Popular Culture and Michael Jackson

There’s a really spot-on sociological observation today from Peter Wilby in The Guardian regarding the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death.

“To the baby-boomer generation and its successors, regardless of social class or even personal preferences, it is a sin to look down on popular culture, particularly popular music. Rather, you should express a lifelong dedication to one or more pop singers (though not Cliff Richard), as well as to a football team. You can deride Jackson only if you confess to an alternative loyalty to, say, Led Zeppelin or Radiohead, as James Delingpole did in the Times. On no account should you suggest pop music in general is unworthy of notice or attribute greater value to a Pinter [Harold Pinter, the playwright] than to a Jackson. When a Michael Jackson dies, the upmarket papers call on classy, literary writers and cultural studies academics to write commentaries, thus reassuring readers that they are still buying a paper that distinguishes them from the common herd.”

Amen to that - it’s still all - or at least, a lot - about class.