Yes, Miley Cyrus is allowed to play Nirvana covers

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Via Matt Yglesias, a reminder that Kurt Cobain’s catalog surving into Miley Curus’ demographic is probably a good thing for music --

Miley Cyrus was 18 months old when Cobain died and many of her fans are even younger than she is. Yet here she is playing Cobain’s song to an audience in Ecuador. That, to me, is how you take art seriously—by celebrating it, and taking joy in the idea of a growing set of people experiencing it.

Yep.

Let’s all remember that as potent and singular as Nirvana’s music is, Kurt Cobain purportedly killed himself out of his terrible mental illness and addiction, not because he couldn’t bear pop music’s philistines missing the point. His catalog is open to anyone to explore it and be moved by it, and that includes tween Ecuadorians and late-adolescent pop stars. A kid ditching her ‘Hannah Montana’ soundtracks for ‘Nevermind’ should be applauded for it, and if that kid is Miley Cyrus, then she should be applauded too.

-- August Brown