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8th January 2008

It was interesting to come across the transcript of the Damon Albarn interview on Radio 4 recently, in which he stated: “We need to dismantle very significant parts of our culture and really re-examine them. I suppose you start with the celebrity thing.”

He added: “There’s just so many things I would alter. I think for a start you have to get rid of things like ‘The X Factor’ immediately.”

Albarn obviously sees himself as a musician first and his own celebrity as secondary if he believes that “we should get rid of 99% of the media”, a criticism that got widespread news coverage last week. I think I understand his point, however overstated it may be, but I don’t see an end to the media’s addiction to celebrity no matter how trivial TV programmes and magazines become. Great music, though, will always remain, and that’s the positive and most important belief to cling to in these X Factor times.