Guy at
Blahness links, rather unfortunately in my mind, to a
Travis website. But don't lose heart! He also has some interesting things to say about yours truly. In a short rant about truth and falsity in pop culture, Guy questions my "religious zeal", writing that "while pop is fun, even self-aware people can fall into the trap of thinking that it is life." Ah, but it is! It is! Guy can talk about non-pop values like committment all he likes, but what did I ever learn about committment that "I Was Born To Make You Happy" didn't teach me? See, pop does reflect real life as much, perhaps more than the realisms of alternative music, because it's speaking to the world at large. I don't want to know about Damon Blur's relationship with Justine Elastica. I want to know about my relationship with everything around me, and the best pop is inclusive enough to provide that for me. Of course, as I noted in my Britney article, so do The Smiths. We take from culture what we need, jettison the rest, and commercial and artistic concerns be damned.
Case in point: elsewhere Guy says that when it comes to relationships, he wants the equivalent of Wuthering Heights, but his entire relationship manifesto sounds more like "Genie In A Bottle" to me.