Home > So, what do you think? > Archives > 2009 > June > 26 > Entry
The end of cultural touchstones
It’s a tricky thing to dance with icons, and not just because we mortals look so goofy when we dance. (I’m not allowed to moonwalk in public, for example). Fame itself is as fleeting as Ben Johnson - if anyone even remembers the man formerly known as the fastest sprinter in the world.
We’ve grown weary of stars who burn out after 15 minutes. Can the Jonas Brothers last? Is Usher a flash in the pan? If I was on the Springsteen bandwagon in 1984, is it OK to be there 25 years later?
Lighting up the universe is a pretty tall order for anyone. But finding love from an audience with a record case of attention deficit disorder is even tougher. And tha’s all the more reason why the careers of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett were so remarkable for so many years, and why we’ll probably never see stars of their magnitude again.
Entertainment is a rocket that takes us into a dazzling alternate reality, and for much of the 20th century, we were all aboard the same spaceship. Our media options were so limited before cable television and the Internet became fixtures that prime time meant the same thing from coast to coast.
We all knew Farrah because “Charlie’s Angels” competed against only two other shows in its time slot. Her famous swimsuit pinup - the one with the curls, the smile and the … um, other attributes - occupied dorm room walls like one-third of Mount Rushmore - right next to the poster that came with “Dark Side of the Moon” and the one from the Beatles’ “White Album.” The lowest price I could find for an original Farrah pinup on eBay Thursday was $76 - and every entry had bids.
Pop culture had yet to go through the carefully marketed segmentation and dilution that chops it all up today. The Jackson 5 could follow Johnny Cash or Steppenwolf on AM radio in 1970, and no one thought twice about the diversity that represented. It was all just music. And even as that began to change through cable television and the Internet, we still had our touchstones into the 1990s.
That’ how the punchlines of “Seinfeld” became universally known in offices all over America. It’s why we remember that Han Solo fired the first shot at Greedo in the original “Star Wars” and why longtime fans wanted to set Skywalker Ranch on fire when a later release was unjustly revised to pretend just the opposite.
For roughly 40 years, Michael Jackson raced us through the universe like no other. The little kid with the huge voice hooked us on “The Love You Save” and “ABC” even before we found out he was just 11 years old. He grew up with us - sort of - but he never stopped surprising us. “Off the Wall” signaled an unexpected comeback when I was in college. Who knew that what was cute at the beginning of the 1970s could grow so cool by the decade’s end?
Then came the explosion of “Thriller,” and the universe as we knew it practically collapsed. “Billie Jean” took over the radio with a menacing rhythm that pulled you in and never let go. What planet teaches a man to dance like that? Where’s my Members Only jacket?
The debut of a new Jackson video on MTV was a cultural event that no one could miss. It would have been almost impossible anyway, considering MTV’s practice of playing it for the rest of the night.
“Thriller” sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, and seven of its nine songs made it into Billboard’s Top 10.
No one makes music like that anymore, but even if someone did, how would we find it in the vastness of youtube and myspace? The Internet has become as personalized and as unique as we are, but as a result, we don’t have the Ed Sullivans to bind us together on Sunday night and give us something to share on Monday morning.
Something wonderful got torched in the aura of Jackson’s fame. The endless plastic surgery, the skin whitener, the chimp, the weirdness … they gave us all pause. But the monstrous allegations of child molestation and the out-of court lawsuit settlements ended his popularity with a lot of us. He was never convicted of any of the charges, but we never looked at him the same way either. It was just too bizarre to even think about - men don’t invite children for sleep-overs.
Celebrity death can push aside even the most lurid scandal. Much of the world tuned in together Thursday night as we remembered Jackson and Fawcett after they died, just hours apart. Funny how even decades after the peak of their fame, their magnetism could pull us in once more.
There will be other deaths to do that. You can fill in the names of the stars that still dot your universe. But I’m not sure we’ll ever see the heights of performance or pinup that Jackson and Fawcett represented in their prime.
It’s a different age, now. Icons are the things found on our computer screens - not on our dorm room walls.
Comments
By Cindy Matulich
June 27, 2009 2:52 PM | Link to this
Great blog!!! I haven’t always agreed with you, but this I do!! There has been controversy over who is the greatest, Elvis, the Beatles or Michael Jackson. Although they are all goundbreakers and fabulous in their own rights, there is no question, it is Michael Jackson. His main message was love and humankind to get along. He did what the others could not. He bridged both racial and generational lines. He changed music and music videos forever, no one will ever forget his music. He was a global SUPERSTAR. He had a forty year career, first as a superstar with a group and then a Phenom on his own. No one has ever done what he did and no one ever will. I was 7 yrs. old when I first saw him sing and thought he was the cutest. I became in awe of him as time went on. Even through the controversies, he was a person that did a lot of good in this world and did make a difference in so many ways. I still am in shock. We did lose the Elvis(and then some!) of our generation.
By Willpower
July 1, 2009 10:24 AM | Link to this
Wrong.
The internet will continue to create a galaxy of stars as famous or more famous than those of the past. There will be posters. There will be plastic surgery. There will be wierdos. There will be incredibly hot women.
Journalism however, will be diluted greatly. Serious analysis and thought will take place in books and monthly magazines as the longer daily reads will go out of business entirely.
Perhaps that is already well underway.
By John1181
July 7, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this
Very nice site!