Stream of Conscience: Pop Culture Lately

Pop Culture....Oh my, what do I have to say about it. There have been a lot of things that have happened in pop culture in the last week or two that made me feel things. Things that made me angry, things that made me happy and things that made me feel a weird mixture of emotions.

It seems in the last year, pop stars are starting to realize that life is hard for the rest of us and that we can't always relate to the big-mansion, Beverly Hills lifestyle. From Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" earlier this year, to recently Lorde's "Royals" and Britney's "Work B****".

The fact that Britney's "Work B****" is finally a video! Not being a huge fan of pop music or Britney this feels like a weird thing to say. But the fact that the video and song are a typical Britney style and I still kind of enjoy it is just plain weird to me. I just really enjoy the lyrics and feel that they can be used as really good comebacks to fake people I will have to deal with one day.

Along the same lines, I really like Lorde's song "Royals". For a girl my age to be singing about wealth inequality and people actually appreciate it is truly amazing. It seemed to be one of those rare gems in pop music where an indie singer is played on pop stations and refuses to convert to the mainstream behaviour of little clothing and controversy, but then it became controversial. A raging feminist blogger wrote this article. It just made me angry. Instead of looking at this lyrical stunning song for what it was, the blogger angsted about the two barely questionable lines in the song. So Lorde hates a little on a few black rappers? Was it really a hit to the African-American race? Or was it actually a hit towards the lyrics and music videos that happen to be made/written by someone of that race? I take Lorde's lyrics as a hit towards what rap music portrays rather than the race that dominates the hip-hop genre. In one part of the article the blogger writes "Why aren’t we critiquing wealth by taking hits at golf or polo or Central Park East? Why not take to task the bankers and old-money folks who actually have a hand in perpetuating and increasing wealth inequality?" Do Jay-Z and Kanye not have a hand in increasing wealth inequality in The United States of America? On another thought, do white people not sing about wealth inequality? Look at Ke$ha or Macklemore. Their songs "Thrift shop" and "Crazy Beautiful Life" talk about being resourceful and having fun while you're young and working crappy jobs. Not to mention that black rappers and the gangster life are talked about more in today's pop culture. Whereas the polo and Central Park East culture are only talked about on the various Housewives TV series and Gossip Girl.

On a radically different note, Miley Cyrus actually made me kind of happy recently. Wait...what!? Her SNL gig a few weeks ago was stunning. She seemed, happy, confident, chill and not like she was trying to get attention for the wrong reasons but rather for the right reasons, like showing off her decent voice in a coffee house- like acoustic version of "We Can't Stop". She assured us all at the beginning of the show that there would be no twerking. Not to mention the comedy sketches on this episode were fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1Ws86HRdA  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g4P3jO04J0

On the mixed emotions side of things, Justin Bieber released a new single. It sounds like a chill, groovy, Timberlake-esque song that would be background music to some movie scene where a couple were enjoying a few glasses of wine. I like his more mature voice but I don't like the fact that he's releasing a new song on iTunes every week. *Gasps* Fangirls. Gag.

In the end, I just really hope there can be more meaningful song lyrics and less controversy in the near future cause it makes me angry and then I have to vent and it usually ends up on here.