Ceca v. Britney

Someone commented that Britney Spears has a ways to go in order to catch up to Ceca who I blogged about a few days ago. That got me thinking that perhaps such "antics" aren't so far off the radar from the American pop mainstream. I'm curious to see if the active political revolutionary as pop star takes off in the U.S. In a lot of ways M.I.A. could be seen as the underground acceptance of this idea.

In many ways pop star as terrorist is the natural extension of the pop star as bad girl/boy. As a nation we deep focus in on the artists who are closest to the edge: Britney, Paris, Amy Winehouse, etc. So far the activities have been safe to those outside their immediate circle but what would happen if someone came close to the stars and started to indoctrinate them in an edgy political belief system under the guise of liberation. Would the star lose their luster, would the magazine reading, Entertainment Tonight watching public give up and stop caring about the star or would they start to obsess even further? It's an interesting question as there has yet appeared to be a ceiling on how far public interest towards stars.

Of course we can look at Patty Hearst as a model for this potential revolutionary star archetype. But the question is could a Patty Hearst happen now or are there better societal controls in place to prevent this from happening now? You'd think with the public acceptance of stars as role models for transgressive behavior we would have seen something in the past few decades.

I look at myself and I am immediately drawn to those sorts of figures and yet in my daily life I am peaceful and pacifistic in my intention by and large. Maybe the magnetic pull of this sort of thing would go away very quickly if it were to happen. Maybe the mass psyche is balanced enough that extra outbreaks like that simply are not possible. For the last sentence to make sense you have to view pop stars as a manifestation of mass psyche. I think a valid argument can be made for that idea but frankly I've got to start getting ready for work so that discussion will have to wait.

Be good to each other,

DND