Most pop culture fans weren’t surprised when they heard some of the content on Kanye West’s newest album, The Life of Pablo. Never the less, his lyrics have a lot of people talking.
The controversial lyric in question is this Taylor Swift diss: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. I made that b**** famous.”
This brings us back to 2009, when West inserted himself into Swift’s MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech.
Following the reveal of this line, it’s been a rollercoaster of celebrity drama. West claimed that Swift gave her consent to use the lyric. A representative of Swift, however, denied the claim. The representative said West only asked Swift to promote the song on her Twitter feed and that Swift was never made aware of the lyric in question.
In response, West hopped on Twitter to do what he does best: rant. Among other things, he tweeted that Swift not only approved of the lyric, but thought it was funny. So who’s lying? That’s exactly what everyone wants to know.
Swift stood her ground at the Grammys last week, where she seemed to retaliate in her acceptance speech for Album of the Year. While she named no names, she told fans to always ignore those who try to take credit for their successes. It was abundantly clear that the comment was referencing West.
Tons of people just soak this stuff up. After all, it’s easy to get excited about the entertainment industry. People love to hear about the latest fiasco caused by West’s massive ego and the continuation of the West-Swift drama easily captures the attention of the masses.
But this isn’t the most culturally stimulating thing on which to focus our attention. It doesn’t offer more than a few moments of empty amusement with no value added to our lives.
Additionally, such an emphasis on pop culture could perpetuate the growth of a celebrity’s ego (I’m looking at you, Kanye). If we give celebrities all of our attention, they will think that they’re so important and that their antics do us a service. West already thinks he’s a gift to humanity. Should we really be encouraging that mindset?
No celebrity needs as much attention as most get. They’re just people. They may be extremely talented people, but they’re human, just like the rest of us. Why should they be placed on such high pedestals?
Some of their antics are fun to watch, and I’m just as guilty of watching them as the next guy. But there are so many more things we could do to enrich our lives, especially here at the UA, where so much is offered, including clubs and intramural sports, internships and volunteer work, free events on campus and discounted tickets to things like the Arizona State Museum and fine art performances all can be found on campus.
Things like these should take up the bulk of our attention and time. Engaging oneself in a valuable activity is more beneficial than staying glued to Twitter, trying to keep up with the latest gossip.
I’m not saying it’s bad to be a fan of West or Swift, or even of pop culture as a whole. Having a favorite artist is great and taking interests in what’s going on in their lives is totally fine.
But there is so much more to your life than following someone else’s. Here at the UA, where there’s so much opportunity for involvement and enrichment, there’s no excuse for giving into the lure of celebrity attention grabbing. If you follow celebrities devotedly because there’s nothing better to do, you’re missing out.
Follow Rhiannon Bauer on Twitter.
