Cobain wanted to be famous but he was too immature and mentally ill to handle that fame once he got it. Any nonsense he said in interviews about not wanting fame was a lie, he was trying to maintain his cred, didn't want to be seen as a sell-out even though he was.

>>130339032
i see, because it never made sense to me that he would not want his music to be liked by many people, that's part of the joy of making music is seeing other people enjoy what you're making, that's like part of the joy of making anything. i always thought if he didn't want to be famous he should have never played live shows.
that always confused me, it didn't make sense. he had to have been lying trying to look cool.

>>130338964
He surrounded himself with lots of assholes and very stupid people, namely Sonic Youth. He tried to stay in his old neighbourhood even thought he was already far away from it in every aspect imaginable. Instead of accepting his path of glory, and climbing to the heights of musical stardom, he decided to come back to his old "friends" and remain there. He was more talented than all of them, he knew more about pop and melody than all of them, he had a better ear for catchy tunes, he could naturally pick samples of music and put them all together in his head creating something magical. None of his friends from the past could do that, and Kurt couldn't accept that those places didn't have anything more for him, they didn't have anything else to offer. If he had cut ties with all those douches , Melvins , Mudhoney, Sonic Youth and all the other shit that he insisted in hanging with, he would have saw how amazing infinite possibilities lied just ahead of him. It was just music, and he turned into his whole personality. He should have practiced sports.

>>130339059
When underground bands started going mainstream in the 90's no one wanted to be labelled a sell-out. Dave Grohl didn't give a shit, hence Foo Fighters, he was having fun with it and making bank. Bands like Green Day and the Offpring seemed to struggle with it at first but ultimately embraced it for the reasons you mentioned. Cobain was much more self-conscious about it, even though he had worked very hard to go mainstream. He was a sensitive guy and mentally unstable.

>>130338964
He always wanted to be famous, when he saw what being REALLY famous meant he tried to back out but it was already too late. It’s easy to forget how young and how fast they became the biggest thing basically since the Beatles.