Today's pop culture deserves more thoughtful consideration

If you're looking for an example of pop culture in Canada right now, look no further than here: 

Hotline Bling is a hit. 

Even the song's critics will concede the song is catchy, while pointing out that in their opinion the lyrics are sexist. 

Maclean's writer Adrian Lee writes while that kind of analysis is valid, it is "a short sighted controversy." 

"I do think there's nothing wrong with saying this particular song to me reads as sexist, but if you leave that conversation there and that debate there, then I'm not sure it's particularly productive." 

He says the other problem plaguing critiques of pop culture these days is a conflation of the artist and their work. 

Lee points to The Mindy Project where people criticized the actor Mindy Kaling, when her character Mindy Lahiri espoused support for Donald Trump. 

Go back to the Drake example, and Lee says if people are interested in really engaging with the topic of sexism and misogyny in hip hop, then he says they need to explore it further. 

"Art is context," says Lee adding that "that's true too with pop culture. Just because it is the media for the masses, designed for the masses and consumed by the masses, doesn't mean it's any less art."   

Click the play button above to listen to the full interview with guest host Michelle Eliot.