Pop Culture

I love pop culture. I love music, TV, films (even though I am extremely lazy about watching movies), and all around pop-culture trash.

I watch and follow pop culture because I like it and find it entertaining. But I also thinks it says a lot about us--some good and some bad.

Something I find fascinating is the difference between the US and Canadian versions of the same shows.

Take American Idol and Canadian Idol.

American Idol
Contestants are pigeonholed early on: the rocker, the diva, the R&Ber, the singer-songwriter, etc. The only contestant they weren't able to pigeonhole was Adam Lambert. But all the other ones? Done. This moves into their clothes, the style of the arrangements, what the judges expect form them, etc. Judges like Simon Cowell tell the contestants right out: You don't look like an American Idol. People criticize him or boo or whatever. But you know what? He's right. We are an image-conscious society. We need everything in a neat little box before we will accept it. I'd like to think that I am different than that, that I am not that shallow... But, well, I'm not. I don't think I am as spoon-fed as some... but I am. I watch a lot of TV, so I think it is kind of a given.

Anyway... then there is Canadian Idol.

Canadian Idol wasn't on this year, and I didn't watch all of the season in 2008, but it was so different. The contestants weren't as polished in look or sound. Several of them were indescribable. One guy was the big ballad crooner. He won. But the other final four? One guy had an odd little voice. If he were to be labeled something it would be the singer-songwriter. When he sang songs they were like stories. He and his odd little voice were often compared to Paul Simon. He didn't sound so much like Simon, but I could see the similarity in style. Another guy would be the Rocker. But he was different. I would label him as more of the garage rocker, like he should have been in The Strokes or one of those other garage-rock-revival bands. The other guy? He could barely sing, but you couldn't stop watching him. He stomped around the stage with what looked like no rhythm. If he tried out on American Idol he would have been on the gag reel. But he was fascinating. I couldn't figure out what people saw in him until one of the judges compared him to Tom Waits. And then it all made sense.

My point? (And I do have one.) The Canadian Idol guys were so very different than anything you'd see on American Idol. They weren't as polished in look or image. They were unique, where those on American Idol seemed to all merge together by the end of the show (except this last season and maybe the one before that). But, also, the more traditional contestants? They were voted off by the viewers. Now the guy who won was the traditional belter of ballads, but he was incredibly talented. But the others that went to the top with him were far from traditional.

Why do I care? Because I wonder how much this represents the difference between Canadians and Americans. Now, I'm not saying that the guys on Canadian Idol were perfect or totally genuine and not mainstream or whatever. But what I want to know is were they molded into specific "types," too? What are they? And how are the Canadian types different than the American types.

So, yes, I love pop culture because it's fun and dumb and it allows me to be catty and judgmental. But I am also interested in the difference between American pop culture and the pop culture of other countries and how it represents the difference in the societies.

What brought this all on? Some day, I want to go to the National Popular Culture & American Culture Conference. Seriously.

Partly because I am interested in the topic. But part of me wants to know if this is where all the academics who don't fit into the "I don't own a TV" academic mould go. Is this a conference of Gen Xers, moping around because the Boomers and their kids STILL get all the attention? And do they remedy this by standing around quoting John Hughes' movies complaining about how the other academics hate them? Will they then smoke some weed, go through each others purses and wallets, and dance in the library?