Top-Forty artists aren’t cultural movements; they’re ultra-homogenized and uber-marketed holographic projections, aspects of culture that get blown up to Jumbotron size and burrow a pic line to the id. Mass culture always contains cleaned-up, camera-ready variations on the underground, incorporating just enough of what’s “edgy” to maintain its own relevance. Sometimes — if we’re lucky —these transformations result in mass culture that’s more interesting than usual, that entertains in a way that feels surprising, and that perhaps even spreads progressive values. But if a political idea is showing up in mass culture, that’s because it’s happening somewhere else in a more concentrated, grassroots way.

Sara Marcus, Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, pp. 327-8 (via lookuplookup)

Brief explanation of why this is bullshit: Culture, “mass culture” included, is something people do. This quote understands culture only as something that is done to people. It distinguishes correct art from incorrect art, and then dehumanizes people who do not have the correct art done to them. It must, otherwise Marcus would recognize that people can respond to mass culture as strongly, as emotionally, and as authentically as she does to whichever niche interest she prefers. (Given the source of the quote, I assume that particular niche interest is riot grrl.) Hers is a childish idea, and it is one that doesn’t understand the way the world works, let alone the people in it.

Or, as I said before: This isn’t high school. Even Rob Gordon worked that out after a while.