Smack, Crackle and Pop

11th Oct 2002

POPSTARS

While we'd like to wish Cork's Sinead Sheppard every success, the industry she has chosen is ruthless, money hungry and driven by image. What will Louis Walsh do to our Sinead ? Spitting and foaming our Angry Young Man inevitably has something to say...

Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Louis Walsh. One of these names creates an amount of dissonance when held up against the other three. I don't think I even have to bother telling you which one. It's just that after treating myself to another hilarious episode of "Popstars", I'm beginning to feel a little bit sorry for our country and the cultural void into which it seems to be sinking.†

Some time ago the aforementioned Mr. Walsh hoisted the abominable Boyzone on the international music scene. Since then, it seems that the youth of Ireland have developed a taste for the bland and transparent world of conveyor belt pop music and culture.†

Well, if the amount of people auditioning for "Popstars" is anything to go by then they have. I always thought being young was about pissing the older generation off, rebelling, shocking, and taking things to a hitherto unacceptable and unheard of level. I never thought about aspiring to be a Cliff Richards or a Bryan Adams as an eighteen year old. I thought 8 - 13 year old girls kept pop music afloat but on closer examination they don't. Something is wrong somewhere. I just can't put my finger on exactly where.

I mean, are there people our age out there who really dig Westlife? Is there a Pat Kenny fan club in UCC? Do we all look to O.K. magazine for the greatest that human creativity can offer? Many of us do apparently and it's a sad reflection on the way our country is heading. I personally believe that the advent of the (and I hate using this clich'