Iam unashamedly fascinated by pop re-interpretations of history.
I can’t even think about civil rights without Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation 1814” playing in my head. The only mental image I have of Mao Zedong is Andy Warhol’s lithograph of him. When I listen to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” I sing “Because” by The Beatles.
What I love about being alive in 2014 is that we are one more level removed from the original event. Pop artists don’t reference civil rights or Mao Zedong or Beethoven anymore; they reference Janet Jackson, Andy Warhol and The Beatles.
Lana Del Rey sings about Walt Whitman, who wrote about the Civil War. Author Chuck Palahniuk modeled his writing style after William Burroughs, who wrote about social issues of the 1950s. Lady Gaga shocks like Madonna, who copied Marilyn Monroe. Yves Saint Laurent made a dress inspired by Piet Mondrian, whose paintings were directly influenced by Pablo Picasso.
I am reminded of the movie “Prometheus.” The premise of the movie is that aliens planted mankind. The main character wonders why and goes on an expedition to get an answer. The movie ends with (sorry, spoiler alert) the main character discovering that the aliens who planted humans were planted themselves by other aliens. She then sets out to find them.
In a very disjointed sense, that is how I feel about pop culture today. It’s not enough to study the alien Lady Gaga. I want to learn about her aliens: David Bowie, Sondro Botticelli and Jana Sterbak.
Pop music has a negative connotation of being shallow or inane, lacking substance and being something you have to turn your brain off to listen to. That stereotype is very unfortunate. I would go so far to argue that pop is a learning style. There are audio learners, visual learners, kinetic learners and more; I hold the belief that people can also learn through pop music. My relationship with music and art has always been educational. The only reason I know the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” is because of how often I watched Whitney Houston’s rendition at the Super Bowl in 1991. That is probably embarrassing, but in knowledge, the ends justify the means, and I can sing our national anthem just like anyone else.
I once took a class called “Values in 20th Century American Fiction.” It was very philosophical and reading intensive. I got a B in the class, but I can tell you absolutely nothing about it. Not one book I read made a lasting impact on me, but I could probably write a thesis paper on the public’s consumption of celebrity mishaps (see: Wardrobe malfunction of 2004 and the reaction it caused). Instances like that make me feel better when I’m frantically researching renaissance-era fine art because I heard someone reference Michelangelo on a top 40 countdown.
Pop is not lazy or empty, it is concentrated and methodical. It references art, history and social justice while also giving you something you can choreograph (not dance) to.
I’ve learned that you do not need a stack of textbooks in front of you or an impressive degree hanging on your wall to be considered intelligent; all you need is a mind that is curious and open to all avenues of learning.
