for the most part, awards shows today look like a big circlejerk of pop stars patting each other on the back to me so i just avoid them. i get my fill of newer/local music through public radio here (89.3). i get exposed to pop radio on long ass car drives, flipping through radio stations to stave off boredom. i'm not really up on new tv shows. if i watch tv, it's netflix. these and the real housewives of ____ people are turning me into the "get off my lawn" type faster than anything... from a cursory glance they just seem like the worst. celebrities for nothing, i mean at least some singers still have to perform with their own real vocal cords to get famous. not bands of leather-faced drama queens.
i am vaguely aware of youth culture because i currently live with a 13 year-old. although, my brother was raised in an environment where either everyone was at least a decade older than him or was another kid with much older siblings, so his current interests aren't always relevant to his age group. for example, he listens to blink-182 and reel big fish, while his best friend (i'm continuing to pretend she is not his girlfriend, because he is 15 years younger than me) listens almost exclusively to panic at the disco and fallout boy. from what i understand, these are not bands that kids these days are listening to. i'm only 27, so i'm not going to pretend i am so very far removed from current pop culture. with that said, this thread prompted me to look at a few clips of last night's awards, and it made me feel the way i do when i watch movies i was obsessed with when i was a kid. no matter how nostalgic i get for what once was, the whole thing feels hackney and cheap. even jim carrey, who nails mtv movie awards speeches, could not make me feel ok about what i saw. on the other hand, it made me kind of glad that i am no longer mtvs demographic. i almost feel like an actual adult.
hes the most talented potato i've ever seen then. if there is someone from this crop of mtv-approved artists who deserve fame, its him, dude is massively talented. one of the best live shows you'll ever see, just him, a guitar, and a ridiculous array of looping pedals, and he got "discovered" by jamie foxx at an open mic where it was basically like "fuck man, you're too talented for this shit, come stay at my house and use my studio" after he'd played like 300 shows that year, couch surfing the entire time. and he's had all this success in vapid ass mainstream music...while looking like a ginger muppet. play on playa.
i love his song "don't", which is supposedly about ellie goulding--whore! just kidding, all i know is what he sings about her really. um, she's another singer for those of you not in the know. but the one thing i notice about him is that he is rarely in his own videos. of course, i've only based this off two--don't and sing (he's in it a little). but that seems like a decent sample size.
and people complain about the 80's? as an 80's child i am damn glad to be one and not a youth of today. no cell phones, no ipads, when you wanted to know something you had to actually touch paper and search for it, making things such as knowing the alphabet, where to find spain on a map and knowing how to tell time on an analog clock a necessity rather than the harder option. i watched a clip that included miley’s tears, jlo in the row behind her “former” mantoy, he turned to give her some skittles and she eyeballed him like a true cougar does its prey. throw the wardrobe malfunction into the mix and that’s entertainment kids!
if a young girl's vagina had a voice, it would sound like ellie goulding. i've found that the two artists i've enjoyed the past few months have been macklemore (don't judge me) and lorde. they also tend to not fall into the bullshit traps of pop music. for example, the songs i like from those two i can hear and tell you exactly what they are saying and why. what the fuck is katy perry even singing about now? outer space tits? i'm not denying she is the most talented kd lang look-alike ever, but have a message and these days, it needs to be a more concrete message than "diamonds, bitch" or a spaced-out "live your dreams, kids". my main complaint is that pop music is necessary, but over-produced and it's so driven by marketing that it doesn't have anything to say.
i'm 5'3". i don't feel particularly small? i guess? my brothers are tall tho. and so is the husband. and my kids are all taller than me except the little one and he should be by next summer. i mean. i have a big personality. i'm not small. i'm fun sized. also i missed the vmas but...i did see jlo and goddayum. there's no mesh paneling there. there's nothing holding that in place except her. that's a 45 year old woman. goddaaayyyuuumm.
i somewhat unintentionally keep up with pop music because my gym plays juice tv (pop music channel) and the same five songs will stay on constant rotation for a few weeks before being replaced by whatever the next thing is. i also keep up with what lorde is doing because every time a new zealander gets famous overseas it immediately constitutes 90% of media coverage and is impossible to avoid. she's clearly not rock though.. for a while i only knew justin bieber was a thing because he was the favored internet whipping boy for some time, but 18 months after 'baby' came out i finally heard it the whole way through because i was standing in some london clothing shop waiting for my gf and it came on. seriously, the song isn't that bad other than the really awkward 'rap' in the middle. otherwise it sounded no better or worse than any other pop song, i couldn't see what all the fuss was about. as a side note, this forum has been great for making me feel young as a 28yo. cheers to all you old timers!
i keep up with popular music to an extent through going to the gym and listening to the radio when driving. however, i don't really think knowing who arianna grande and iggy azalea's are after their songs go to no.1 on the charts really makes me "up to date". i think the conversation in this thread shows that most of us still view pop-culture the way we did when we were young. we still all think that knowing about pop culture means knowing about who is at the top of the music charts or who ryan gosling and zac effron are. that's how our generations conceived popular culture, but for pre-teens and teenagers today a lot of what drives popular culture is through direct mediums like youtube, twitter, vines, instagram etc. if you ask a teenage girl now who their favourite celebrity is they're as likely to answer ryan higa, pewdiepie, smosh or the janoskians (all youtube personalities) as they are ryan gosling. actually, they'll probably answer other youtube/instagram personalities i've never heard of. it's a whole different world and a whole different level of celebrity that i don't pretend to understand. then they'll talk to you about being in a "fandom" for these internet celebrities and all the direct and personal interaction they have with them. that's when it starts to get really weird and scary.
anyone else think it is weird that these old (relative to the teenagers) celebrities market themselves to teenagers? i guess it has been that way for a while. it just feels sort of weird for j-lo to show up in a dress like that to get young eyes to ogle her.
my boner doesn't think it's weird. she's in better shape than she was 15 years ago, most young guys probably don't even realize how old she is.
i usually don't watch the award shows and catch the highlights from twitter. honestly, the vines/gifs give me all the info i need. and to throw shade at beyoncé, girl is so fake. the point of the tweet with jay-z and bringing blue ivy on stage was to dispel rumours of her and jay-z having marital problems. her pr team has to protect her and jay-z's image of being a united front, the inseparable royal couple in music, especially in midst of the on the run tour. everything she does is calculated. i understand most, if not all, pop icons are manufactured and tightly controlled but why does she get worshipped for being "raw" and "real".
i am a pop culture retard. i have absolutely no idea as to who anyone is, why they're famous, or why i should care. i remember asking my wife a couple years ago 'what's a snoopi?' she looks at me and says 'snooki?" i have not improved my knowledge in the intervening years. i just don't care. if something is good, it'll stick around a bit, and i'll eventually catch up to it. like electricity.
you'd think cranky old coots would have enough experience to avoid being trolled... the last year or two, i've basically ignored pop culture. fuck it, i don't care. the next live music event i'm going to, i'm excited about seeing incubus, soundgarden, faith no more, ministry, fear factory, slipknot and marilyn manson. i'm entirely comfortable with the fact that i'm turning into a music dinosaur. i went out dancing at a friend's gig on friday. at the venue, they have a tradition where they have a singalong to bohemian rhapsody at midnight. i think about 5 of us on the dance floor actually remembered anything that happened the year freddy mercury died. and only 3 of us were actually old enough to be queen fans then.
i've seen and dealt with things the average 26 year old who just got off mommy and daddy's teat haven't had to deal with. so yeah, going back to school to deal with 18-20 year olds after all that makes me feel old.
i haven't watched mtv in years and stopped watching music award shows years ago too. i have no idea who 3/4 of the people are. i've often wished mtv would do a "classic" channel like vh1 did, vh1 classic still playing a good deal of music or music programming. but then again we'd probably end up with "classic" episodes of real world" 12 hours a day, so never mind.