just remember, death is not the end


last month we learned, kurt cobain has taken over elvis as the top earning dead celebrity. in 2006, cobain earned some $50 million, in large part to courtney's selling of nirvana's song catalog to a publishing company.

"smells like teen spirit" is sure to be seen in a tv commercial soon.

a year ago, some researchers actually suggested that it is possible, from an economic perspective, that a celebrity's suicide may be a net benefit for society. sales of their work may increase after death and the merchandise associated with the artist may be elevated to "iconic reification."

my nirvana shirt is nicely followed, sitting in plastic wrap, in my drawer, never to be worn.

the argument goes that like any pop star, their fame is short lived and typically peak early in their career. from that point on, their productivity tends to lag behind earlier works affecting the legacy of their earlier work. cobain's suicide avoided that trap as "nevermind" amongst today's music critics is elevated to something of a masterpiece and the most important release in the 1990s. soon after his death, nirvana's record sales jumped and since then, the record company has released several post-nirvana albums (unplugged, live, rarity records) which all went on to do fairly well.

the most curious thing about the study is that gains are not only measured in dollars & record sales, but a sociobiological effect, in which those unable to deal with society and its trapping, typically make low economic contributions, tend to emulate the likes of cobain.

so for the good of record company's balance sheets, guaranteeing a long-term career, and for the good of society: beyonce, justin timberlake, nelly furtado, gwen steffani, nickelback, james blunt, and fallout boys just need to kill themselves.

it's science. can't compete with science!


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