Looking back on the popular culture of the 1990s, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic. The explosion of Britpop in the United Kingdom. The battle between Blur and Oasis. Shoegaze bubbling just beneath the surface. In the States, too, mainstream music was undergoing maintenance as grunge-rockers like Nirvana found themselves climbing the charts, pushing music into new realms.
While rock music took over the airwaves, the changes occurring in the world of film were just as exciting. Independent cinema was king. Directors like David Fincher and Sofia Coppola came to the fore, creating projects that would come to define the gritty style of the decade. But perhaps the most defining filmmaker of the decade was Quentin Tarantino, who began to forge his place as a cult auteur in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs.
As mainstream music strayed further into alternative territory and film became more stylistic and more violent, it made sense that the two art forms had some overlap. In fact, two of the biggest cult names of the era collided when Nirvana extended their thanks to Tarantino in the notes for their third record, In Utero.
“Nirvana loved the film,” Tarantino said of Reservoir Dogs during a chat with Double J, “and Kurt Cobain loved the movie so much he thanked me.” Though the pair never actually met in person, Cobain was clearly so affected by the crime flick that he felt compelled to share his appreciation for the director. But how might Tarantino’s style have influenced Nirvana’s work?
Neither Tarantino nor Cobain were afraid to approach difficult topics in their artistry. In his debut, Tarantino began carving out his signature style with excessive violence and expletives, elements that Cobain would also incorporate into his songwriting. In Utero would tackle topics such as sexual assault, mental illness, and revenge, affording each topic the weight it deserved.
“Hate me, do it and do it again,” Cobain sings on ‘Rape Me’, “Waste me, rape me, my friend.” He utilises words that most artists would be tentative to place in their songs in order to shock audiences and force them to feel the impact of his words. This tendency to portray the violent world as brutally and honestly as possible while still attracting mass audiences is something Cobain shared with Tarantino.
But Cobain had honed this focus long before the release of Reservoir Dogs. The songwriter was already delving into difficult topics on Nirvana’s first two records, Bleach and Nevermind, which were released in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Cobain certainly admired Tarantino’s work and may have been further inspired by it, perhaps as a result of their shared artistic interests, but he was already working in that alternative realm.
Tarantino held a similar appreciation for the scene that Cobain worked within, noting that Reservoir Dogs “coincided” with grunge. “People had got sick of the corporatised Hollywood movies of the ‘80s and the same thing with the corporatised music of the ‘80s for music,” he explained. Nirvana never seemed to directly influence his work — their music has never appeared on one of his beloved soundtracks — but the mutual admiration certainly was there.
The 1990s were a transformative period for independent music and cinema, pushing both to their limits when it came to grit and gore, so it makes sense that Tarantino and Cobain commended one another’s efforts in this area. Decades later, they both remain cult icons of the era, emblematic of the 1990s and independent culture.
