Lemon Jefferson, or Buddy Holly.

Although, I can see people getting upset about Stevie Ray Vaughn, so maybe it's just a time thing.

I am barely familiar with Hendrix, and would still be pissed about his appearance in guitar hero of all things. It's a fundamental violation of him as a person, alot like Cobain appearing in this is.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

I see what their problem is, they don't mind Kurt appearing in the game to sing his own songs but it's disrespectful (and I agree with this) to have him prancing around the stage singing with someone else's voice. It's the virtual equivalent of taking his corpse and moving his jaw in time with the lyrics. That said, there is a contract and although I don't like it, Courtney shouldn't have signed the contract in the first place and Activision have every right to do what they are doing.

 

[road_to_dawn]

To be honest, my gut reaction to the whole thing is that people should just shut up and get over it. Mainly because I'm sick to death of people acting like Kurt Cobain is untouchable or was Jesus and that Nirvana was the best band of the 90s or what have you. I've come to appreciate them in recent years, but I still don't see all the fuss. (If you do, that's fine, but I just don't get it.) And he was hypocrit or, at the very least, had no clue what he wanted. You can't, as he put it, have "the influence of John Lennon and the anonimity of Ringo Starr", it just doesn't work. You can't have it both ways; have your work be known and influential to the masses, but still remain underground. Unless you never perform in public and release your work under a fake name, that is.

HOWEVER.

I then thought about how I felt when I first heard that The Beatles: Rock Band was in production. I was dead set against it, for the very reasons that people are in arms over this. I worried it would be cheesy and disrespectful. Just like this sounds. The main difference being that TB:RB was developed by people that love and respect the music and the men behind it (hell, George Harrison's son was one of the developers) and not by people wanting to quickly churn out yet another Guitar Hero game to milk people for money. I think if Courtney Love cared about Kurt's memory as much as she claims and was soooooo protective of it, she wouldn't have let them put him in the game in the first place. She is as much to blame for all this as Activision.

 

[kazabamer]

Dave Grohl was in Nirvana?

Most of the Foo Fighters stuff is about Kurt Cobain and his life. Seriously, it is. Listen to it while thinking about that, you'll see what I mean. I think Dave was pretty hard hit by Kurt's death, so no wonder he's annoyed about this.

 

[Arkzism]

yeah i can see why. cobain is rolling over in his grave over this... and it makes me upset as well almsot enough not to get it that is till the greatness of queen and david bowie call me back

 

[katsa5]

Nirvana is a good band. Guitar Hero has done what they did with best of intentions. But I have to say it: Kurt Cobain looks like he just walked out of a Final Fantasy cast!

 

[Textbook Bobcat]

The only reason why this is of any concern is because there's a lot of money floating around it.

I'm sure Kurt would be "dismayed and disappointed" at Dave Grohl turning into an MTV whore, but no-one's throwing lawsuits around about that are they?

Courtney hasn't had a chance for any income for a while, and she (read: her lawyers) have seen a method in which to obtain double the amount of money; signing a contract that's just loose enough that they can sue for what they signed for.

And it's not just Courtney that would do it, any American that has ever had the taste of the "high-life" would kill for a chance to have another walk on the high wire.

 

[Textbook Bobcat]

Just another example of the weird cult of cobain. Wouldn't make all the news sites if it was Hendrix or Blind Lemon Jefferson, or Buddy Holly.

Although, I can see people getting upset about Stevie Ray Vaughn, so maybe it's just a time thing.

I am barely familiar with Hendrix, and would still be pissed about his appearance in guitar hero of all things. It's a fundamental violation of him as a person, alot like Cobain appearing in this is.

You must be annoyed at that black character in GH3 (the only one in this series I've played) which is a more disrepectful interpretation to Hendrix then having Kurt's likeness actually used for Kurt.

I think the main thing people forget that as soon as anyone is famous, they are an intellectual property and thus what the owning companies want to do with it is completely up to them.

If you don't like the fame, money and recognition then go back to Burger King. If you do, then real up and take the cons with the pros. It shows immaturity on every party involved that they believe they can have everything, and has lessened my respect (if any existed initially) for everyone complaining about this.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Haha, yea he was the drummer.

Oh right, I've only ever thought of him as being in the Foo Fighters. But then again I don't really like Nirvana so I wouldn't have known.

When the Foo Fighters started they were pretty much "That band that Nirvana's drummer started".

 

[crotalidian]

Courtney Love was probably drunk when she signed the contract.....

Also on the issue of using dead artists. Johnny Cash died naturally, of the Beatles only John Lennon has died of tragic causes and he was killed, plus Paul, Ringo and Yoko must be happy enough with the beatles game. Kurt Cobain Committed Suicide, Tragically at a young age when he was one of the most influential artists in the world.

I can see where Grohl etc are coming from but I do think they may be overreacting.

 

[Scratcher]

The problem starts and ends with Courtney. As Crotalidians says

Courtney Love was probably drunk when she signed the contract.....

She isn't as business savy as she likes to project, and she tends to make a fuss over Kurt's legacy as no one pays attention to hers anymore... that said, I agree with her, and Krist and Grohl. They can't do anything about it now though, so Grohl should just the get the "Love" dartboard out again and vent on it.

Oh and Crotalidian

of the Beatles only John Lennon has died of tragic causes and he was killed, plus Paul, Ringo and Yoko must be happy enough with the beatles game.

As Yoko wasn't the fourth Beatle, thought you might to know George Harrison had a pretty tragic death... more so than Lennons in some peoples opinion

 

[DisturbiaWolf13]

Dave Grohl was in Nirvana?

Hopefully this'll get sorted out without too much fuss.

Sorry if you were joking but yes he was in nirvana,he was there drummer.although they had a few before him

 

[Indoolio]

It really is disrespectful though. Cobain was said to stand against that over the top rock star image (despite his drug habits). Which is exactly where they're placing him in this game. I can understand that. And of course Courtney Love and the rest of Nirvana are going to get up in arms about it. Kurt was a close person to all three of them.

I also think it's just as disrespectful to use the image of Johnny Cash outside the context of his songs, but really, Courtney Love didn't marry him, why is she going to get as upset over that?

As far as the Beatles go? Yeah, two of them are dead, but this is a whole game devoted to them and their music. And from everything I've heard, it's been well done. Well it's certainly a great financial idea, it's a tribute to one band. Not shoving a figure head for alternative music right into the position he stood so vehemently against.

EDIT: I completely agree that this IS all Courtney's fault, and she is a terrible person and a fuck up. However, I can still understand why she would be angry at this.