Pretension vs. Discretion

There are some people who like everything, as long as it's popular culture. Every movie, television show, band, whatever. As long as it's presented to them, they swallow it whole. One thing I really notice whenever you get into a discussion with these people is that they seem to think that, by not liking every new dance movie or dramatic series about renegade cops/doctors/crime scene investigators, you're being picky or, even worse, Pretentious.

I think the problem a lot of these people have is they confuse pretension with another, somewhat similar word: discretion. This is an important distinction, but it's also a difficult one to make. The former is choosing whether to like something based on how important it makes you seem; the latter is choosing whether to like something based on whether or not it is any good.

Some examples will likely aid in this process:

Pretension: Not liking something because it's popular, or liking an artist until they become popular.

Discretion: Not liking something because it's popular and you're aware that most of what's popular is awful.

Neither: Liking something because it is being marketed to you/ you like the pretty sounds/images attached to the idea of it.

Pretension: Listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Discretion: Listening to Death Cab for Cutie

Neither: Listening to Billy Talent

Pretension: Reading reviews before you decide whether you like something.

Discretion: Reading reviews before you decide whether a band/movie/show is worth checking out.

Neither: Reading reviews and dismissing them immediately because the author is clearly a fool for not having liked P.S. I Love You.

The last example brings me to the somewhat controversial subject of critics. While I don't generally trust one critic, critical consensus is a pretty good measure. The website Rotten Tomatoes is great for this. For example, it gave Transformers 57% (And Transformers 2 a 19%) and it gave Up 97%. Certainly, it is an inexact science and it does not account for taste (I know some people who thought Transformers was an 80%. Personally, I would've given Transformers approximately 0.5%. But nobody thought Transformers 2 was good.) Overall, it's a pretty good way to decide which movies are worth consideration, and which are definitely not.

I know it may seem like a pretty minute part of our daily lives and my concern over this may seem overblown. But it isn't.

The second we stop saying "this is good entertainment and this is bad entertainment" or "I'm going to exert my time watching this, but not watching that" is the second bad entertainment rules every facet of our lives--simply because bad entertainment is easier and cheaper to make. When we stop seeking out bands whose music has genuine feeling, those bands stop making that music. When we stop demanding more out of our movies, our movies cease to demand anything from us. It all becomes meaningless, vacuous entertainment.

So if you want a world where shows like Two and Half Men and According to Jim rule the television and Nickelback and Black Eyed Peas rule the airway, then fine. But I, for one, am going to ask for more from my entertainment providers.

Who is Dave Coulier (AKA Joey Gladstone)?

Someone told me a couple of days ago that the album Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette was mostly written about Dave Coulier, better known as Uncle Joey from Full House. It blew my mind just a little bit.

At first, I was amazed at someone so seemingly uninteresting and extremely unfunny could have such a remarkable impact on popular culture. He was on a TV show that's finale was viewed by 25% of TV watchers in America and he was the subject of the second-best selling album of the 1990s (the best-selling was Shania Twain's The Woman in Me).

But then I thought... maybe Dave Coulier isn't so bland. I mean, if he was even partially responsible for turning her from this: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ar7afdfBHj4
into this: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnbc64XQ1DI(and both him and Alanis have at least hinted that the latter song was about him), it's impossible that he is who we all think he is.

Some songs on Jagged Little Pill seem to describe the clean, unfunny Coulier of our childhood--for example, Head Over Feet ("I've never felt this healthy before//I've never wanted something rational") and All I Really Want ("Why are you so petrified of silence//Here can you handle this... did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines or when you think you're gonna die//or did you long for the next distraction").

But others, the obvious being You Outta Know but also, Wake Up (A more obscure track that features the lyrics, "There's an apprehensive, naked little trembling boy with his head in his hands") hint that Mr. Coulier was profoundly fucked up, or at least, in the context of his relationship with Alanis. The latter song is the one I find the most fascinating on that album, with respect to its new Coulieriness (Coo-lee-ey-ee-niss).

I suspect Wake Up wasn't as popular because of its specificity: The first line is "You like the snow but only if its warm." But, assuming it is, in fact, about Coulier (and the fact that it's so specific makes me think it is), it paints a pretty vivid portrait of a man who consistently takes the path of least resistance. Suddenly, I had Dave Coulier completely figured out.

If you want to be a comic, what is that path of least resistance? Family-friendly, "clean" comedy. If you're trying to make people laugh, what is the easiest way to do so? Impressions of already established characters like Elmer Fudd and ET. Even You Outta Know fits with this line of thinking: he left Alanis Morissette because she was... too fucked up. He went with somebody older, more mature. She thought he was going to save her--and maybe he did too, before he realized that it would be easier not to. That's why she resented him so much, and that's why I think Dave Coulier is the perfect metaphor for America.

To be continued...

Pop Culture

For the longest time, I was trying to think of what I would write a book on if I had the chance. This was at a point where I considered the whole "writing" thing to have been a relative mistake and I needed to do something I cared about to reconnect me to the concept of wanting to be a professional writer. As I thought and thought, the only idea I could come up with is '90s Pop Culture(If you haven't noticed, I've made a stylistic decision to capitalize Pop Culture. That, in and of itself, is something you should think about a great deal)--specifically, '90s pop music.

Why the '90s? Why pop music? Well, two things: The first of which is that I recently realized that I remember more about some shitty song by the band VIP than I do most of (what I should probably consider) my best time with (who I should probably consider) my best friends. In a weird way, I care more about pop music than I do my own life.

Another thing I realized about the 1990s is that, in a very real way, it changed everything. Somehow, music seems noticeably less authentic. Some would blame that on me getting older and being more tainted because of it; I blame it, indirectly, on Milli Vanilli (and, of course, Milli Vanilli would undoubtedly blame it on some weather phenomenon). I think it speaks volumes that Milli Vanilli won the Best New Artist award in 1990.

This will be the first in a series of posts about '90s pop music and, if I feel like it, Pop Culture in general.