There's only one taboo in America anymore. Pedophilia. Oh, we can extend that into other sex crimes, but everything else gets a shrug, at least from those paying attention. One can argue that going to jail in the hip-hop world raises your cred. And I can say the same thing here with Timberlake. His squeaky-clean image could use a bit of roughing up. It took years, but there's been blowback about his emerging sans penalty in the Super Bowl Nipplegate, and Britney Spears took a swing at him, but Timberlake is more akin to a star of old, sleek and bulletproof. But nobody is that way anymore, nobody, that's what social media has wrought.
Now this all began with Bristol Palin. Her mother was nominated for Vice President and didn't tell the higher ups that her teenage daughter was pregnant, out of wedlock, supposedly a big taboo in the Christian Republican world, if not the world at large. But it didn't hurt Palin a bit, she went on to numerous financial opportunities, she made bank after stepping down as the governor of Alaska. As for Bristol... She had her own reality show.
You see many people have babies out of wedlock. Statistics tell us teen pregnancy is down, then again it was lauded by MTV. But this is not the sixties, where you send your daughter away to have the baby and then give it away doing your best to scrub the landscape clean, leaving their image and CV intact.
And then came Trump. You can't say anything positive about Trump or the Biden-lovers will excoriate you, but the truth is we've got to credit Trump for bringing us into reality eight years ago. Trump used taboo words, talked about taboo subjects, and the "New York Times" may not use swear words, but you do, everybody does!
So we've seen a societal adjustment. We no longer live in a two-tiered world. Dignified and undignified. Washed and unwashed. We're all in it together, and one must not only realize this, but accept it.
In the sixties, even the seventies, the rich hid their wealth. They clothed themselves in chinos and Topsiders, they traveled in old Country Squires, but when the baby boomers made bank in the eighties, that was out the window. Today you boast about your wealth. You flash it. You want to be seen as a "rock star," even though that moniker doesn't fit these people.
So Justin Timberlake got arrested for driving while drunk. You might have. Certainly someone in your circle has. Does that make them a bad person? Of course there are alcoholics who get arrested time and again and should be off the streets, but no one believes that's Justin Timberlake. Furthermore, musicians have done drugs forever and Tom Petty died of a fentanyl overdose. Do we judge Tom for that? If anything, we give him props because he did his last tour in pain, he was self-medicating so everybody else could get paid.
No one is not going to buy a concert ticket because Justin Timberlake got arrested for a DUI. No one sits in judgment that way anymore. And if you're a fan of somebody, it's almost impossible to be convinced otherwise. That's what's confounding about the Trumpers, they cannot be convinced otherwise, that Donald is flawed, shouldn't be elected, if anything they've doubled-down. That's the nature of fandom today. You rally around your hero, you don't abandon them.
As for casual fans...
That's an interesting concept. The whole world used to run on casual fans. They filled the rest of the seats in the arena, they bought the album a year or two out, they went to see the popular movie...but that concept is dying, if not near dead.
You see people just don't feel the pressure to be a member of the herd anymore. Everybody's got their own interests and that's enough. The press hasn't realized this. And the gossip press lives for events like Timberlake's DUI. Because it's all about garnering eyeballs, which deliver money. They'll publicize any faux pas.
But that does not mean the public will pay attention, that it will resonate with them. Which is why most music publicity, nearly all traditional publicity, is worthless these days.
We need to give money to Biden so he can advertise on TV. Screw that, advertise on TikTok and Instagram!
The funny thing about social media advertising is oftentimes it's as good as the posts. Innovative, frequently about innovative products. Sometimes you're not even sure if it's an ad. Sure, it's great to go viral spontaneously, but you can buy your way in, and should. But I don't see Biden ads on these services.
But the people running Biden's campaign are not on these services. They pooh-pooh them. Only deplorables spend time on them, wasted time, and the platforms need to be shut down. How well did that attitude work for Hillary Clinton? It didn't. The game changes and nobody in D.C. seems to be aware of it. Maybe because the only way you can understand the new game is by participating in it. If you want to be plugged in spend at least fifteen minutes on either TikTok or Instagram Reels every day for a week. You'll get a feel for America. That's all it takes. But oldsters sit in judgment while youngsters move on, there's a giant generation gap, the same one that has the youth saying both Biden and Trump are too old.
And for all the haters, of course I'm going to vote for Biden if he's the ultimate nominee, and you never know, that's the strange thing about life, unexpected stuff happens. Of course I'm afraid of Trump getting elected, I'm fearful of the death of democracy. But Biden could lose. As a matter of fact, he's losing right now. And I don't see him and his team doing anything to change this. All his acolytes just say to hold tight and pray that he wins in November. That's not a good strategy. But by pointing this out...
Elon Musk owns a platform, and he spews his insanity each and every day. He understands that he or she who owns the media wins the game. Can you say "Rupert Murdoch"?
And one of the big stories today is how Tucker Carlson is touring Australia and has trouble selling tickets. Proving that the platform is more powerful than the individual. The hardest thing to do is to gain an audience. Turns out there were a limited number of Tucker fans, most were Fox fans. In addition, casual fans don't even know where to find Carlson today.
There's just too much in the pipeline, it's overwhelming.
So we're supposed to care about an aged pop star getting arrested for drunk driving?
That's one of the great stories of this arrest. The cop didn't even know who Timberlake was! Justin was too old and the police officer was too young. But Timberlake triumphed when we lived in a monoculture, and that's all mainstream media understands. The true stars of today, social media influencers, from Mr. Beast to gamers to cosmetic queens, are ignored, they don't fit the paradigm of yore, and the old media titans don't know who they are, what they mean, and are refusing to believe we live in a changed landscape.
Did you read in their last results that the "New York Times" had more people subscribing to cooking and puzzles than the basic news app?
But this is all freeing. You can make a mistake and recover. Then again, not if you're a politician, where gotcha still exists. But that's got more to do with those in office and their seconds than the public at large. How high a standard can you hold someone to these days? We're all flawed. And the sooner we accept this.
The sooner we win.
--
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, Unsubscribe
To change your email address this link
No comments:
Post a Comment