So do all my TV choices have to have artistic integrity?

[Taylor Mason Powell]

I'm just asking, because I thought I was within my rights to watch a show precisely because it's awful. I'm speaking of course, of American Idol. The hostility towards AI here reflects much more on the persons expressing it than the actual corporate pop abortion that is that show most of the time.

I have no patience with those who disdain all of pop culture as somehow beneath them. Puh-leeze. There is something profoundly anti-democratic about this attitude I'm seeing. I suspect these people feel alienated from society itself, and concomittantly find its music and its other expressions deeply threatening. They express their anxiety by angrily lashing out at the products of pop culture. Some of you quite eloquently, I hasten to add.

Corporate music still sucks. Yes, I've seen the bumper sticker. And yes, so does Clay Aiken! I know! But the show and the phenomenon is fascinating in its own right, sociologically, televisually, and yes, even musically, despite giving us some truly bad music. Ponder that paradox for a moment.

There is the occasional good performance. But I have to wonder how many of you who disdain AI watch Fox News regularly, and perhaps post on their shenanigans here. Oh, you are just seeing what the enemy is up to, eh? Uh-huh.

I don't know about you, but I think people who watch Fox News are incredibly fucking stupid.

[Dookus]

1. good for you

this "I'm too cool to watch XXXX and I'll trash anybody who does" attitude is just so tiresome.

I'm sure EVERYBODY has some entertainment taste that others disagree with. Whether you watched Friends, or like NASCAR, or soap operas, or Leno, or whatever the fuck it is - who cares? Enjoy it and let others enjoy what they want.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Hey...

if you get off on cultural slumming, that's fine...your business.

And, sadly, the majority of pop culture is pretty fucking horrible. Lowest-common-denominator, designed to appeal to the broadest possible cross-section of the populace or tailored for specific demographic targets, most pop culture is corporate garbage whose only purpose is to part people with no taste from their money or serve as a vehicle for commercial advertisements designed to do same. Occasionally something transcendent comes along, but it isn't often.

I have to admit I'm not so much an overt snob as I used to be, though. I've pretty much decided that I no longer care what other people choose for their entertainment; after all, I don't have to watch it. Or listen to it, et cetera.

And I'd slit my wrists before watching Fox News (OR listening to talk radio, for that matter); I want the news, I READ it. NYT, Guardian, IHT, Deutsche-Welle, Asahi Shimbun...gives me a rather more balanced view than I'd get using only US-based media (and FAR more detailed than I'd get from television).

[andino]

6. I'd hate to see what you would say about the Man Show...

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. As long as you know it's bad art, it's okay

Speaking for me, I'm offened by so many of these shows (and pop music, and pop art, and pop literature, etc) because they pass themselves off as art.

But if you watch it, with full knowledge that you're simply watching entertainment, then I applaud you for being able to tell the difference.

Sad part is, a huge percentage of people think Clay Aiken IS an artist, and Thomas Kinkade, and Brittney, and Beyonce, and Snoop Doggy Dog, and "Friends", and a whole host of others.

Quite honestly, William Hung has more artistry than any of these people, and he couldn't stay on note if his life depended on it. But at least he's honest.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Hell, Wesley Willis had more artistry than any of those people.

And GG Allin, too.

[Dookus]

5. Well

I saw Fantasia sing "Summertime" last night. She was great. That version was up there with any other version I've ever heard of that song.

As I said elsewhere, I watched one and a half episodes of American Idol. Last night's and half of tonight's. I'm not a real fan of the show, but I don't disparage the talent that Fantasia obviously has.

Furthermore, amateur talent shows have been an American show-business staple for a century. Ella Fitzgerald was "discovered" at an amateur talent show - at the Apollo Theater. Major Bowe's amateur hour started on radio in 1934 and ran on radio and television until 1970.

As I said upthread, EVERYBODY has entertainment tastes that we could easily disparage. But doing so is not only pointless, but mean-spirited.

[johnnie]

7. Art is in the eye of the beholder

I refrain from using the term artist in reference to anyone. In my opinion, everybody is an artist to some degree. It all depends on if the person perceiving the "art" likes it or not.