Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross

Author:Charles R. Cross [Cross, Charles R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, Non-Fiction, Music, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780062308214
Amazon: B00DB3FS1Y
Barnesnoble: B00DB3FS1Y
Goodreads: 18090210
Publisher: It Books
Published: 2014-03-18T05:00:00+00:00

Kurt’s writing on the end of his shoe would play a small role in yet another controversy involving him. In 2006, the music publishing and marketing firm Primary Wave acquired 25 percent of the Kurt Cobain music catalog from Courtney Love. Love sold this share for several reasons, one being that she needed the money to pay off her debts—but also, at least she argued to me, because she felt that as the years went by, and Nirvana’s music was rarely used in movies or television shows, it became less vital, important, and maybe even less valuable. That same year, Love and the remaining members of Nirvana licensed “All Apologies” to the HBO television show Six Feet Under. “Something in the Way” also appeared in the movie Jarhead. Both uses were written about in the press and drew largely positive notices, though some fans felt they were exploitation.

Primary Wave manages and markets the music-publishing interests of many superstars and estates, including Bo Diddley, Chicago, Def Leppard, Hall and Oates, Daniel Johnston, Gregg Allman, John Lennon, Steve Earle, and Steven Tyler. Still, buying the Cobain music-publishing rights was Primary Wave’s biggest and most public acquisition. The purchase price was large enough that Kurt rose to the number one spot on Forbes’s list of lucrative dead celebrities, above Elvis Presley and John Lennon.

Love’s then manager Peter Asher told Forbes, “We believe if we say yes to the right things, we can do both—make money, and do the right thing for the catalog.” Asher said the public’s attitudes toward licensing had shifted, as bands like U2 and the Rolling Stones regularly sold songs to commercials. “Now it’s, ‘Oh cool, they’re using my favorite band,’” Asher said. Primary Wave CEO Lawrence Mestel, former head of Virgin Records, told Forbes he would only license Kurt’s image to the appropriate sources. “You will never see Kurt Cobain’s music in a fast-food hamburger advertisement,” Mestel said. One of the first, and so far one of the only, places Primary Wave has licensed Kurt’s name has been the most obvious: Converse sneakers.

In early 2008, Converse announced it was issuing authorized “Kurt Cobain edition” shoes. The line was a limited run in the Converse Century campaign. There were two styles in the Kurt Cobain line: one featured “vintage-ized” versions of the Chuck Taylor All Star, One Star, and Jack Purcell models, while the other was a line of All Stars with Kurt’s writings and sketches on them. The insoles featured the phrase “punk rock means freedom” in Kurt’s handwriting. The shoes were priced from $50 to $65 a pair. Converse also announced they were making shoes with designs by the Grateful Dead and the Doors.

Many Nirvana fans were outraged, feeling that any item with Kurt’s name attached, even when the brand was Converse, was exploitive. Primary Wave’s Devin Lasker defended the product to the press: “Kurt wore these shoes.” Still, as Ad Age blogger Charlie Morgan pointed out at the time, “He died in the things. I mean, that’s disturbing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.