Pop Culture 'Germany Style'

A most interesting piece on the NY Times observes:

"...it’s true there is a general embarrassment among Germans about being famous for being famous. Unless you are a world-class star, you must be intellectual and appear normal; otherwise you’re considered trash.”

Mr. Poschardt elaborated: “It’s the reverse of America. You can openly be an intellectual elitist here, but materially you must act the same as everyone else. We have a lively pop scene now, but Germany doesn’t have a real pop culture tradition because we killed or expelled everybody who produced pop culture years ago, then we missed out on the next 50 years."
Read more here.
graph per ny times