I was somewhat irritated to read Steve Slocombe’s editorial in the current issue of Sleazenation. In it, Steve lauds Peter Bazalgette’s recent comments on mediated culture, specifically Television, the medium in which Bazalgette has had so much success with in giving us shows like Big Brother. Steve applauds and agrees with Peter’s comments that he is ‘totally fed up with the miserable brigade who disdain something just because it is popular’ which of course is fair enough, the problem coming with the implied suggestion that if something is popular it must therefore be good.

Steve, and by implication Peter, clearly recognises that we’ve obviously gone far beyond arguments of ‘low’ versus ‘high’ culture, but in embracing the notion of ‘no-brow’ culture, they both appear to have neglected to recognise that regardless of whether something is popular or not, there is still the disconnected concept of whether something is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. I recall Julie Burchill making similar points back in the ‘80s, at that time being disparaging about ‘unpopular’ culture (specifically music), suggesting that something was unpopular simply because it was rubbish. Which is obviously a rubbish theory to be pushing, but it’s one that I hear echo in the words of Peter and Steve nearly 20 years later, and maybe it’s no coincidence that there’s been such a media throwback to the ‘80s recently.

I’m not for wrapping everything up in a cultural studies essay, and yes, enjoying something for its simple face value is fine. It’s just that I get the feeling that there’s a current predilection for ONLY looking at the face value of things; that there’s a fear of rigour, of really examining and digging at the foundations to discover the hows and whys and wherefores. It seems as if there is currently an indiscriminate acceptance of all media; a crazy unquestioning fluidity of consumption that never stops for breath, never stands still long enough to ask questions. Post-modernism gone mad, if you will. And whilst I agree wholeheartedly with Peter Bazalgette that ‘we learn about other people and the world around us from all manner of sources, not merely those thought to be of a cultural or educational import by the old school elite’ I also think that for successful learning to take place (and not simple recognition of ‘facts’), there must be room for judgement about good and bad, must be opportunities for deeper exploration and understanding. We run the risk of extolling fleeting surface pleasure over all else, of pouring ridicule on anyone who dares to kick against the pricks and think carefully about what culture they choose to consume and which not, based on notions of good and bad.


posted by duke harringay at 2:58 PM