The Gospel of Kitsch
Let's play a word association game. I say Katy Perry, you say... Awful? Inspiring? Putrescent? God's gift to the preteen fangirl? Emotions run high when we talk about musical taste. In our culture, if you don't agree with me and my tastes, you must be either an elitist hipster who only likes music that has yet to be written, or else a mob-following lemming who doesn't deserve to keep their own ears. Tempers flare all the more blisteringly when pop radio is introduced into the conversation. Take, for example, Ms. Perry, (nearly) as controversial a figure as I can think of as far as this discussion goes. On the one hand, many adore her, even to bizarre and probably unhealthy degrees. One only need watch her concert film/documentary Part of Me to see her fans all but anoint her as the Second Coming. While these disciplets look up to her as a goddess, though, many in the larger Christian community condemn the young woman and her music for its occasionally tawdry the...