Saturday
April 5, 2014 marked the 20th Anniversary of the death of Kurt
Cobain, for Generation X-ers like me this was the day that music died (With
apologies to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper).
What
bothers me is that Cobain is essentially ignored by sports card manufacturers.
While Justin Bieber and One Direction are immortalized with entire sets musicians
like Kurt Cobain are left to languish in the background. Kurt has only one
card, besides oddball cards, to his checklist; 2011 Topps American Pie. A card
marking his 1994 suicide.
Kurt Cobain was a groundbreaking musician, that's for sure. He was a part of a musical renaissance that lasted for several years and certainly influenced many other musicians. But had he not committed suicide, would we hold him in such high esteem today? I have to wonder about that.
ReplyDeleteBut in regards to your other comment, I wonder if licensing costs are a big part of the reason he hasn't been featured on more cards, or given an entire set. Courtney Love essentially survives (survived, I suppose, now that their daughter is of age) off his image.
Despite his popularity, Cobain was part of counter-culture, so I'm not sure there's a lot of money in that. The money is in popular culture, where tweens and young teens especially will spend their allowances. T-shirts, music and posters are much easier to sell to kids than a trading card set. Michael Jackson got a set when he died because, well, Jackson was pop culture, across many age groups.
If there was a reasonably priced Cobain/Nirvana trading card set, I'd probably buy it. But I'm guessing that we're in the minority.
When I saw your post title I thought you were talking about this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6039677/arthur-smith-dueling-banjos-writer-dead-at-93