Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994 TAG: 9404190032
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DENNIS ROMERO KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No doubt, Cobain's post-punk compositions conveyed well the tales of angst, divorce and child abuse that are often associated with young America.
But consider: When people think of the bebopoloobop, you-don't-understand-me '50s, they think of James Dean, victim of speed, not James Dean, actor. The drugs-sex-and-rock-'n'-roll '60s belong to the psychedelic image of Jim Morrison, drug user, not Jim Morrison, poet. And now, history will point to Cobain, victim of suicide.
He will become an unwilling symbol of the self-hate, cynicism and sense of decline that mark the Xer '90s.
Cobain's suicide can help America finally take note: Youth unhappiness is more than a fad, the product of a temporarily dull economy, or the whining of another generation of postwar brats.
It's pathological.
Cobain lived the stereotypical Xer life. He was the victim of a broken home at age 10. He was later passed between relatives, and even lived under a bridge for a time. He was born too late for rock's heyday, but started a punk-influenced band anyway. He medicated himself with drugs, ostensibly to treat stomach pain. But as the Los Angeles Times reported recently, he also used drugs in an earlier attempt to commit suicide.
Self-destruction is to Generation X what playing chicken was to '50s rockers, what taking hard-core drugs was to flower children. It's the ultimate rebellion in a world of youth culture where the forms of rebellion have been exhausted. At the same time, it can be the only way out of a life made crueler by the pressures and pessimism of modern-day America.
The Xers' deck is stacked with low-paying jobs, sharper competition, and a world of beer-commercial expectations. At the same time, Xers have been national disappointments. The latchkey, throwaway kids of the '70s have become the ``slacker generation,'' back-at-home ``boomerangs,'' and ``losers.'' (As the popular song by Beck goes, ``I'm a loser baby/So why don't you kill me.'')
These broad strokes are distant, even sometimes humorous. But when ``slacker,'' ``boomerang'' and ``loser'' become personal labels, hopelessness settles in. And America has no tolerance for losers.
As character Hard Harry said in the movie ``Pump Up the Volume,'' ``There you are, you got all these problems swarming around in your brain, you know, and here is one simple, one incredibly simple solution.''
Cobain found that solution. But he is only the most famous Xer to do so.
Generation X has taken self-destruction to new levels, making it into art, entertainment and fashion. The pain strain has been tapped by Morrissey (Mr. ``Viva Hate''), R.E.M. (who sung ``Everybody Hurts''), and even former-Sugarcube Bjork (who laments our ``Human Behaviour'').
The self-defeatist Xer finds form in the cult film ``Slacker,'' in Bart Simpson (poster child for mediocrity), and in boy geniuses Beavis and Butt-head. Then there's the punk-influenced Xer fashions: Pitch-black hair, clothes and combat boots; tattoos and pierced body parts.
But people didn't seem to get the bleak picture until that rainy day in Seattle last week: Xer nihilism is no joke.
The statistics have been there all along: A higher percentage of those aged 25 to 34 (Cobain's age group) commit suicide compared to other age groups, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds, according to the center. And the teen suicide rate between 1960 and 1990 increased more than 200 percent, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Donna Gaines, writing about youth suicide in her 1990 book ``Teenage Wasteland'' (HarperPerennial), states:
``Something was happening in the larger society that was not yet comprehended ... American kids kept losing ground, showing all the symptoms of societal neglect. Many were left to fend for themselves, often with little success ... Suicides continued, and still nobody seemed to be getting the point.''
Now that Cobain's screaming, vital voice is dead, maybe America will finally listen.
Dennis Romero, 24, co-founder of the X Journalists Association, is a reporter in The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer's features department.|
by CNB