A BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH TO THE CONSERVATIVE BACKLASH AGAINST TAYLOR SWIFT:

American pop culture is in need of good criticism. The Left has lost the guts to do it, which puts the Right in the position of questioning what the entertainment industry is selling us.

A takedown of Taylor Swift, for example, recently went viral, and it’s notable where it appeared. Written by Armond White of the conservative National Review, the piece was brutal: ”The Swift circus doesn’t replace the thrill of originality and profundity that accompanied the advent of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes, the Jackson Five, which Gen Z knows nothing about,” White wrote. “Instead, Swift specializes in degraded girl-pop — teenage solipsism, the silliness that kids will ideally outgrow. Yet her songs corrupt puppy love into jejune sophistication.”

White then ends with a warning: “Boomer parents may want to let [Swift fans] have their fun — same as toying with matches and playing in the traffic. But here’s a frightening fact of the Swifties phenom: These kids seem ready for a leader, anxious for totalitarianism. It will take a counterrevolution to repair Swift’s moral, aesthetic, and political damage.”

The liberal media jumped on this, calling it “unhinged” and “nonsense.” Yet White’s shellacking reminded me of an older, better time in music criticism, when journalists were not afraid to criticize pop stars, even globally famous ones such as Taylor Swift. So many of them are now deemed untouchable. When was the last time Beyonce, Olivia Rodrigo, Madonna, or Bruno Mars got torched in a tough and perceptive way? It’s part of the new atmosphere where certain groups, politicians, and celebrities are untouchable religious idols. It’s not healthy in a democracy.

The DNC-MSM deciding that pop stars are infallible (until they disagree with the approved message du jour) is reminiscent of the 2020 Babylon Bee headline: Man Who Agrees With The Media, Universities, Corporations, And Hollywood Thinks He’s Part Of The Resistance.

Here’s the link to Armond White’s column: Taylor Swift’s Asylum Seekers.