Monday, April 7, 2008

Kids gone mainstream

My gym frequently plays music that literally makes me feel like my ears are going to start bleeding; American Idol winners will never go hungry while they're still in business. We hit a new low yesterday when I was shocked out of my Wodehouse-induced haze thinking, "What the hell is this &@#Q!%?" It was the Jonas Brothers, that whiny teen band that backs up Hannah Montana or tours with her or something of the kind. And how did I know what the Jonas Brothers sound like? Because they were on Dancing with the Stars two weeks ago. (Last week was Kylie Minogue.)

I bow to the mighty power of Disney/ABC. It's one thing to manufacture a tween star; that's been going on quietly for a long time. But when it hits the mainstream like this, it's honestly too much for me. Youth culture taking over? Or just these specific stars being marketed to hit it bigtime? I'll ponder it while tenderly bandaging my ears.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Ben Here--

Hi Heidi! I hear ya, but I think the most popular stuff has been the crappiest for about the last half century; I remember seeing a list of the #1 pop songs by year, and almost all of them were complete and utter garbage. And manufactured garbage to boot, not at all unlike Le Freres Jonas. So have faith--we're not more screwed up now, we've just always been!

(Feedback coming soon, I promise; almost done with mammoth grading spree, and both boys almost over mammoth colds.)