American Wasteland

I was channel surfing the other night and stumbled across the forbidden channel; Fox. Not for any puritanical reasons is it forbidden, but because every brilliant show they produce gets cancelled for more reality tv knockoffs. After King of the Hill got cancelled I decidedI really didn't need to see anything on Fox anymore. Anyway, Fox caught my eye, and it was American Idol that was on. It's a show I'm familiar enough with, but have absolutely no feelings towards. All in all I'm pretty ambivalent to entertainment I might find offensive. I mean, I don't have to watch it, do I?

Normally I would have skipped right on by, but I recognized the song that they were practising and wanted to see what happened to it. I was awestruck; after some generic reality TV confessionals of childhood dreams and inspirations, I was rewarded with a full blown, balls-to-the-wall suckass rendition of Not Fade Away by Buddy Holly, all under the watchful eye of Barry Manilow. Stephen Hawkings voice box would have done the job just as well. Hitting all the right words but missing the emotion completely.

I thought I was immune to it, this great race to mediocrity in pop culture. In a society where a song about cocaine addiction is used to sell family vacations, Jimmy Page sells his soul to P. Diddy for a spot on the Godzilla soundtrack, and Roger Daltry of the Who(The WHO, GODAMMIT!) shills time life record collections on cheesy half hour infomercials. I mean, after that, what more could happen, right? Wrong. The sight of prime time TV sucking the life out a truly great song(and musician) bothered me more than I thought it would after all the heresies that came before.

And so, for all you stuid Gen-X, hipster losers out there: Stop it! Enough with the ironic patronizing of crap media. Do what you love, read what you love, listen to what you love, and watch what you love. Don't sponsor these crap shows just so you can fell superior because no one else 'gets it' the way you do, your only adding to the problem.

Remember, the beast doesn't care if you love it, only that you keep feeding it.