Culture, Red in Tooth and Claw

This link is to a great essay from NPR on the death of MTV, and whether the Real World killed it. It’s a much bigger issue than it seems at first glance.

The Real World didn’t kill MTV. American culture killed — and created — MTV.

We used to talk about Pedro (Real World San Francisco), and what he “meant” as our society was coming to terms AIDS, fairness, gay rights, etc. We used to talk about what Kurt Cobain was so angry about—only later understanding he was writing about what he saw our culture becoming (it’s just that he was years ahead of the curve).

We used to listen to Chuck D and Tupac, both of whom helped us understand what it was like to grow up black in a society that thought it had overcome racism when really it had only gotten better at hiding it. That’s what we used to do.

We don’t do that anymore.

Today, we talk about Snookie’s new book, and The Situation’s new line of cologne. We talk about Katy Perry’s hair, and Lady GaGa’s egg. We talk about Lindsay Lohan and who was responsible for Michael Jackson’s death, and why.

Kim Kardashian got married. That’s what MTV is because that’s what we are.

MTV simply did what it was designed to do: put culture in front of us, red in tooth and claw, and help us decide what to care about.