The Voice of a Generation

This year commemorates the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. This album changed the history of rock music, and it became the anchor of a movement that defined my youth. Like him or hate him, Kurt Cobain spoke for my generation, he was our voice. As a follower of Christ, I would say that I disagree with a lot of the things he had to say, but the “Seattle Sound” that Nirvana helped to create was the foundation of my teenage years. Kurt Cobain was my generation’s Bob Dylan.

As I was thinking about this, I started asking myself about the voice of this generation. Who is their Nirvana, their Dylan? Is it Lada Gaga? Ke$ha? If that is the case, that is one sorry state of affairs.

I know that this is just my opinion, and that while I usually try to use this blog for something spiritually uplifting, in this case what you have is the ranting and raving of someone over 30 (and we all know not to trust anyone over 30). So what does all this mean? Honestly, that’s been the question I’ve been asking myself as I was writing this. I don’t mean to insult the musical tastes of this generation. And I don’t mean to elevate Kurt Cobain, he was far from perfect and never claimed to be.

I guess it just comes down to this: when I was a teenager, people over 30 used to hate on my music because they said you couldn’t understand what they were saying. Now that I’m over 30, I say I’d much rather listen to someone who was hard to understand but had something meaningful to say than I would someone who’s lyrics are crystal clear but they aren’t saying anything of value. Was that message worth all this typing and rewriting? Does anyone out there care? That’s up to you to decide. As for me, I just feel better having spoken up about something that I care about.