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Kurt Cobain, Versatile Front-Man

This collection of Guitar Hero 5 footage is... I don't know, a little messed-up?

Giant Bomb User of the Minute skrutop posted this video of Guitar Hero 5 on the boards this morning. It's a bunch of footage of Virtual Kurt Cobain doing a bunch of stuff that Real Kurt Cobain would have probably needed two shotguns to cope with. 
 

   
 
On one level, this is kind of hilarious, and it's definitely a testament to the graphical quality of Guitar Hero 5 that seeing V-Cobain sing a Bon Jovi song, or seeing him make rap poses while mouthing Flavor Flav's words seems so absolutely wrong on so many different levels.

I suppose a lot of this has to do with me being "of a certain age," such that I distinctly remember the whens and wheres of Cobain's suicide. While I never worshipped the dude like some of my peers did, you could certainly elevate him to some kind of "voice of a generation" status. And it's the near-mythic legacy he left behind and the way the Nirvana catalog has been protected from commercial interests over the years that makes this stuff so harsh. Blame Courtney Love, I suppose, for not continuing to protect that legacy. His appearance in the game seems fine, but perhaps the business deal should have prevented Neversoft from using that model in anything other than Nirvana's tracks? Or, in lieu of the license holders not caring enough about Cobain's likeness to place meaningful restrictions on its use, maybe the developers should have shown a little restraint? I wonder if there was even any discussion on this topic during the game's development...

I don't know. Like I said, it doesn't really bother me, and I'm certainly not outraged or anything, but it definitely struck me as completely crazy. Way crazier than all the other dead musicians who have appeared (or will be appearing) in music games. Three Kurt Cobains with invisible instruments, performing a Megadeth song! What? Too soon?
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ThePsychoGamer

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Edited By ThePsychoGamer

A true F you to Kurt Cobain's legacy

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

how weird...

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Mourne

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Edited By Mourne

Wow. Glad to see Neversoft's sticking to that UI that was outdated even four years ago.

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copycatzen

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Edited By copycatzen

I wish any Bush song was in Rock Band 
Anyway Fuck you Guitar Hero even with Comedown I am not spending any money on stupid game
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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

That's what he gets for committing suicide. 
 
I liked Nirvana back in the day, when I dumb and naive.  Incesticide is still a good album, but let's face it:  the only good thing Nirvana ever did for us was kill the careers of people like Debbie Gibson, Paula Abdul, New Kids on the Block, and Poison.

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Amatsu

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Edited By Amatsu
@WEGGLES:  
 
I have to admit Weggles... I'm curious as to what her reaction will be, if you do show her:p 
 
Now that that's out of the way, on to the general comment! 
 
Kurt Cobain or not, musician or not, icon or not, it just seems really distasteful all around. 
 
I guess some people want to preserve their memory of something, maybe for selfish reasons (but we all tend to do that in some way) or as part of a greater whole.  This is the dev equivalent of someone taking that which you treasure most and just taking a huge shit they've been saving up for days all over it while you were out saving kittens and old ladies.
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deactivated-5833500e27d17

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@Warchief: lol
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megalowho

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Edited By megalowho

I wish if they went this route, they took it all the way. Put Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, all sorts of dead legends and thoroughly disgrace their names by making them sing Blink 182 and Van Halen songs.

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djstyles92

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Edited By djstyles92
@CrazedJoker said:
" Guitar Hero is harder than Rock Band, and Rock Band just doesn't look nice.  "
yea I agree, I like my hands to hurt after playing a plastic guitar, and rock band looks terrible right??...
/sarcasm
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GreggD

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Edited By GreggD
@Intercryllic:@creamypies: Yeah, seriously.
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Earthborn

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Edited By Earthborn

I want Beethoven singing "(I Believe In) A Thing Called Love" by The Darkness.

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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop
@CorporalGregg said:

" @skrutop said:

" @CorporalGregg said:
" Sweet, a video I threw together got linked to on giantbomb and now rollingstone.com This is hilarious to me. "
I saw that it showed up on Kotaku yesterday as well. "
Everyone's giving you credit for it :( Oh well. "
Yeah, I think that's really unfair.  You did all the work, I just linked it.
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warchief

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Edited By warchief

Fuck you Guitar Hero and FUCK YOU Courtney.

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Neon941

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Edited By Neon941

I'm not horribly offended, but it does make you feel pretty uncomfortable. I really don't think Kurt Cobain himself would appreciate his likeness being used in the first place and now it kind of seems to be one of the selling points of this game. Along with avatars in the game and the whole Guitar Hero Van Halen deal it kind of smacks of desperation on Neversoft's part. In other words, not cool guys, show a little more respect for the dead.
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Scarabus

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Edited By Scarabus

A little messed up.. but we all know Cobain had it coming.

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Sestren

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Edited By Sestren

Hahahaha...that's pretty funny. I mean, come on. He was just a man who took things way too seriously. And there's no reason to not be light-hearted about stuff. Everyone seems perfectly ok with mocking God or Jesus in today's society, so what's there to be offended about here when nothing is sacred? 
 
Cobain himself would probably not like it, but he was too dire about everything anyway. This is of so little consequence to life that I am bemused to see it getting attention beyond a couple laughs.
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floodiastus

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Edited By floodiastus
@addictedtopinescent said:
" I just tought about this when watching that a second time  If they ever put Bob Marley in one of those games, I commit suicide "
Agree, bob marley sucks ^_^
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corporalgregg

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Edited By corporalgregg
@skrutop said:
" @CorporalGregg said:
" Sweet, a video I threw together got linked to on giantbomb and now rollingstone.com This is hilarious to me. "
I saw that it showed up on Kotaku yesterday as well. "

Everyone's giving you credit for it :( Oh well.
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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop
@CorporalGregg said:
" Sweet, a video I threw together got linked to on giantbomb and now rollingstone.com This is hilarious to me. "
I saw that it showed up on Kotaku yesterday as well.
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Andborn

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Edited By Andborn

For fuck sake I felt nauseous watching this, and I'm not even that big of a Nirvana fan.
 
 No sir, I don't like it. 

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dancingphlower

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Edited By dancingphlower
@Bwast said:
" @MrKlorox said:
" Neversoft is a joke. Fuck that studio and it's entire non-musician workforce. "
Yeah! Fuck Bungie too! None of them are space marines! Damn crooks. "
LOL
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mattysen

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Edited By mattysen
@RoyaleWifCheese said:
" How about some respect, if not for Kurt Cobain's legacy, for the dead? I'm not a megafan of Nirvana, but Christ, this is about the most tasteless thing I've seen all day. This almost guarantees that I won't be buying anymore Guitar Hero products. This sure as hell ain't my idea of immortalization. "
This has given me an idea...PUT JESUS CHRIST IN THE GAME!!!



I Supose He Is A Drummer Then?
I Supose He Is A Drummer Then?
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Nettacki

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Edited By Nettacki
@CorporalGregg: awesome, you're here!
 
cool vids man!
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mlmasters

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Edited By mlmasters
@MrKlorox said:
"@Bwast said:

" @MrKlorox said:

" Neversoft is a joke. Fuck that studio and it's entire non-musician workforce. "

Yeah! Fuck Bungie too! None of them are space marines! Damn crooks. "
Yes... because that's entirely possible. Harmonix are musicians and you can tell by the way they make their games. Neversoft are IP/license perpetuators, nothing more. "

@MrKlorox:  
"Yes... because that's entirely possible " - LOL. =P
 
I'm not lighting torches and getting pitchforks ready but this video makes the developer look TACKYYYYYYYYY....
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mlmasters

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Edited By mlmasters
@catpowerd:

I second that!
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corporalgregg

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Edited By corporalgregg

Sweet, a video I threw together got linked to on giantbomb and now rollingstone.com This is hilarious to me.
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wolf_blitzer85

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Edited By wolf_blitzer85
@AvD: I see your point. The series in general is just becoming a complete mess. It should be taken out back and shot before any more problems arise.
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catpowerd

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Edited By catpowerd
@skrutop said:
" @SpiritOf said:
" Do we have a term for when a video game franchise "jumps the shark"? "
"Pulls a Sonic?" "
Holy crap that's PERFECT!
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jeffgoldblum

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Edited By jeffgoldblum

Miis look really fucking weird in this game.

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Figglesworth

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Edited By Figglesworth

Pretty ghoulish.  Whomever is responsible for putting this in the game should be hit over the head with a flaming guitar.

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Curufinwe

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Edited By Curufinwe

Nice that the "Must be rolling in his grave" line applies  literally for once.

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Hemlock

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Edited By Hemlock

This is a fucking travesty.

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Spiritof

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Edited By Spiritof
@skrutop said:

" @SpiritOf said:

" Do we have a term for when a video game franchise "jumps the shark"? "
"Pulls a Sonic?" "
I was seriously trying to think of a franchise that pulled something so heinous in one of its sequels that you could call it "jumping the shark". What did Sonic actually do to "jump the shark"? What was the virtual straw that broke the virtual camel's back?
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woocifer

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Edited By woocifer

Meh he's just a dude... his music was simple and so was he. He wasn't an icon, the fact people needed an icon that bad at the time they MADE him the icon.

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deactivated-5ffc9b0923f9f

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Kinda weird.

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addictedtopinescent

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I just tought about this when watching that a second time  
If they ever put Bob Marley in one of those games, I commit suicide

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TheRealDJ

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Edited By TheRealDJ
@jonnyboy said:
" Yeah I'm a Nirvana fan, and yes as funny as it is, it's in fairly poor taste, but my question is why has no-one mentioned John Lennon yet? He would have fucking despised being a video game. I fully aware he is singing his own songs but I can guarantee he would never signed his likeness away that quickly after years of shitty, poorly advised Beatles merchandise. "
Well atleast the use of John Lennon is being respectful to not only each song, the meaning behind it, but also the time in which it was made by the beatles
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AngryKraut

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Edited By AngryKraut

I'm not outraged either...but fuck. Kurt is a legend, and he deserves a higher level of respect than what is given here. I wont be buying GH 5 now...that's for sure.

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animateria

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Edited By animateria

20 years too early! 

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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop
@SpiritOf said:
" Do we have a term for when a video game franchise "jumps the shark"? "
"Pulls a Sonic?"
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JohnDudebro

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Edited By JohnDudebro

I've currently got Kurt Cobain playing bass in my GH5 band. He was singer for a while, but seeing Kurt move that much was freaking me out, so I put Matt Bellamy in front again. 
 
Game's awesome, though. Best GH yet.

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox
@Bwast said:

" @MrKlorox said:

" Neversoft is a joke. Fuck that studio and it's entire non-musician workforce. "

Yeah! Fuck Bungie too! None of them are space marines! Damn crooks. "
Yes... because that's entirely possible. Harmonix are musicians and you can tell by the way they make their games. Neversoft are IP/license perpetuators, nothing more.
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Claude

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Edited By Claude

If he were still alive, he would have signed up for this shit just to support his heroin addiction.

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BigBoss1911

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Edited By BigBoss1911

I feel bad for the person that buys this game.

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ChrisTaran

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Edited By ChrisTaran

This is seriously messed up.

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Jarlaxle

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Edited By Jarlaxle

While I'm not outraged or anything, this still feels pretty wrong.  A little disrespectul of Kurt's memory if you ask me.
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Edited By RoyaleWifCheese

How about some respect, if not for Kurt Cobain's legacy, for the dead? I'm not a megafan of Nirvana, but Christ, this is about the most tasteless thing I've seen all day. This almost guarantees that I won't be buying anymore Guitar Hero products. This sure as hell ain't my idea of immortalization.

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DeBurgo

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Edited By DeBurgo

I want to say this is mildly disrespectful but I don't really hold Cobain with the same reverence I did as a teen/tween, and I don't think most adolescents these days give a shit about him either.
 
That said this clip doesn't do much to counteract my opinion that neversoft and activision are pretty tasteless outfits.

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Spiritof

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Edited By Spiritof

Do we have a term for when a video game franchise "jumps the shark"?