Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music and Entertainment
Pop Music Hell

Pop Music Hell

Last updated on: November 10, 2023 at 4:37 pm by Chase Padusniak

0 Comments

Pop Music Hell 2023-11-10T16:37:57-04:00 Chase Padusniak

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Einfahrt zum Altstädter Güterbahnhof Dresden (1911) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Source / License

Another movie about would-be celebrity self-immolation? We’ve got Showgirls (1996), Mulholland Drive (2001), and many others besides. If you take 2018’s Vox Lux to be a tale of the entertainment system and its discontents, you could be forgiven for disliking the film. Natalie Portman’s Staten Island accent leaves something to be desired (I should know; I’ve got two siblings raised there). The story’s beats are nothing new: sleep with your manager, get addicted to pills, feel the slow metamorphosis from innocent suburban teen to wailing banshee-superstar. The whole Sister Carrie (1900) thing. Or, you know, just follow the news about Britney Spears or Macaulay Culkin.

Luckily, Vox Lux is only partially a movie about one woman’s rise to the top and the internal meltdown that tails her success. It is a really film about a system of interlinking parts that produce, maintain, and vampirize the human beings behind celebrities, the detritus of human persons parasitized by fama. The movie makes you feel the walls closing in not only on Portman’s character but on us all. Pop music is life; pop music is death.

This Brady Corbet joint is composed of three acts: Genesis, Regenesis, and a finale. The first charts the rise of Celester (Raffey Cassidy), a girl from Staten Island who becomes famous after she and her sister perform a song after a horrific tragedy at their school. Here we get the typical indicators of a celebrity’s rise: a loss of innocence, grandiose, silly ambitions, and a tenderness that invites us to like Celeste. Part Two has Natalie Portman play the Celeste character while Cassidy portrays her daughter, Albertine. Now, she is older, drunker, and attempting a comeback after a multitude of mishaps, accidents, and general catastrophes for which she is, of course, not responsible. The finale is a show in her hometown, one she’s spent much of the second half of the movie preparing for.

The film is elevated by Scott Walker’s score. Walker was himself a popstar turned avant-garde musician and recluse. He understood the material. And so, when Celeste first goes to New York to pursue a record contract, director Brady Corbet presents us with shots of looming buildings in New York City, awful steel skyscrapers that look like alien idols, all undergirded by Walker’s droning, terrifying score. The environment itself presages Celeste’s future. More than that, however, it confesses a horror, the horror of life today for all. No one in this movie seems happy. Sure, Celeste’s family has a suburban charm. But her school is massacred. The city is a monster. Her fans, as we shall see, are idiots.

The finale show often consists of wide shots. We can see not only Celeste lip-synching generic pop songs but also her fans losing themselves in the music. Behind the popstar screens flash with single words straight out of They Live (1988). Now, however, consumeristic slogans are all on the surface. No need for glasses or any other such bit. Everything is explosive, colorful, and energetic but without any real meaning or force. Celeste is pleasing her fans. She has come back. But to what end? Perhaps her career can be saved. But can we? Can any of us? Can any real people survive?

The most obvious parallel between pop culture and death occurs when a group of gunmen massacre tourists at a resort in Croatia. They wear masks from an early Celeste music video. Much is made of what could be meant by this: do they hate women? Do they hate decadent Western culture? Is it some kind of joke?

Early on after she has sex with an older metal musician, Celeste lies next to him, pouring out her yet-innocent heart. She declares that she wants to make music that helps people feel good, not that invites them to think too much. In this, she succeeds. But at what cost to her? And, more provocatively, at what cost to us all?

Religious Art

Religious Music and Entertainment

Previous Post

October 31, 2023

How Was the Play, Mrs. Kennedy?

Next Post

November 16, 2023 Repetition Blow Out

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Do The Right Thing was a terrible movie, with a terrible message, a man owns ..."

Frank Holzhauser

Do the Right Thing: What Can ..."

"NOT the experience of those who actually lived through those years. Let's not forget that.Too ..."

captcrisis

54: Let the Good Times Roll

"Your accurate assessment of where the Blockbuster and the studios have ended up reminded me ..."

Dave G.

Jaws: Ad Fontes

"Another Dementia experience: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkbxNibXiLx_ak8IuhZiutd2Fxe7_KAon&si=VhOYNUIBV3CTlyDf"

Ame

Dementia: Silent Nightmare

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Culture Politics Reviews Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What empire was in power when Jesus was born?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Babylonian Persian Greek Roman