Meta to the Masses

Meta-style jokes - where art admits to the audience that it is art or otherwise breaks the fourth wall to talk about its own construction - were a staple in the 90s and soon became used to make an excuse for bad content - � la the teen comedy trope: "Hey, we know this is just a dumb horror movie, so it's okay if we follow its conventions." Meta had been around in literature for a long, long time (see Candide etc), but suddenly admitting failure in an ironic way began to absolve all wrongdoing.

This has apparently filtered down to pop music. If you are D-12 and everyone in the world criticizes you for just being big because of Eminem, what do you do? Of course, you create a hit single "My Band" starring Enimem about how everyone in the world criticizes you for just being big because of Eminem!

So, what do we do about Ashlee Simpson - whom everyone attacks for riding the coattails of her sister? Ah, we give her a pop song about how she is always in the "Shadow" of her sister!

I am waiting for R Kelly's next single "I Do Nasty Things to My Underage Cousins."

Posted by marxy at November 1, 2004 9:43 PM