Commercial: Bitching pop

Having read this excellent piece this morning, I'm not sure what to think. Hovering between despair and an existential shrug at the pointlessness of it all. There are interesting reflections on brand (and how quietness and not being overtly commercial can strengthen it), celebrity (obviously), but also the absence of community and how ambition for those who can now no longer goes into a desire to run the country, but to subvert popular culture and (despite denials) parade a skittish snobbishness about it. 'Democratising gossip' sounds like a pretty poor substitute for an uplifting culture.