I can't help but wonder what pop culture would be like now if Uncle Andy were still alive. He was one of the major architects of what we now consider "superstardom" and "popular culture", and I can't help but think that the pop culture powers that be have lost the plot...Andy seemed to be such a huge influence on celebrity, mingling the glamour and showmanship of celebrity with the self-mocking freakshow tongue-in-cheek aspect of it all...I think the last celebrity to really "get it" during his lifetime was Madonna, and even she seems to have forgotten the camp aspect of celebrity (and back in the day, she seemed brilliant at it).
I dunno if any of this makes sense, but I think the deliciousness of pop culture is fading, at least for me, the more people move away from the entire cult of personality that Warhol helped design. Thoughts?
I dunno if any of this makes sense, but I think the deliciousness of pop culture is fading, at least for me, the more people move away from the entire cult of personality that Warhol helped design. Thoughts?
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Fri, January 2, 2004 - 8:55 PMIt's gotten creepy and more subversive and less fun. In many ways the evil Kincade is a pop artist in much the same way Andy was, but more extreme and uglier, without the irony and color. Like a bad end to a good thing. I've noticed that Alex Grey also seems to be cultivating a cult of personality, but i have met him and he is much sweeter and sincere, and much more down to Earth than what I have always imagined andy to be, but I'm only guessing, I was too young to have ever met Andy. Alex appears to be more about the art and spirituality, but there are still parties and album covers, and "ethneogens" Is it a difference n the drugs? The Music? The Scene? I often do undergrownd shows in san francisco and imagine that it is much like So Ho in the 60's that I haven't "missed" anything, that the new breed of computer assisted Psycadellica is going to be the Next Big Thing, and even if it's not, it's fun to be here now and belive that it is.
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 5:54 PMYou know he was right about the 15 minutes of fame thing. I'm guessing if Andy were still around, he would get a kick out of reality TV. I heard he worked with MTV before he died, suppose he had any influence over there on the folks who came up with the "Real World"? -
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 6:04 PMHis MTV show "Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes" (circa 1986) was one of the most educational experiences of my youth. Not only did it teach me exactly why Debbie Harry is to be worshipped. She was a frequent guest - Andy would just sit with her on stools and deadpan, "oh my god, Debbie, you're so glamorous, how do you do it?" then Deb would demure ever-so-coolly. I learned the names of all the cool East Village performance artists and club freaks from that show, and I even remember a segment all about a pudgy, hilariously pretentious, self-styled "literary prodigy" who wore way too much black eyeliner and had really big blond hair and went by the name of Courtney Love. -
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 6:29 PMBrilliant! i'm sorry I missed that. -
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 6:47 PMIn a way, pop culture is dead only because before Warhol "pop" existed but it was undefined so it was free to exist naturally and couldn't really be exploited in the same way everyone exploits it today.
Today, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use it in such a way that you'd get the same result you once did. When someone like Britney Spears goes to Vegas to get married or when Michael Jackson marries Lisa Marie Presley, yeah it grabs attention, but the impact it once wielded is long gone.
In "Popism," Warhol's book on Pop and the sixties, there's one passage where he talks about driving cross-country and -- looking at the signs and middle America -- everything felt new. -
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 6:57 PMI think the difference between Warhol-era pop culture and today's pop culture is that back in the day, people treated fame and media attention like a crazy-ass drag show; these days, people still wear the wigs, but they seem to believe their drag is more real than it really is. Britney is the perfect example of a person being worn by its persona. If there was a feeling that there's someone under her crazy-ass exterior laughing at her stunts with all the rest of us, she'd be cool. Madonna's the last major celebrity to have that quality, and even SHE seems to have lost that self-aware sense of humor and persona. -
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Re: Did Pop Culture Die Too?
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 8:53 PMyeah, it IS a shame about Maddonna, when I did my Warhol project in high school, I was either going to do a silkscreen of her OR, (and this will date me) my brother's new Reebok Pumps. I chose the sneakers, BTW. I also was a punk and chose Andy to piss a lot of people off. It worked. I just couldn't handle another fucking impressionist, or my mothers sugession: Rosetti *shudder*
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