Idolatry

The following text began its life as a comment added to Socar's blog on The Next Canadian Idol. Her Slim Hoser video clip is a work of unparalleled importance in Canadian pop culture. It deserved a serious review.

What appears superficially to be an overt lampooning of both the tv idol genre and nineties rap has a deeper and more sinister edge than either. Here the undercurrents of violence from the gangsta-rap tradition have been carefully wrapped in the unashamed self promotion of its dons, filtered with the unconscious ineptitude of star-struck youth, then reflected in a parodic mirror so distorted that the resulting image can only be described as daringly original art.

If it wasn't for the self-mocking comic tradition that is now deeply entrenched in the Canadian psyche this seminal work could easily be dismissed as a puerile piss-take spawned by the ennui of an exceptionally long Sunday afternoon. An experienced examination of the timing of the supposed slips, the contrived non-Canadian accent and the apparently raw sound mixing shows that such is not the case. It takes an experienced production team and a large budget to perfect that spontaneous, amateurish, home-video ambiance.

Looking at the clip through the glasses of performance art history tells us that Socar has produced a work that is doomed to be misunderstood. Her bravery in showing this to the hoards of philistines shows how passionately she believes in following her muse. Perhaps the people of next century will look back and posthumously recognise a true Canadian idol.