No Rock And Roll Fun

THEY'RE NOT GRRRRRR-EAT: So, there on Wednesday night was Elton John, popping up on Newsnight to describe modern pop as being like boxes of cereal, and to suggest he should never have done that greatest hits album last year, since its the Best Of culture that's strangling the industry. Really, Elton? What on earth could have persuaded you to make the record, then? Nothing to do with having large sums of money rubbed into your face, presumably? The thing about Elton is that, ever since he discovered Ryan Adams, he's been getting more and more po-faced and tending to talk about credibility and art. It's fine if he thinks that Songs from the west coast is a serious minded piece of art, but being lectured by the man who was responsible for the unarguable nadir of rock music (of course we're talking about that Car Crash of a car crash memorial), the sudden outrage sits uneasily.
Not that we'd say that Elton's attack on the Kellogisation of pop is wrong; in fact his "cereals" taunt is well considered: Breakfast cereals have stopped being inventive, and fallen back onto re-arranging the same basic elements in different ways - Corn Flake + chocolate; rice + chocolate; weetabix + fruit pieces; corn flake + frosting + fruit pieces; so has pop - Destiny's Child divided by Atomic Kitten equals MisTeeq. But if Elton is coming to save us, we surely must be fucked. His plan includes closing down the video channels, which manages to be doubly hypocritical - not only did he drag his career out of the dolequeue by embracing MTV (I'm still standing video, anyone?) but the cheeky old dog is making a cameo appearance in his big chum Ryan Adam's new video. Or is it okay to make a video if you're "serious", Elton?
Elt on Newsnight - probably considered too highbrow for News At Ten
Ryan Adams and chums - let's hope this helping hand from Elton doesn't carry the price Robbie paid...