Pop music is full of references to denim — from the opening lyrics of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" — "Blue jean baby" — to Flo Rida's ode to an Apple Bottoms pair in "Low."
But musicians don't just sing about jeans. They also live in them. And those garments sometimes reveal intriguing details about the people who wear them, as the new Amped: Music Icons in Levi's Denim exhibition at Levi's headquarters in San Francisco shows.
One of the exhibition's marquee items is a pair of Levi's 501s once owned by Kurt Cobain. The late Nirvana frontman's jeans set a Guinness World Record in 2023 when they sold for more than $412,750 at a Nashville auction.
Tracey Panek was there. "I was bidding on it," Levi's in-house historian and archivist told NPR. "But sadly one of my rivals got it."
The winning bidder, private collector Tom Coyne, agreed to loan the jeans to Levi's for the exhibition. Cobain wore them on many occasions during the 1990s, including on the video for "Heart-Shaped Box." They show a lot of wear. There are heavy stains, rips and patches, including a colorful psychedelic print lining the hem.
"They're just a signature grunge-looking pair of jeans," Panek said.
The pants also tell more subtle stories.
Panek points to faded, upside-down lettering on the right leg — a four-letter word beginning with F — scribbled on a patch. While the artist was famously a left-handed guitarist, Panek said the scrawl suggests Cobain was actually ambidextrous. "You can tell he was writing with his right hand while he was seated," she said.
Other pieces in the exhibition offer very different portraits of their famous owners.
The sharp creases in a pair of slim-fitting, light blue jeans once owned by Freddie Mercury say something about the Queen vocalist's fastidiousness. "I think he ironed these," Panek said.
Meanwhile a rhinestone-festooned, western-style denim pants and matching jacket worn by Beyoncé in a recent Levi's advertising campaign highlight Queen Bey's penchant as a performer for upending traditional white, male tropes. "She challenges a pool shark to a shootout," said Panek, describing one of the ads set to Beyoncé's 2024 song "Levii's Jeans." "Of course, she wins hands down, and demands that her rival give up his Levi's."
Mary Davis, a fashion historian and musicologist at Yale University, said musicians use denim in many different ways to construct identity and share messages.
"There's a way in which you can see denim being almost a blank canvas for anything that anybody wants to make it," Davis said.
Davis points to Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album Born in the U.S.A., with its songs about the struggles of the working class – and its memorable album cover. It shows Springsteen from behind in worn blue Levi's, a white T-shirt and a red baseball cap stuffed into a back pocket.
Davis said the photograph draws a potent line between denim's 19th century workwear roots and the troubadour of late twentieth century labor. "He's making a statement there," Davis said.
Songs About Jeans
A new exhibit in San Francisco about pop star denim inspired us to make a playlist featuring our favorite songs about bell bottoms, hip huggers and jean jackets.
Copyright 2025 NPR
