The Guardian wants to tell us all that something has changed wildly in our culture. Pop stars no longer mumble something about a career break and then scurry off to have a baby, they announce and display publicly. Which is just fine, great even, of course. But it’s not quite the change that The Guardian thinks it is. It’s actually just that naked capitalism again:
Until recently, pregnancy has been mostly anathema to the pop world.
However, a more positive, accepting attitude has been brewing for a while. In 2011, Beyoncé famously announced her pregnancy to the crowd at the MTV Video Music awards, and those watching at home, by flicking open her jacket, rubbing her bump and grinning. In 2017, a floral, veiled image of her kneeling while pregnant with twins received the highest number of Instagram likes of the year.
Who are the audience? Ever since Frank Sinatra launched the whole thing to the bobbysoxers it has been those dreaming about boys’n’girls that have been the paying audience, not those clearing up baby sick. This has changed more recently, those eyeing up the baby rompers are still those buying the music and going to the gigs. Thus the public presentation of those making the stuff to be bought has changed.
As ever, changes in behaviour are best explained by “Follow the Money.” You know, that naked lust for pilf and gelt which drives this capitalism lark?
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