Do you think that Kurt Cobain's mental liquidity made him the musical genius he was or held him back from being an even greater artist?

Rarely does borderline insanity hinder artistic expression. Professionalism and marketability maybe, but rarely artistic expression.

I got to say held him back. It’s much easier to be an artistic genius when you’re not dead. Although, it probably helped when he was alive.

Some if the greatest minds in history haven’t been what we might call “sane”. Maybe creative minds are just like that.

IMHO, heroin and his manpulative wife accellerated his demise. Courtney Love may not have pushed him over the edge, but she certainly took him to it. I don’t know whether his meteoric fame was also a contributing factor.

He’d be turning in his grave if he saw how Courtney Love has single handidly destroyed the individual (anti-corporation) persona his message vehemently upheld. Can anyone say “car commercial?”

I’m not to impressed with curt cobain. His guitar was simple and weak and his lyrics didn’t make sense! Sure, nirvana had some decent toe tapping songs but they are in no way the band, or musical genious, that everyone says they are. That’s just my opinion.

I take issue with the idea that insanity and creative genius are closely linked. I think it’s too cliche. Sure, there’ve been some real whack jobs throughout history that have been relatively creatively gifted. However, there have been far more creative people that were psychologically healthy. Now mental instability has become almost a pre-requisite in some circles such that if you’re crazy, you must be a genius (think: Daniel Johnston). It reminds me of an artist I once knew who was just smart enough to know that he might never be taken seriously as a sane artist, so he marketed himself as crazy. He frequently spoke of conspiracies, aliens (the Martian kind, not the Mexican kind) and demons to mask the fact that his art was mediocre.

he was barely even average! Nirvana sucked! Oops did I say that…...

I don’t have much knowledge on mr. Cobain, but I can say that any sort of artistic expression requires some degree of ‘insanity’.
Even if one looks from a strictly musical stance, I cannot think of any truly great artist that does not seen a bit ‘off’...

Ludwig von Beethoven, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussey, Billy Joel, Elton John, Modeste Mussorgsky, Prince… The liszt goes on (excuse the pun, LOL)

Often times, one can find evidence where their contemporaries even comment on the person’s eccentricities.

I don’t know if being crazy makes you a creavtive genius, but I do solidly believe that you cannot be a creative genius without being a little crazy.

@RAMesesll—The same could probably be said of anyone.

i’ve seen plenty of artists claim that the drugs are what inspired the greatest works of all time, while others say they are fighting to get clean because it holds them back.

it’s all a matter of how they gain their inspiration? personally, i’d be more amazed by the guy that didn’t need the drugs to write his music, rather than having another wannabe cobain waltzing around with a guitar.