Paul Beatty Quotes

Most fads get jump starts because of the media.

I'm realizing I'm not hip enough to know for sure what would be considered pop-culture.

Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective.

For some critics we might be uncool on account of our popularity.

Being mainstream is fun.

Cinema and cricket are two professions in this country that people have an opinion on.

Oftentimes you'll see stuff that makes it into the mainstream that has been influenced by things that are clearly not from the mainstream.

Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular.

what is popular need not necessarily be right or wise.

Everything that is popular, it has been said, deserves the attention of philosophers: and this is for the obvious reason, that although it may not be of any worth in itself, yet it characterizes the people.

At root, vulgar just means popular on a mass scale. It is the semantic opposite of pretentious or snobby. It is humility with a comb-over. It is Nielsen ratings and Barnum's axiom and the real bottom line. It is big, big business.

On reflection, some things do super well because they hit with the time. Some things do super well because they are able to activate a kind of echo chamber or bandwagon or cascade - they didn't particularly hit with the time. Some things are just too astonishingly good to not hit the top. Those three explanations, with respect to the Star Wars phenomenon, seem to me all to pass the plausibility test, and to explore them, with respect to Star Wars, I think casts light not just on the saga of our time, but also on everything about our culture.

In a very real sense, I represent pop culture in an iconic way. It's been very good to me, so anything I can do to help the fans to tumble along - it's good.

I don't believe that to be mainstream you have to be foolish. I don't think you have to be a buffoon to sell. I think you can be logical, aesthetic and still work within the mainstream format.

I don't see myself as particularly highbrow. I am much more populist.

The broadcast networks - they are literally broad. They try to appeal to everyone. They try to reach all of America, all the time. Increasingly, they fail to do that, but they try.

But the one thing I'll always know is that people don't know what they want until they get it. They didn't know they wanted a song about taking a horse to the old town road in 2019. But they did.

For me, football is more than a sport, just look at the impact it has on society.

Trust me: I entertain Joe Six-Pack 30 weekends a year. I don't really think that I'm an elitist.

We don't want it to be obscure music. We're not trying to be indie. We want to be popular.

Contrary to what most people believe, fads are made, not born.

Scandal is like McDonald's. It's cheap and it's easily accessible to the masses, and when you're going to McDonald's, you know that you can get a salad, but do you want a salad? No. You want a Big Mac and French fries with an apple pie and a sundae.

Pop music might seem banal and simple to some people, but it's what it expresses that counts.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't like Robbie Williams but he is presented to the public in such a way that they have no choice.

I'm not super aware of what's the coolest thing and what everybody's doing or listening to or watching at any given time.