About a year ago, “South Park” ran an episode in which Stan, one of the program’s protagonists, fell into a depression because he believed that everything in the world had become “crap.” New movies were crap. New music was crap. Even updated video games were crap. Indeed, all novel cultural phenomena seemed to be manufactured by ignoramuses and designed for ignoramuses.
Stan’s new attitude toward the things he used to like pushes him to see a doctor, and there he is informed that since he turned 10 years old, he has become a cynic. It is as if he emerged from a bizarro cave in Plato’s allegory, but instead of failing to describe all of the illustrious wonders that the outside world has to offer, he lacks the ability show those around him how horrible everything has become. When re-watching this episode the other day, I realized that I too once felt this way, and I began to meditate on whether today’s entertainment options really are worse than in years past.
As a hip hop-head, I believe the period from 2006-’09 was one in which most albums grew increasingly difficult to stomach. With few exceptions, Nas’ proclamation that “Hip Hop is dead” appeared valid. My pessimism was only exacerbated once Eminem, who I believe to be the greatest rapper of all time, released the subpar Relapse. Movies seemed to be growing progressively mindless and unsophisticated. I must admit, though most people reading this will not be on my side, I thought the first 30 minutes of “The Hangover” were hilarious, and the next hour was redundant, unoriginal and frankly dumb. It was as if the writers pitched the script as, “OK guys, picture Dude Where’s My Car, but with a person instead of a car, and in Vegas!”
But then I came to college, and things began to get good again. Rap had undergone a renaissance, with Eminem, B.o.B., Wale, J.Cole and Kanye West all releasing albums that mollified my anger towards the new direction of the genre. Christopher Nolan offered audiences a buffet of riveting films, including the latest “Batman” series, which left its predecessors looking rather amateur. And hell, hate him all you want, but Lebron James is as good an athlete as Michael Jordan.
In the previously mentioned episode of “South Park,” Stan is left to face the fact that the world around him is constantly in flux. But for better or for worse, it has to be. If our lives aren’t regularly freshened up, we grow bored of the toys in our possession, however golden they may be.
It is often difficult to embrace new generations of culture and entertainment, and some of the most heralded manifestations might actually suck. Personally, I despise house music and cannot fathom why people listen to it. But that parallels any era. We often view the past through lenses of nostalgia, but we lose sight of the fact that these lenses are sometimes skewed. Moreover, iconic and idolized pop sensations may even be better today than in the past. With this following statement, I may draw in an overwhelming amount of hate mail, but if I may be blunt, I fully believe that Katy Perry is a better Queen of Pop than Britney Spears had been a decade before. And if you look at it this way, it took a few years in the tabloids and an affair gone awry with a backup dancer living out of his pickup truck for us to learn Britney was not innocent, but with Katy, we learned so right away with her first hit detailing her endorsement of same-sex tonsil hockey.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that great minds still exist. Though “Saturday Night Live” is objectively worse than it ever has been, the film, music, television and arts scene is as lively and stimulating as ever. People are publishing great works of fiction and nonfiction alike. Things are not all bad. And with that, I am very glad about and appreciative of two things. One, I am not the clinical cynical asshole that I thought I might have been, and two, the world does not just suck.
On team world/Katy Perry? Let Zac know you agree at pestine@wisc.edu
