Gone but not forgotten... memorial to
Kurt Cobain on the 10th anniversary of his
death. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Apparently, if Nirvana had never existed, all bands today would sound like The Darkness. That's the opinion of the NME, which this week published a poll of the top 50 rock heroes of all time, as voted by readers. Cobain was judged the biggest hero, which prompted the paper to gush about his heroic qualities. The paper often mines a rich vein of hyperbole - it once claimed, in all seriousness, that Noel Gallagher was the most important person in Britain - but its claims on the Nirvana leader's behalf would have embarrassed even him.
Yes, Cobain's influence on American rock was considerable, and without his photogenic presence, it's hard to imagine that Seattle would have been the epicentre of rock it was for a moment in the early 90s. And with 1992's Nevermind, he ensured that Nirvana's music would figure prominently in all future best-album polls. But in Britain, his time at the top was so brief that once the Nirvana whirlwind had passed, it turned out he hadn't left much of an imprint at all. Except, that is, on the NME, which thinks that the Darkness's mook-rock would be the prevailing sound, because Britpop, garage, grime and lo-fi experimentalism simply wouldn't have happened without him.
But why did the NME's young readers, many of whom were at primary school when he died, vote for him? Surely not because he was "a spokesperson for feminism, gay rights, tolerance and DIY independence" - any decent rock star stands up for those things.
There's a less complex explanation as to why Cobain got the nod: it's because he's become an iconic face on a T-shirt, romanticised by the kind of people who think that a Cobain or James Dean or Bob Marley shirt gives them a sexy edginess. Having left the building at 27, he'll always be a cool, remote mystery. If he were still here, living out the usual threescore and ten, he would have ended up - more likely than not - Marlon Brando rather than James Dean. Rock god or not, he was only human.
So, in the opinion of fellow Culture Vultures, who IS the biggest rock hero? If Cobain were exempted, who would it be?
