What does a video that features Miley Cyrus french-kissing a unicorn have to do with a Korean pop sensation? Apart from being a cult-pop meme that's gone viral and inspired countless imitations, Gangnam Style is also a landmark song in the cookie-cutter Korean music scene. It's a subtle social commentary, something unusual in a country where musicians openly declare popularity and profit to be their goals, rather than artistry or commentary.
Intentionally or not, Borgore (featuring Miley Cyrus) is doing the same kind of thing - spoofing modern club-culture and the Ayn Randian mentality of greed being the prime motivator, fueled by an insatiable need for sensation and status. The dubstep tune Decisions is nothing remarkable in its lyrics or staging, but there's something sad and surreal in the carnival-like extremity of its experience that reminds me of Surviving Picasso, a biopic of the artist based on Arianna Huffington's bio Creator and Destroyer. Do these folk realize the absurdity of their situation? Are they in on their own joke? It's Gangnam Style with American flavour.
I look at other products of the time, including films like The Great Gatsby or Cosmopolis and see an emerging theme of millennial fatigue. partially brought on by the popularity of shows like Jersey Shore and cynical politics. What does it say when social commentary has become a meme of its own, when adoration is blindness? What does it mean when would-be presidents can disparage 47% of their would-be constituents and still stand a good chance of winning, or independent auteur film makers turned corporate moguls sell their own empires into larger monopolies?
We've all become a bit stretched thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. Alas, it's a cycle we've seen before.
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