I hope you aren't big-upping too much in my own comments, which weren't more than "people don't seem to know what they want to be talking about here" -- my sense is that Vampire Weekend are stuck in some kind of feedback loop in which various empty (w/o context) signifiers like "privilege" and "whiteness" are getting thrown around because...uh, because they wear boat shoes on stage? Anyway, my commentary is limited by the fact that (1) I haven't listened to much Vampire Weekend and (2) I couldn't give two shits about them based on what I've heard. I can't remember a single VW lyric for the life of me! Where's my ammo? I used the phrase "cascade" and pointed people toward your Backstreet Boys column (claiming that they were being very "they don't write their own songs!" ad hoc in their justification of visceral dislike) but other than that don't think I offered a particularly enlightened take.

My sense is that this particular conversation isn't worth getting into. But I would like to open up pop music to the media literacy world, at which point I'll come back here and bring you in, quite forcibly, since there's a lot yet to be written and said. Provided I'm not all talk about it (we'll see).