Etta versus Beyonce: the Broader Context

I posited this on JackandPolitics (click in the sidebar blogroll; I think Rikyrah started the evening's thread) regarding Etta James' unhappy licks on Beyonce singing her song to the First Couple. It likely goes back to the flick Cadillac Records. For details check Bossip and The Black Snob, also on the blogroll. Apparently Jennifer Holiday was supposed to deliver the song, and it would have been an instant classic rather than the gimmicky/typical marketing event it was (though a patina of hype...yes down deep it was magical, visceral for all including Mrs Jay-Z; it was history). Still...I side with Etta and there's some allegory here:

I think the American public has been infantilized beyond repair. However,
like children, if they have little choice, they'll eat what you give them. If
the quality can be turned up even just a notch (w/Barack at the bully
pulpit--and don't poo poo that, b/c due who invented the bully pulpit, Teddy
Roosevelt,along with JFK for three years, actually did influence public tastes
for the better) it wll happen. As for Etta I think there's definitely a
disconnect which lends back to this infantile, manufactured/overpoduced/hype
marketing machine that's permeated our culture. Etta should have sung it in the
first place, but the producers of the ball wanted to appeal to the infantile
element. If that means Nick Cannon and Beyonce then that's the deal. I
understand that in this era of music moguls and lame creativity. But that
doesn't really do much to laud our classics and our pioneers. Etta's been
rediscovered as a marketing gimmick, which bugs me.

Look at Faye Dunaway commenting on Hillary Duff being cast in her classic
role in the iconic Bonnie & Clyde. So who plays Clyde--dude from The O.C. or
Gossip Girl? What's next--Lil Wayne (because of his marketing pull with the
young folks) playing Nat Turner? ;-) Back to the silly shit, that's cool. But as
I've said in the past, that stuff, from madea to dumbass Kevin james or sandler,
should be the treat, the dessert, not dinner. We have the script flipped.
Serious engaging stuff as the exception, brain candy as the norm. Frankly isn't
that what Barack said had to end on a political policy level if we're going to
survive this mess? Maybe stimulus $ should go to cultural rehab/repair, as they do in
Europe.