Popular culture always ruins everything!@!@!

In the broad spectrum of what our society deems as popular culture; movies, music, fashion, and television are hurled at us by the waves of mass media. These trends which run anywhere from the latest pop band belting out their pseudo love song, to “fashionistas” imitating what actresses have already copied off of a famous designer, to game shows and reality shows which all center around the get rich quick/ find your soul mate in a span of three months all center around a certain mentality that cannot actually exist in reality. These trends had to of started off somewhere, being constructs by some higher corporate official, simply looking to make a buck. Hundreds of thousands of people do not catch on to a trend without it being catapulted into the limelight by some force of popular culture. So what happens when that song that you “discovered” or more or less came upon on You-tube turns into the hottest jam of the summer, listened to by millions of people from all walks of life?
The meaning of the artist for a particular work of art is if often questioned but not held up as the only insinuation of their work, we are in turn often left to decipher what it means to us from our own experiences and perceptions of the world. Now comes the question at hand when a work of art floods the mass media and permeates every corner of popular culture. I can recall earlier this summer when the song by Tay Zonday, titled, “Chocolate Rain”, hit Youtube. When I first viewed it in mid June over a million people had already clicked on to see this unknown college student belting out his own form of race related commentary. At first I thought this guy was a genius in some respects. He had taken a silly name like chocolate rain and constructed an entire song around the phrase, using it to question politicians to age-old stereotypes that society has held surrounding African Americans. After seeing his first ever musical performance on a late night talk show I thought the seriousness of Chocolate Rain may actually start making people my age question all the stereotypical race related issues Mr. Zonday hones in on in his song.
Over the course of the summer this song seemed to flourish, receiving 8 million hits on Youtube and counting, and has provoked tons of ridiculous parodies in its wake. I’m saddened however that the thought provoking lyrics of Tay’s Chocolate Rain have caused attention but very little reaction or discussion to race relations. Just the other week walking to the grocery store a guy stood outside making a spectacle of himself belting out Chocolate Rain. Our media crazed world had yet again ran with the hottest new fad of the summer, and instead of pondering its implications, our society could only be found mocking it and reveling in its humorous undertones. So does art lose its value once the masses catch on and grab a hold of it? When so many people can decipher and decide their own personal little meaning for a song or a new catch-phrase, the artists true intentions will forever become muttled by the masses.
kaiti g.