Several people have asked me to share my thoughts on the recent performances at the MTV music awards. I have seven of them.
- Neither liked nor cared about Billy Ray Cyrus.
- Neither like nor care about his daughter.
- Michael Jackson’s televised moonwalk marked the beginning of the overt negrification of American pop culture.
- Madonna’s rolling around on stage in a wedding dress marked the beginning of the overt sexualization of American pop culture.
- Whatever it was that Miss Cyrus was doing the other night marks the moment at which those two forces, negrification and sexualization, combined to complete the enwiggification of American pop culture.
- Umberto Eco was correct in Apocalypse Postponed when he pointed out that “pop culture” is an oxymoron. There is nothing cultural or civilized about pop; it is intrinsically anti-culture.
- Demographics is destiny. Don’t expect the plumbing to long outlive the melodies.
“When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them.”
– Plato, Republic