Courtney Love: looking after Kurt Cobain's artistic legacy
BrainOfJD
Posts: 242
from Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/2006/10/24/kurt-cobain-csi-tech-media-cx_06deadcelebs_lh_1024nirvana.html?partner=alerts
Smells Like New Revenue
Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain's legacy has lived on almost exclusively through the band's recordings, his published journals and, of course, the influence he has had on waves of rock musicians since his suicide in 1994.
That makes sense. While it is now commonplace for musicians to make money by selling their work for use in television shows, movies and advertising campaigns, it’s hard to imagine someone less likely to go down that route than Cobain. The cynical cover of Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind featured a swimming baby approaching a dollar bill attached to a fishing line. And when Rolling Stone put Nirvana on its cover the following year, Cobain appeared wearing a T-shirt that declared, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."
Yet Cobain’s music may end up in the service of marketers after all. His widow, Courtney Love, has sold a 25% stake in Nirvana's song catalog to Primary Wave Music Publishing. And with Love's blessing, Primary Wave is exploring licensing opportunities for Cobain's music.
"We believe if we say yes to the right things, we can do both--make money and do the right thing for the catalog,'' says Love's manager Peter Asher.
Even before the Primary Wave deal earlier this year, Love and Asher made a couple of forays into licensing. Two versions of the Nirvana song "All Apologies" were used last year in an episode of the HBO drama Six Feet Under, and the band's song "Something In the Way" was used in the 2005 film Jarhead.
Next up, with the assistance of Primary Wave, is the hit CBS police drama CSI: Miami, which will prominently feature several Nirvana recordings in an episode scheduled to air in November. Primary Wave is also considering other licensing pacts leading up to the 20th anniversary of Sub Pop Records' 1989 release of Bleach, Nirvana's first album.
Primary Wave Chief Executive Lawrence Mestel, former chief operating officer and general manager of Virgin Records, says he expects most licensing deals for Nirvana songs will be with the producers of movies and TV shows. But he adds that Primary Wave will also consider doing advertising deals if the right partners emerge.
"You will never see Kurt Cobain's music in a fast-food hamburger advertisement – that won't ever happen,'' Mestel says. "We're looking at things that relate to cutting-edge technologies, products that are green and eco-friendly, products that Kurt would have liked to have his music represented by.''
In marketing materials that the company presents to prospective customers, Primary Wave pitches Cobain as an influential music icon with broad appeal.
"To Gen X, Cobain was their voice," the pitch reads. "To the Boomers, he was a revolutionary and to Gen Y, he is as iconic as James Dean, Che Guevara and John Lennon."
Primary Wave's plans come at a moment of evolving recording industry priorities and shifting consumer attitudes toward the commercial use of popular music.
For record companies such as Universal Music Group, parent of Nirvana's label Geffen, selling music to consumers used to be their all-consuming task. But in the new digital age of file sharing and music downloads, sales of prerecorded compact discs continue to erode, prompting the industry to make more aggressive use of licensing deals to bring in desperately needed revenue.
At the same time, consumers have become more accepting of hearing their favorite artists' music being used for commercial purposes. Music by rock legends such as the Rolling Stones and the Who have been used in TV commercials for years. More recently, recording artists as diverse as Jay-Z, U2, Britney Spears and John Mayer have had their music featured in ads for Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), Pepsi (nyse: PEP - news - people ) and Volkswagen, respectively.
"It used to be, 'Oh, he sold out,''' Asher says. "Now it's, 'Oh cool, they're using my favorite band.'''
Nonetheless, the commercial use of Nirvana's music might come as a bit of a shock to long-time fans familiar with the band's public stands against commercialism. Primary Wave's Mestel argues that this attitude is "the essence of what we're trying to protect. We're really trying to balance these concerns with the concerns of bringing this music to a new generation of kids.''
Primary Wave approached CSI: Miami music supervisor P.J. Bloom in August about the possibility of using Nirvana songs in an episode of the show, one of the most popular programs on television, both in the U.S. and overseas.
As it happens, the 37-year-old Bloom is an avid Nirvana fan who followed the band from its early days before it broke big nationally. After Bloom quickly warmed to the idea, he asked Primary Wave to make sure that all those with an interest in the deal -- Geffen, Love, former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl and their managers -- were all supportive of the concept.
Once that was secured, both sides laid down some basic ground rules. Primary Wave stipulated that the episode using Nirvana music not feature any suicide or drug-addiction themes -- Cobain famously struggled with heroin. Bloom, in turn, insisted that CSI: Miami have exclusive TV rights to Nirvana songs until the episode airs.
"Once I had that exclusive opportunity on paper, I was able to go to the producers and ask, 'Hey, what about writing an episode around Nirvana songs?'" Bloom recalls. "And they bit."
Bloom declined to disclose the plot of the episode, saying only that it involves "evil military recruiters." The show tentatively plans to use four Nirvana songs, with the 1992 hit single "Come As You Are" serving as "the tent-pole song," Bloom says. However, the exact number of songs and how much the show's producers will pay to use them hasn't been finalized.
Bloom says he's aware that the use of Cobain's songs on a TV show might rankle some fans.
"It's going to happen with or without me," he says. "They should find solace in the fact that it's a true Nirvana fan that's behind the wheel. [The show] will use the music in a way that maintains Kurt's legacy and keeps that intact. I wouldn't do it any other way."
Asher agrees. "If a hundred kids in Thailand watch [a TV show featuring Nirvana's music] and think, 'Wow, who's that?' then we've accomplished our mission," he says.
The challenge for Primary Wave will be to increase the value of its holdings without doing so in a way that overexposes or compromises the spirit of the music, Mestel says.
"Even though the financial opportunity may be fantastic, if it doesn't enhance the value of the music, we won't do it,'' he says.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/10/24/kurt-cobain-csi-tech-media-cx_06deadcelebs_lh_1024nirvana.html?partner=alerts
Smells Like New Revenue
Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain's legacy has lived on almost exclusively through the band's recordings, his published journals and, of course, the influence he has had on waves of rock musicians since his suicide in 1994.
That makes sense. While it is now commonplace for musicians to make money by selling their work for use in television shows, movies and advertising campaigns, it’s hard to imagine someone less likely to go down that route than Cobain. The cynical cover of Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind featured a swimming baby approaching a dollar bill attached to a fishing line. And when Rolling Stone put Nirvana on its cover the following year, Cobain appeared wearing a T-shirt that declared, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."
Yet Cobain’s music may end up in the service of marketers after all. His widow, Courtney Love, has sold a 25% stake in Nirvana's song catalog to Primary Wave Music Publishing. And with Love's blessing, Primary Wave is exploring licensing opportunities for Cobain's music.
"We believe if we say yes to the right things, we can do both--make money and do the right thing for the catalog,'' says Love's manager Peter Asher.
Even before the Primary Wave deal earlier this year, Love and Asher made a couple of forays into licensing. Two versions of the Nirvana song "All Apologies" were used last year in an episode of the HBO drama Six Feet Under, and the band's song "Something In the Way" was used in the 2005 film Jarhead.
Next up, with the assistance of Primary Wave, is the hit CBS police drama CSI: Miami, which will prominently feature several Nirvana recordings in an episode scheduled to air in November. Primary Wave is also considering other licensing pacts leading up to the 20th anniversary of Sub Pop Records' 1989 release of Bleach, Nirvana's first album.
Primary Wave Chief Executive Lawrence Mestel, former chief operating officer and general manager of Virgin Records, says he expects most licensing deals for Nirvana songs will be with the producers of movies and TV shows. But he adds that Primary Wave will also consider doing advertising deals if the right partners emerge.
"You will never see Kurt Cobain's music in a fast-food hamburger advertisement – that won't ever happen,'' Mestel says. "We're looking at things that relate to cutting-edge technologies, products that are green and eco-friendly, products that Kurt would have liked to have his music represented by.''
In marketing materials that the company presents to prospective customers, Primary Wave pitches Cobain as an influential music icon with broad appeal.
"To Gen X, Cobain was their voice," the pitch reads. "To the Boomers, he was a revolutionary and to Gen Y, he is as iconic as James Dean, Che Guevara and John Lennon."
Primary Wave's plans come at a moment of evolving recording industry priorities and shifting consumer attitudes toward the commercial use of popular music.
For record companies such as Universal Music Group, parent of Nirvana's label Geffen, selling music to consumers used to be their all-consuming task. But in the new digital age of file sharing and music downloads, sales of prerecorded compact discs continue to erode, prompting the industry to make more aggressive use of licensing deals to bring in desperately needed revenue.
At the same time, consumers have become more accepting of hearing their favorite artists' music being used for commercial purposes. Music by rock legends such as the Rolling Stones and the Who have been used in TV commercials for years. More recently, recording artists as diverse as Jay-Z, U2, Britney Spears and John Mayer have had their music featured in ads for Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), Pepsi (nyse: PEP - news - people ) and Volkswagen, respectively.
"It used to be, 'Oh, he sold out,''' Asher says. "Now it's, 'Oh cool, they're using my favorite band.'''
Nonetheless, the commercial use of Nirvana's music might come as a bit of a shock to long-time fans familiar with the band's public stands against commercialism. Primary Wave's Mestel argues that this attitude is "the essence of what we're trying to protect. We're really trying to balance these concerns with the concerns of bringing this music to a new generation of kids.''
Primary Wave approached CSI: Miami music supervisor P.J. Bloom in August about the possibility of using Nirvana songs in an episode of the show, one of the most popular programs on television, both in the U.S. and overseas.
As it happens, the 37-year-old Bloom is an avid Nirvana fan who followed the band from its early days before it broke big nationally. After Bloom quickly warmed to the idea, he asked Primary Wave to make sure that all those with an interest in the deal -- Geffen, Love, former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl and their managers -- were all supportive of the concept.
Once that was secured, both sides laid down some basic ground rules. Primary Wave stipulated that the episode using Nirvana music not feature any suicide or drug-addiction themes -- Cobain famously struggled with heroin. Bloom, in turn, insisted that CSI: Miami have exclusive TV rights to Nirvana songs until the episode airs.
"Once I had that exclusive opportunity on paper, I was able to go to the producers and ask, 'Hey, what about writing an episode around Nirvana songs?'" Bloom recalls. "And they bit."
Bloom declined to disclose the plot of the episode, saying only that it involves "evil military recruiters." The show tentatively plans to use four Nirvana songs, with the 1992 hit single "Come As You Are" serving as "the tent-pole song," Bloom says. However, the exact number of songs and how much the show's producers will pay to use them hasn't been finalized.
Bloom says he's aware that the use of Cobain's songs on a TV show might rankle some fans.
"It's going to happen with or without me," he says. "They should find solace in the fact that it's a true Nirvana fan that's behind the wheel. [The show] will use the music in a way that maintains Kurt's legacy and keeps that intact. I wouldn't do it any other way."
Asher agrees. "If a hundred kids in Thailand watch [a TV show featuring Nirvana's music] and think, 'Wow, who's that?' then we've accomplished our mission," he says.
The challenge for Primary Wave will be to increase the value of its holdings without doing so in a way that overexposes or compromises the spirit of the music, Mestel says.
"Even though the financial opportunity may be fantastic, if it doesn't enhance the value of the music, we won't do it,'' he says.
10 million dune buggies comin' down the mountain
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
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Well, this is what we'd all feared. This music will be bastardized in years to come. Other bands from the era will follow. One day kids will point and laugh at "grunge".0
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you know what? it's not my music so i have no say whatseoever, but i think a part of me just died. :(
Even though the financial opportunity may be fantastic, if it doesn't enhance the value of the music, we won't do it,'' he says.
the value of the music is in the music itself.hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say0 -
Please explain the difference between Pete Townshend pimping his music....and Courtney pimping the Nirvana catalog.....other than the one is alive and one is dead argument.All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.0
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tybird wrote:Please explain the difference between Pete Townshend pimping his music....and Courtney pimping the Nirvana catalog.....other than the one is alive and one is dead argument.
Who said there's a difference?
I'm apparently from the very last generation that didn't think it was OK to sell your song to the highest fucking bidder who wanted to put it in a soda commerical. I know that means I'm an anachronism, and I know that means that the bands that I like are dropping their integrity like hot potatoes. It still makes my stomach turn when I hear the Allman Brothers in every other commercial these days or The Who or Led Zeppelin or whoever.
And you know what? If Kurt Cobain was alive, I know this, you know this, I KNOW Courtney fucking Love knows this... he wouldn't want his songs on CSI goddamn Miami.10 million dune buggies comin' down the mountain0 -
Kurt knew this would eventually happen, why do you think he shot himself?I share a cigarette with negativity.0
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Nirvana, like grunge, was a 4 year fad that died out completely. In the grand scheme of music, it means very little. I don't think there is much "art" to Nirvana. It's just music played in a garage and recorded on cd.0
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BrainOfJD wrote:
And you know what? If Kurt Cobain was alive, I know this, you know this, I KNOW Courtney fucking Love knows this... he wouldn't want his songs on CSI goddamn Miami.
The guy left a kid on this earth without a dad because he couldn't put down the needle. I'd hope looking back he wouldn't give a fuck about what happened to his music. It isn't your music folks. Move on and get a life.0 -
Right on, JD! It makes me sick that kids today think "Rock and Roll" is the theme to Cadillac.BrainOfJD wrote:Who said there's a difference?
I'm apparently from the very last generation that didn't think it was OK to sell your song to the highest fucking bidder who wanted to put it in a soda commerical. I know that means I'm an anachronism, and I know that means that the bands that I like are dropping their integrity like hot potatoes. It still makes my stomach turn when I hear the Allman Brothers in every other commercial these days or The Who or Led Zeppelin or whoever.
And you know what? If Kurt Cobain was alive, I know this, you know this, I KNOW Courtney fucking Love knows this... he wouldn't want his songs on CSI goddamn Miami.0 -
cutback wrote:Right on, JD! It makes me sick that kids today think "Rock and Roll" is the theme to Cadillac.
They don't. Why? Because they don't care. It's just a damn commercial.0 -
bootlegger10 wrote:Nirvana, like grunge, was a 4 year fad that died out completely. In the grand scheme of music, it means very little. I don't think there is much "art" to Nirvana. It's just music played in a garage and recorded on cd.
therein lies the "art".0 -
sigh eternally wrote:therein lies the "art".
And the rule that art can't be used in a commercial is where? Oh, it's your rule. You know, the one who didn't create and doesn't own the music.0 -
Well I got to say Nirvana was great. Cobain was a great artist. I think there was a lot of art to it. He did some very unique things on their albums that set the band apart from the hair bands and started the whole grunge explosion.0
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bootlegger10 wrote:And the rule that art can't be used in a commercial is where? Oh, it's your rule. You know, the one who didn't create and doesn't own the music.
there are no rules in art.
pwn.0 -
bootlegger10 wrote:They don't. Why? Because they don't care. It's just a damn commercial.
Spoken like a true U2 fan Bootlegger.:)Can not be arsed with life no more.0 -
To be honest, providing the music is used tastefully I have no issue with this. Music like films and tv shows is ultimatley a part of our culture, and if a particular song works well in enhancing a decent piece of film, I have no issue with that. I was actually really moved by the use of Something in the way in Jarhead, I had tears in my eyes.
I can totally understand why Courtney wants to try and keep Kurt's legacy alive, grunge is kind of lampooned as being overly earnest and could easily be forgotten in years to come. To me, that would be a shame because so much decent music came out in the late 80's/early 90's, and I'd hate to see grunge (ok it's a stupid label, but we all know what we are talking about) lumped in with nu-metal, and the current indie scene as just a passing fad.
Bottom line, I think it's cool as long as there is respect for the music. And to those ready to throw the book at Courtney Love, remember a certain Yellow Ledbetter being used in the last episode of friends? Or a little chick flick called Singles........0 -
facepollution wrote:To be honest, providing the music is used tastefully I have no issue with this. Music like films and tv shows is ultimatley a part of our culture, and if a particular song works well in enhancing a decent piece of film, I have no issue with that. I was actually really moved by the use of Something in the way in Jarhead, I had tears in my eyes.
Agreed. Another good one was when they used "All Apologies" for a scene at the end of one of the final episodes of Six Feet Under (can't remember which episode exactly). You couldn't have picked a better piece of music for that particular scene. It was brilliant."I try my best to chug, stomp, weep, whisper, moan, wheeze, scat, blurt, rage, whine, and seduce. With my voice I can sound like a girl, the boogieman, a Theremin, a cherry bomb, a clown, a doctor, a murderer. I can be tribal. Ironic. Or disturbed. My voice is really my instrument."
-Tom Waits0 -
I'm not a fan of band's music being used in ads, but i gotta admit that there was something very poingnant about when 'Something in the Way' appeared in Jarhead.0
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Seems fitting, as his contributions are as overblown as her entire career.
Cobain was very good, but he wasn't what people make him out to be. It's that whole James Dean effect...death somehow elevated Cobain's contributions to music to some extraordinary level that I bet even he would be uncomfortable with today.0
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