Kurt's lyrics were gibberish. There was no deeper meaning to them, or even any meaning at face value. He admitted as much several times.
amazingly enough this suicidal often depressed Young man had some self-hatred. And amazingly this led to him make self-deprecating comments. Incorrect ones. If you Watch him unplugged with Nivana you will hear him making self-deprecating comments pretty regularly.
His lyrics often were excellent and they were not gibberish, though loss of meaning and inability to communicate were sometimes part of the DEEPER MEANING.
Something in the Way, for example, just a Quick dash at it, plays with Something the Harrison Beatles song. There are strong hints in the chord progression, but Cobain is now focusing on an inability even to choose a romantic object. Something is in the way. He cannot get, not only to the Life he wants, living where he is as described in the song, and like he is in general, but he can't even get to a goal. Note, the character in the song. It does not matter if Cobain actually lived under a bridge. The film evokes feelings that a lot of people his age and younger and older could identify with. A sense of inertia. Of wishing one was not causeing harm - his rationalization of why its ok to eat fish and his make pets of potential prey - and to me, there is a strong hint that he could not even in as much isolation as he or the character could create for himself, avoid potentially being a harmful person. Guilt. A lot of guilt. And feelings of hopelessness.
All played up against the Boomer Anthem that seems so obvious and a song that everyone should Think of as the way things are - loving this somehow perfect mate in Harrison's song. Cobain is saying I can't even reach that longing and feel OK about it. Of course it helps if you can consciously pick up the musical homage/retort to Something, but even without that the song , yes, deeper meaning. There is a cynicism here and a very boyish, not mean spirited one. And I don't Think anyone presented that kind of inertia, hopelessness, childlike yearning in rock Before Cobain. And that's part of why it connected with so many people. It was almost taboo to go into those Places. This was not about getting the girl or the girl left me, or I am so cool. This was about a kind of existentialist set of dilemmas, presented out of the lives of Young alienated people in the US, though people caught on elsewhere and could identify.
And of course in songs and poetry meaning can be strongly evocative, a Creation of emotional and image tied experiences.
There are plenty of other songs I could go into. He was a clever lyricist, sometimes profound, and certainly much more interesting as a lyricist that pretty much Everything on the radio today - given the limted playlists djs can now choose from. The fact that his lyrics often are about self-hatred, not finding meaning, not having a great relationship, pointlessness, shallowness and hate in certain Groups, how hard it is to communicate and make his lyrics different from a lot of pop and even most rock. That they are concerned with, describing and evoking meaningless as experiencied, does not mean they are meaningless.
It's not some weird coincidence or marketing result that so many people identified with what HE MEANT in his lyrics and that this identification was often very Deep. Adn this included a lot of very talented musicians and lyricists themselves.
He killed himself because he was a heroin addict who became severely depressed. There's no mystery here.
I'm honestly not sure where Kurt would have wound up, musically, had he lived. He spent way too much time crooning with his far less-talented wife near the end. I don't think Nirvana was long for this world in any event. There were rumors shortly afterward that he had wanted to break the band up and go solo, but I don't know if there was any truth to them. And, really, for my money (and I think history supports me on this) Dave Grohl was the most talented guy in that band anyway.
Tastes differ of course, but I doubt a survey of musicians would come Close to agreeing with you. Not that Grohl is lacking in some way. Cobain influenced more musicians and more singers and then also people in general.
He was an addict and unless that changed things were likely not going to go well, one way or Another. Especially coupled with his self-hatred and inability to, as his wife suggested after he died, simply quit since being famous and successful freaked him out so much.
I like Grohl, but his effects on rock and Culture in general, despite having had much more time to have effects, are much less than Cobain. And he is simply nowhere near as unique. He like a decent not at all lowbrow best seller writer, but not someone who is going into the Canon.