Case Study in the Contrast Between Rational vs. Irrational Media: “I Don’t Believe in Beatles”

This week was no exception: Every week is another week in which I try to fathom why there is such widespread trust in irrational media; and every week I find it ever more difficult to fathom.

And yet this week also provides a few exceptional cases (which are actually probably quite predictable, as the propaganda leading up to the presidential elections in the United States ramps up). Since women and children come first: Taylor Swift. Another celebrity, making his second appearance (see also “What’s X?“): Elon Musk.

These are irrational media, as are “Beatles”, “John” and “Yoko” (and all other undefined strings). [1] Elon Musk is perhaps a special case, insofar as one of his projects has apparently finalized the transition from a rational medium into an irrational medium. After numerous years of mismanagement, Mr. Musk has essentially pulled the plug from “twitter”, which was once a term central to the language of marketing. [2]

Since I have already covered the case of twitter.com at length (again, see also “What’s X?“). I wish to focus on the other cases I have mentioned.

Let me point out that that the language of songs is also a special case — and I do believe that the Beatles (and in particular John Lennon and Paul McCartney) were pioneers in the popularization of this sort of “jingle” marketing gimmick. I have little or no doubt, however, that there probably also existed (and still exist) large teams of marketing consultants in the mix of things that singing celebrities might sing to vast audiences — in both The Beatles’ and Taylor Swift’s cases, that’s mostly huge crowds of teenagers — ecstatically screaming at the top their lungs, incantations for mesmerized followers to memorize and dream about day and night and simply, in general: all the time.

I am aware of studies of the language of songs. The vocabulary is extremely basic. The refrains are repeated often. This media is a marketer’s dream come true — whether for umbrellas or for democracy. [3]

Now that I have already droned on for quite some time, I will leave the rest as a “homework” exercise for my readers: Who actually called off the Taylor Swift concerts, and who actually called out Elon Musk for lying?

[1] “Rational media” [ https://phlat.design.blog/2024/01/14/rational-media ]

[2] Note, however, that because I have been monitoring this field for several decades already, I have seen many such cases of supposedly “bankrupt” terms rise again from the ashes (like the metaphorical phoenix) — perhaps one of the first and most prominent (i.e. widely recognized) of such examples being pets.com .

[3] In case you missed it: “umbrella” is a nod to Rihanna’s song “Umbrella”.