Name: Museum Talk: Unplugging Nirvana 鈥� Kurt Cobain's Guitar and the Myth of Acousticity
Start: 2025-09-24 17:15:00
Location: Museum

Museum Talk: Unplugging Nirvana 鈥� Kurt Cobain's Guitar and the Myth of Acousticity

Dates
24 September 2025, 5:15pm

Venue
Museum

Tickets
Pay What You Can

Our Pay What You Can model allows you to choose a ticket price that works for you, from 拢2 to 拢15, with a free option to ensure our events are accessible to all audience members.

Any donation you are able to make will directly support our talented students and help us to provide a first-class educational experience for this next generation of professional musicians.

24 September 2025, 5:15pm

Venue
Museum

Tickets
Pay What You Can

Our Pay What You Can model allows you to choose a ticket price that works for you, from 拢2 to 拢15, with a free option to ensure our events are accessible to all audience members.

Any donation you are able to make will directly support our talented students and help us to provide a first-class educational experience for this next generation of professional musicians.

Steve Waksman

How is it that Kurt Cobain鈥檚 Martin D-18E guitar 鈥� the centerpiece of the Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition at the MyAV范 College of Music Museum 鈥� has become not just a valued symbol of the artist and his legacy, but the most expensive guitar sold at auction?

This lecture reflects on the guitar and its value through two interlocking vantage points.

First, it will examine the interrelationship between the acoustic and electric guitar in histories of rock, pop, and folk music, dwelling on the ways in which 'acousticity' has functioned as an index of a particular sort of authenticity that Cobain was seen to personify in his appearance on MTV Unplugged.

Second, it will discuss the emergence of the vintage guitar market and its growth in recent decades, thinking about Cobain鈥檚 cherished Martin in relation to broader considerations of what makes a guitar collectible.

Talks and seminars

New music

Museum

_home Kurt Cobain Rush hour

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MyAV范 College of Music
Prince Consort Road
London SW7 2BS

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   South Kensington: 0.5 miles
   Gloucester Road: 0.6 miles
   High Street Kensington: 0.8 miles

Paddington: 1.5 miles
Victoria: 2 miles

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