Tragedy and trivia

By J. Freedom du Lac -- Bee Pop Culture Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002

Early in September 2001, sex and sleaze dominated the airwaves. But on Sept. 11, all that became irrelevant. Popular culture was shoved aside for the foreseeable future. If and when it returned, it wouldn’t be the same. Sept. 11 had changed everything – or had it?

	Sacramento singer-songwriter Bruce L. Thiessen, right, prepares to record a song for his “One September Mournin’ ” CD, due out this week. At left is drummer Chris Wise. Sacramento Bee/Dick Schmidt

For the first 10 days of September 2001, America’s appetite for popular culture appeared as voracious as ever.

The media were smothering the Gary Condit angle of Chandra Levy’s sad story, fantasy football was quickly becoming America’s new pastime and the tabloids were buzzing about actress Jennifer Lopez’s love life and rumors that singer Mariah Carey had had another nervous breakdown.

“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” was the nation’s most-watched TV show, with “Friends” close behind – though the biggest news from the latter piece of must-see TV was that Jennifer Aniston and her hunky Hollywood husband, Brad Pitt, had upstaged Mark Wahlberg at the Los Angeles premiere of Wahlberg and Aniston’s new movie, “Rock Star.”

America ate it all up, and then wondered what was for dessert. A “Sex and the City” marathon, perhaps?

But on Sept. 11, that all became irrelevant.

Popular culture was shoved aside for the foreseeable future. If and when it returned, it wouldn’t be the same, the experts said, because Sept. 11 had changed everything.

Among the predicted casualties: irony, reality TV and music and movies touching on terrorist themes, including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Collateral Damage,” removed from the release schedule indefinitely.

The entertainment industry responded to the tragedy in other ways, too, making reference to it in TV shows such as “The West Wing” and “Third Watch” and songs like country crooner Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning).”

Meanwhile, feeling guilty about having given so much attention to the trivial, people began declaring en masse that they’d concentrate more on the important things in life, like family, friends, God and country.

Well, so much for that.

A year after everything supposedly changed, not much looks different through the kaleidoscope of American popular culture.

If anything, the country’s collective appetite for the stuff dismissed as too mindless just one year ago has rebounded and even grown. And the pop-culture machine has responded by feeding the beast with more of the same.

Just flip through People for proof.

The magazine has long tracked the pop-culture pulse of America, and for a few weeks after the terrorist attacks, People reflected the country’s somber mood by focusing on the victims and heroes of Sept. 11.

But that’s old news in the fast-churning pop-culture world, so there’s little about the magazine’s content today that differs from the weeks leading up to Sept. 11, with the exception of a few of the names.

Instead of “Millionaire,” we’re now fascinated by “American Idol.” Britney Spears is in Mariah’s stead as the pop star who may be having a meltdown.

And J. Lo’s love life is still big news.

In fact, her amorous relationship with Ben Affleck recently landed her on the People cover. That, of course, was just after the magazine’s cover story on Julia Roberts’ nuptials.

“In the immediate days and weeks after September 11th, the trauma was such that people didn’t think they were going to laugh again, let alone read stories about Julia Roberts’ wedding,” said Larry Hackett, a People assistant managing editor. “It was a natural reaction for people to say that stuff was frivolous and we should focus on what’s truly important.

“What happened on September 11th is never going to be erased from people’s memories, but there’s always going to be an appetite for entertainment and celebrities and their private lives. I don’t think being entertained and delighted by Julia’s wedding or J. Lo’s relationships or an interview with Britney Spears is bad.”

Kevin Hagopian isn’t so sure.

Hagopian is a media studies lecturer in the College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University.

And he’s disappointed that people’s declarations about shifting priorities and focus after Sept. 11 had the staying power of a typical New Year’s resolution.

“American popular culture continues to behave as if September 11th never happened,” Hagopian said. “And that’s news, because no single moment since November 1963” – when President Kennedy was assassinated – “has ever had such an immediately shattering emotional effect on so many Americans.

“To deny ... that deep sorrow (and) the fervent resolution everyone expressed to try to find a more meaningful way to live in the world shows a capacity for disengagement with the world, on the part of American media producers and consumers, which is disturbing.”

Healthy or not, the post-Sept. 11 “Age of Seriousness” simply didn’t last.

People began to laugh again, beginning as early as Sept. 17, when David Letterman returned to the air. On the radio, patriotic songs and tributes gave way to the more typical pop pablum, Bruce Springsteen’s Sept. 11-inspired album “The Rising” notwithstanding.

Movies delayed by the events of that day eventually arrived in theaters, and if they fell short of expectations – as did “Collateral Damage” – it was because they were not to people’s tastes, rather than because of distaste with the subject matter.

And, perhaps most tellingly, according to Aaron Schatz, O.J. Simpson re-entered our consciousness.

Schatz is the author of “The Lycos 50,” which tracks the people, places and things being searched on the Internet. In late January, while looking at Lycos’ list of the most frequently searched terms on the Web, Schatz knew that American life was back to normal – for better or worse.

“O.J. Simpson was in the Top 20 simply because his on-and-off girlfriend was reported missing and her cat was found dead in her apartment,” he said. “That was a pretty good indication we were back to caring about what we cared about before September 11th – that people still are interested in the same kind of ‘superficial’ things they liked before September 11th.”