There has been, in the recent century or so, a persistent pattern which our

elders have continuously condemned and our youngsters have purportedly carried
on. That is a certain type of rebellion: rebellion for the sake of rebellion.
It is a sad fact of society that the super-unpopular pop icon Rebecca Black is
famous for being famous. Although I imagine it to be the case, I am not aware of
any conclusive evidence on either side of the debate or of her public figure
admitting whether she secretly expected that her song Friday which has gone
viral on Youtube, would become infamous for having vocals so unmelodious that it
would instantly arouse thundering contempt from typical teemagers of today who
cannot stand such disgusting blasphemy, in the words of actor and screenwriter
Matt Holland.
This is not the first time such an event has occurred, as we may recall the
premiere of Stravinskys Rite of Spring, in which angry audience members
thrashed the stage and attacked their performers, or John Cages 4:33, during
whose rendition the crowd laughed aloud at the pianists silent composition. I am
not criticizing contemporary music (as it has its very own respectable merits of
breaking down the barriers of expired dogma and discovering different styles in
effective forms of intentional expression), but sometimes I think people ought to
respect the limit to counterculture. This is not a question of optimally balancing the
equilibrium scale between conservatism versus liberalism. This is an issue of tiring,
boring garbage snatching the throne of novel, shiny treasure.
Many celebrities have once acted and continue to act profoundly
controversial and outrageously obtuse for the sole purpose of attention-whoring
(perhaps they have even moulded their real personalities into these absurdly
comical characters with sufficient practice). Naked screaming in a shopping mall
while drunk is nothing new, nor is it cool. Yet still, anything counter-traditional is
instantly embraced by the next generation as our children revolt against every rule
weve drilled into them.
And what does the pop industry do, as a consequence of our loss? It
capitalizes upon this niche opportunity to maximize business revenue.
Where have gone our valuable lesson of the past? We have lost all
meaningful structure from the sensibility of our learned ages. Beethovens
revolutionary contribution to the arts stands out as a masterpiece of humanity
because music from the Romantic era accentuates the heightened fantasies of
passion, anger, hatred, jealousy, nostalgia, and strangeness of heart.
What do the new celebrities? Nothing much, in my biased opinion.