[SwellJoe]

This is a remarkably ignorant take. Literally every detail is wrong.

They aren't major chords, they're mostly power chords, which are neither major nor minor (no third and the third provides the major/minor tonality). They often function as minor chords because of the melody or other parts, or just because of how the progression fits together. They aren't unique or new with Cobain, he was part of a long history of punk and rock and roll.

Cobain was a good songwriter in the rock and roll tradition. He was not particularly innovative or doing something technically unheard of, and he wouldn't have claimed to be. He wanted to be a good songwriter, and he succeeded. That's it, don't make up bullshit about it.

[SoftTalker]

About halfway through my first reading of this piece I thought it was satire. I’m still not convinced it isn’t.

[bigstrat2003]

> Cobain was a good songwriter in the rock and roll tradition.

He wasn't even that. He was a pretty bad songwriter. His music was by and large mopey, plodding monotonous work that is dreary to listen to. Apart from Smells Like Teen Spirit, I don't think he wrote a single song worth listening to.

[zzgo]

> I don't think he wrote a single song worth listening to.

Thank you, bigstrat2003, I'm going to throw out all my Nirvana CDs based on your authoritative statement.

What, pray tell, should I be listening to instead?