Living in a ‘pop culture’ culture
By Matt Wilson
Student Columnist

In the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing from every news and media outlet that society has changed. The devastating tragedy that has befallen us and the subsequent wave of intense sincerity and patriotism that has engulfed the nation as a result of it has set our priorities straight. Hollywood will never make another terrible movie, music will mean something again and newscasters will be the unbiased bastions of integrity that everyone thought they were in the Walter Cronkite days.

And all this makes me wonder: is what we’re hearing true? Will our American culture change? And if it does, to what exactly?

I think the first thing that needs to be figured out is just what the American version of popular culture was prior to Sept. 11. I think, as I look back on the past few years, it has been a celebration of pop culture itself.

Think about it: in the ’60s, the prevailing ideas concerned freedom and protest; in the ’70s, excess; and well, God knows what anyone was thinking in the ’80s. But our popular culture, the pop culture of the late ’90s and early naughts, was pop culture. There were (and are) songs about music, movies about movies, and news about news.

Don’t believe me? Consider hip-hop, the musical genre of preference among teenagers and young adults, who are usually the groups who drive pop culture. Ten years ago, rap music was “from the street,” something people could relate to, something with a message (although a violent one). N.W.A. and Public Enemy had things to say about pertinent issues. Now what’s hip-hop? It’s an art form about itself. Rappers talk about themselves, their money, their record label and, as the Roots always say, “the state of hip-hop.”

Movies are exactly the same. How many movies have been made in the past five years have been about movie making? I can name at least five right now. When did the viewing public become such experts in the field of film production that movies that are total satires of Hollywood and its intricacies, like The Muse or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, could be as popular as they were? I don’t know anyone who has written a screenplay or produced a Stallone movie, so why was State and Main made?
We’re inundated with entertainment, and entertainment about entertainment. For Pete’s sake, there’s a 24-hour entertainment channel. And now, subsequently, everyone’s an expert. When Gone With the Wind came out, no one cared about the box office grosses. But now we’re all very disappointed when a good movie doesn’t break $100 million. Why? Because, just like people cared about freedom in the ’60s, we care about pop culture.

I think the most striking example of the pop culture culture can be seen on the news. Every major news story of the late ’90s, Elian Gonzalez, the Lewinsky scandal, JFK Jr.’s death, Gary Condit and others, has been, well, over-covered by the news media. But those aren’t my words. They’re the media’s. Because the media over-coverage of these stories always includes some roundtable discussion or report about the over-coverage. Sure, each media outlet blames the other media outlets for the excess, but the fact remains that the “Does the media go too far?” banner is at the bottom of the screen.
How did we get to this? Did we really have nothing better to talk about than the latest award shows, or worse yet, what celebrities wore to those award shows? Were we so self-absorbed?

But, let’s get back to my initial question: have we really changed in the wake of Sept. 11? The only thing I can say is that, so far, news coverage has been just that, coverage, and it seems that people actually do care about something again. Will we stay this way? We’ll have to wait and see. Will we have some real priorities again? Let’s hope so. And, if we will, why did it take such a horrible disaster to make us set our priorities straight?