This performance is haunting and people often look past it
this is the SNL performance from 93'. i don't know if anyone else has ever noticed, but the way kurt presents himself and his overall persona/stage presence during the song rape me is haunting.
one, im sure nirvana had to jump through many hoops to get this song approved by NBC execs, if i had to guess. second, if you notice the way kurt carries himself through this song, he appears very disengaged, almost as if he does not want to be there and is annoyed with everything that had happened to the band/him personally up until that point.
i know kurt was known for stuff like this, but SNL in the 90s was the big stage, so to speak. if your band played on SNL, you made it. i think this performance, particularly from Kurt, was a way of showing "i don't want to do this anymore." stark difference from the first time they did SNL in 91’ - the way he intentionally makes eye contact with the panning camera on verse 1 screams "here i am, get all the shots you want." on the down chorus after the bridge, he doesn't make any eye contact at all whatsoever, even looking away most of the time.
during the last chorus of rape me, he appears to be full on letting it out. especially on that first pass of the screaming phrase “rape me.” i think this was his “i’m done with this” final hoo-raw TV moment because he know he didn’t want to do it anymore.
maybe i'm reading into it too much, but this performance has always been haunting to me, especially knowing what was to come in the subsequent months. kurt was a genius and i often wonder what he'd think of music today.
this is the SNL performance from 93'. i don't know if anyone else has ever noticed, but the way kurt presents himself and his overall persona/stage presence during the song rape me is haunting.
one, im sure nirvana had to jump through many hoops to get this song approved by NBC execs, if i had to guess. second, if you notice the way kurt carries himself through this song, he appears very disengaged, almost as if he does not want to be there and is annoyed with everything that had happened to the band/him personally up until that point.
i know kurt was known for stuff like this, but SNL in the 90s was the big stage, so to speak. if your band played on SNL, you made it. i think this performance, particularly from Kurt, was a way of showing "i don't want to do this anymore." stark difference from the first time they did SNL in 91’ - the way he intentionally makes eye contact with the panning camera on verse 1 screams "here i am, get all the shots you want." on the down chorus after the bridge, he doesn't make any eye contact at all whatsoever, even looking away most of the time.
during the last chorus of rape me, he appears to be full on letting it out. especially on that first pass of the screaming phrase “rape me.” i think this was his “i’m done with this” final hoo-raw TV moment because he know he didn’t want to do it anymore.
maybe i'm reading into it too much, but this performance has always been haunting to me, especially knowing what was to come in the subsequent months. kurt was a genius and i often wonder what he'd think of music today.