I have been thinking about what spoke to me about Nirvana. When it came out, my boyfriend and I were going to college at Purdue. For years prior to this, my generation (X or 13) had been hailed as the "do nothing generation", criticized as apathetic and godless, not to mention lazy, disrespectful and stupid :).  Have you ever tried to reach a goal while others stand above and criticize? It is either funny or maddening.

I was born in 1971 right in the middle of GenX. Nirvana was a defining musical voice for this time. I think we were mad. I think Nirvana and Kurt Cobain spoke to a small but strong-minded group of individuals, children borne of the 60's "Love Revolution turned to Drug Culture".  Through their own social experience, and their dingy rose colored glasses, our loving parents imparted to us a deep cynicism and abiding mistrust of many things. We were privy to the remains of the cold war, we watched our parents divorce, we were the ones who were bottle fed on MTV and the first video game consoles. We were brought up to be street smart.

The sound and the rage coupled with the meloncholy voice of one who is disenfranchised spoke to us and reminded us how much we had to rage against, and we wanted to BE the MOSH PIT. We needed Nirvana and other bands like them to help us express some of our anger at those who would criticize what they had fostered in us.  Reading the lyrics of Nevermind, I thought about the fact that the words were really not important, it was the sound and fury of the music. That is what we needed at the time and I think that is what we responded to.