There has been, in the recent century or so, a persistent pattern which our elders have continuously condemned and our youngsters have purportedly carried on. That is a certain type of rebellion: rebellion for the sake of rebellion.

It is a sad fact of society that the super-unpopular pop icon Rebecca Black is famous for being famous. Although I imagine it to be the case, I am not aware of any conclusive evidence on either side of the debate or of her public figure admitting whether she secretly expected that her song Friday which has gone viral on Youtube, would become infamous for having vocals so unmelodious that it would instantly arouse thundering contempt from typical teemagers of today who cannot stand such disgusting blasphemy, in the words of actor and screenwriter Matt Holland. This is not the first time such an event has occurred, as we may recall the premiere of Stravinskys Rite of Spring, in which angry audience members thrashed the stage and attacked their performers, or John Cages 4:33, during whose rendition the crowd laughed aloud at the pianists silent composition. I am not criticizing contemporary music (as it has its very own respectable merits of breaking down the barriers of expired dogma and discovering different styles in effective forms of intentional expression), but sometimes I think people ought to respect the limit to counterculture. This is not a question of optimally balancing the equilibrium scale between conservatism versus liberalism. This is an issue of tiring, boring garbage snatching the throne of novel, shiny treasure.

Many celebrities have once acted and continue to act profoundly controversial and outrageously obtuse for the sole purpose of attention-whoring (perhaps they have even moulded their real personalities into these absurdly comical characters with sufficient practice). Naked screaming in a shopping mall while drunk is nothing new, nor is it cool. Yet still, anything counter-traditional is instantly embraced by the next generation as our children revolt against every rule weve drilled into them. And what does the pop industry do, as a consequence of our loss? It capitalizes upon this niche opportunity to maximize business revenue.

Where have gone our valuable lesson of the past? We have lost all meaningful structure from the sensibility of our learned ages. Beethovens revolutionary contribution to the arts stands out as a masterpiece of humanity because music from the Romantic era accentuates the heightened fantasies of passion, anger, hatred, jealousy, nostalgia, and strangeness of heart.

What do the new celebrities? Nothing much, in my biased opinion.