So this is Part 2 of my post on American Entertainment. But I had the idea for this post specifically a while ago. But now, so much time has passed, I suppose I've "lost the fury". Lost my way? Lost my fire? I don't know, something. I'm sure there's a good Shakespearean or Dickensian quote I could/should use here, but, for the life of me, I'm not educated. I don't know Greek but I know to beware the Greeks bearing gifts. Do you think that's enough?
Anyways, in Part 1 of this post I talked about American Entertainment as an industry, a product, and an export. A great product indeed, an industry worth billions. Something we can be proud of I think. Some time back, years I am sure, probably in college, I was reading some book, probably the under/over-appreciated (for me over but so many people have insulted it I don't what to believe any more), I was giving some thought to American culture in a larger context. I was disillusioned at the moment, as I'm sure others were, still are, will be, and will continue to be, over American culture and our love of celebrity. We should think the inventor of the USB is a celebrity and praise him, his genius, his knowledge, his steadfastness, and his work ethic! Not Paris Hilton and her sluttiness (I'm not slut-shaming, just making a point) or, I dunno, whoever the fuck does Talk Soup now or whatever the hell show people watch now.* I mean, honestly, I could not give a FUCK about the royal wedding (sorry, you English bastards**), the royal baby, the royal baptism, the royal pregnancy, OR the royal bowel movement, MUCH LESS Blue Valentine or whatever the hell Jigga and wifey named their kid or Kanyeezy and Kim FamousForNoGoddamnReasonDashian named theirs.
I don't like pop culture, if it wasn't obvious. To me, it's silly, stupid, and pointless. But I shouldn't condemn it, for at least two reasons. One, it's not for me. It's not. It's for the fools who do. Go for it, kids. You want to see Justin Beiber (or is it Bieber? Who gives a...) banging some midget prostitute, excuse me, lady of the night, on a big wheel while eating some falafel, be my guest. TMZ has the latest and some other douchebags have already created memes, gifs, and remixes.
As I said, it's not problem. I shouldn't get my blood pressure up over it. But it's my OCD, you see? I can't stand inefficiency, even if it has nothing to do with me. I hate seeing people wasting their time. I have to learn to get over it.
I also shouldn't condemn it because it's big money. Pop culture, while a thing, and a powerful force that, one that drives careers in contracts, would not exist without the larger arts around it. Or at least it would be significantly smaller. It would not exist without television shows (NYC), films (Hollywood), music, etc. I don't mean the fine arts, necessarily, or I guess what you would call the finer arts, classical music, paintings, less traditional, more modern, post-modern, ultra-modern, and sentient being art movements. Films and television certainly can be fine art (Breaking Bad for example or just the way Meryl Streep does everything perfectly in her movies). They just aren't Beethoven. Sorry. Kubrick came close, I imagine. It's a different way of being creative, anyway.
But the point is, pop culture comes out of these things. It makes these stars of music/movies/television shows even bigger than they otherwise would be. First comes the fame for some reason (unless you're an internet celebrity, in which case, fuck off***) then comes the obsession with the individual with the person, the star, the celebrity. It is natural, this fascination, of course. It has been around since time. These people make us feel good and, psychologically, we come to love them. We want to repay them with affection for the things they give us. But I really don't care, or even want to know, the size of Kate Winslet's last poop or that Justin Timberlake has a hangnail.
But the world is celebrity is good in that it makes the product, the package of all of this entertainment even bigger and more valuable.
I once learned (via NPR, I need to find the article/podcast/whatever) of how backwards the NBA is and how underpaid LeBron James is. He is so that more of the money paid to players can be spread around and you can have teams in places where normally the market wouldn't support it. Like Orlando, FL, or Sacramento, CA.***** But!**** But, the NBA is bigger for this reason. It reaches more markets, more people, and is this overall more valuable. So LeBron James sells more jerseys and shoes and makes up his lower salary in other ways.
It is like this with American entertainment and pop culture. Our pop culture makes our entertainment even more valuable. And that is fine. It is good.
But, to a larger part, to scale, to an multiplication, our entertainment is consumed by the entire world. Our music, our movies, our television. The popularity is a wholly separate matter. This is true for several reasons, I can only speculate, but one because we invest so heavily in it and, two, it is in English. We provide a great platform, with both of these things, for people to make, both the artists and companies. And consumers get a great product.
So, taking what I said about celebrity and our entertainment as a product, pop culture and obsession with it, with celebrities, it makes our entertainment even more valuable and we make even more money globally. And the pop culture extends in our countries, with our celebrities and their celebrities.
The end.
*I had something for this, come back to me
**I mostly love the Brits, it's just fun to play colonial wargames all over again with you cheeky fellows. Something something Harry Potter.
***If you are an internet celebrity turned real celebrity, a la John Lajoie or Childish Gambino, you're cool
****There's always a but
*****Yes, yes, yes, every team has had it's glory days
Update 1 (2013-12-20)
I gotta say, in re-reading what I've written thus, my post has not quite lived up to expectations. Whatever. I'll have someone from the Times be my editor.
Anyways, in Part 1 of this post I talked about American Entertainment as an industry, a product, and an export. A great product indeed, an industry worth billions. Something we can be proud of I think. Some time back, years I am sure, probably in college, I was reading some book, probably the under/over-appreciated (for me over but so many people have insulted it I don't what to believe any more), I was giving some thought to American culture in a larger context. I was disillusioned at the moment, as I'm sure others were, still are, will be, and will continue to be, over American culture and our love of celebrity. We should think the inventor of the USB is a celebrity and praise him, his genius, his knowledge, his steadfastness, and his work ethic! Not Paris Hilton and her sluttiness (I'm not slut-shaming, just making a point) or, I dunno, whoever the fuck does Talk Soup now or whatever the hell show people watch now.* I mean, honestly, I could not give a FUCK about the royal wedding (sorry, you English bastards**), the royal baby, the royal baptism, the royal pregnancy, OR the royal bowel movement, MUCH LESS Blue Valentine or whatever the hell Jigga and wifey named their kid or Kanyeezy and Kim FamousForNoGoddamnReasonDashian named theirs.
I don't like pop culture, if it wasn't obvious. To me, it's silly, stupid, and pointless. But I shouldn't condemn it, for at least two reasons. One, it's not for me. It's not. It's for the fools who do. Go for it, kids. You want to see Justin Beiber (or is it Bieber? Who gives a...) banging some midget prostitute, excuse me, lady of the night, on a big wheel while eating some falafel, be my guest. TMZ has the latest and some other douchebags have already created memes, gifs, and remixes.
As I said, it's not problem. I shouldn't get my blood pressure up over it. But it's my OCD, you see? I can't stand inefficiency, even if it has nothing to do with me. I hate seeing people wasting their time. I have to learn to get over it.
I also shouldn't condemn it because it's big money. Pop culture, while a thing, and a powerful force that, one that drives careers in contracts, would not exist without the larger arts around it. Or at least it would be significantly smaller. It would not exist without television shows (NYC), films (Hollywood), music, etc. I don't mean the fine arts, necessarily, or I guess what you would call the finer arts, classical music, paintings, less traditional, more modern, post-modern, ultra-modern, and sentient being art movements. Films and television certainly can be fine art (Breaking Bad for example or just the way Meryl Streep does everything perfectly in her movies). They just aren't Beethoven. Sorry. Kubrick came close, I imagine. It's a different way of being creative, anyway.
But the point is, pop culture comes out of these things. It makes these stars of music/movies/television shows even bigger than they otherwise would be. First comes the fame for some reason (unless you're an internet celebrity, in which case, fuck off***) then comes the obsession with the individual with the person, the star, the celebrity. It is natural, this fascination, of course. It has been around since time. These people make us feel good and, psychologically, we come to love them. We want to repay them with affection for the things they give us. But I really don't care, or even want to know, the size of Kate Winslet's last poop or that Justin Timberlake has a hangnail.
But the world is celebrity is good in that it makes the product, the package of all of this entertainment even bigger and more valuable.
I once learned (via NPR, I need to find the article/podcast/whatever) of how backwards the NBA is and how underpaid LeBron James is. He is so that more of the money paid to players can be spread around and you can have teams in places where normally the market wouldn't support it. Like Orlando, FL, or Sacramento, CA.***** But!**** But, the NBA is bigger for this reason. It reaches more markets, more people, and is this overall more valuable. So LeBron James sells more jerseys and shoes and makes up his lower salary in other ways.
It is like this with American entertainment and pop culture. Our pop culture makes our entertainment even more valuable. And that is fine. It is good.
But, to a larger part, to scale, to an multiplication, our entertainment is consumed by the entire world. Our music, our movies, our television. The popularity is a wholly separate matter. This is true for several reasons, I can only speculate, but one because we invest so heavily in it and, two, it is in English. We provide a great platform, with both of these things, for people to make, both the artists and companies. And consumers get a great product.
So, taking what I said about celebrity and our entertainment as a product, pop culture and obsession with it, with celebrities, it makes our entertainment even more valuable and we make even more money globally. And the pop culture extends in our countries, with our celebrities and their celebrities.
The end.
*I had something for this, come back to me
**I mostly love the Brits, it's just fun to play colonial wargames all over again with you cheeky fellows. Something something Harry Potter.
***If you are an internet celebrity turned real celebrity, a la John Lajoie or Childish Gambino, you're cool
****There's always a but
*****Yes, yes, yes, every team has had it's glory days
Update 1 (2013-12-20)
I gotta say, in re-reading what I've written thus, my post has not quite lived up to expectations. Whatever. I'll have someone from the Times be my editor.
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