An Englishman in New England

There was (is?) a band called Pop Will Eat Itself, I think they're british. They did a phenomenally great song with the Prodigy back in the day, called "Their Law", which is how my path and theirs came to intersect, me being a big fan of the 'Prodge. But that's besides the point.

When I first heard their name, I was struck by how cool it was, but didn't really get far into thinking about it - like most boys my age, GCSE's (SAT's to my faithful yank readers), and beating off took up most of my time for the next ooohh, 10 years or so. I think college was in there somewhere, but who really knows, eh?

Fast forward to recently, when I stopped beating off long enough to really think about the genius of this band's name. I came to realize how prophetic it actually is - Pop really will eat itself.

Right now, we are only seeing the beginning of the implosion of pop culture. Don't agree? I take as my prime example Reality TV:

Reality Television (RTV) - Creativity-wise programming was sputtering in the early 90's, and ground to almost a complete halt at the end of the decade. Network execs were frantically scrabbling around for something, anything that could turn that frown of sliding viewership upside-down.

Even the venerable Seinfeld and the Simpsons had run out of new content with which to shock, provoke and entertain. Then a little show called COPS came to their attention. COPS opened the floodgates of the RTV explosion, and blazed a fresh trail that would allow many others to follow. A telling moment was when a has-been mayor of Chicago called Jerry Springer allowed his guests to sign an injury waiver and went from wandering in the TV wilderness to the newly-appointed Talk-Show King in the space of a couple seasons, deposing long-time Queen Oprah, who had settled comfortably into the top spot. As the viewers clamored for increasingly visceral experiences, the ad revenue poured in.

But the slide has begun once again, and this time, it's happening even quicker. It seems that the networks are running out of 'Reality' to televise, as more and more cyclical conversations and magazine articles are taken up with what happened on last night's episode. How can RTV exist if reality itself comes to revolve around their very content?

For example, look at the series "I Love the 60's/70's/80's/90's". This is a show that sounded like a great idea, and was actually kind of entertaining, but the theme managed to burn itself out within 4 episodes, as it ran out of decades to nostalgize. Even paring the idea down to focus on each individual year could only extend its shelf life for so long. As the producers patiently wait for 2010 to roll around before they can begin filming more episodes, the only other direction in which this series could go is publicly masturbate with a cannibalistic special: "I Love The 'I Love The 60's'". Oh, how the laughs and clips will fly as some unknown comedian bonds with the viewer about the time some unknown comedian reminisced about Space Hoppers and Chopper bicycles.

Desperately these shows sink to new lows to bring in more eyeballs, seemingly without limit or conscience. Pretty soon, when all other topics have been covered, and contestants' dignity all but strip-mined away, they will dare to test the absolute frontier of RTV - murder, live and uncut.

It's my prediction that TV as a medium of pop culture will die here as murder begins to lose its luster, and the voyeuristic public wonders once more "what else is on?".