Eminem Is No Elvis

We tell teenagers to act their age, but who is to tell adults to do likewise? Robert Hilburn has obviously chosen to try to be hip rather than apply his years as a journalist and chronicler of popular music in a believable way. He is a middle-aged man pretending to understand today’s youth by--among other inappropriate postures--lauding their temporary idols, such as singing the praises and acknowledging alleged talent of Eminem (“Eminem, On and On,” May 22).

To compare the controversy around Eminem to the ruckus Elvis stirred up at the start of his career not only demeans Elvis’ historical and cultural importance, it elevates an illiterate, homophobic thug to a point of influence that I fervently hope he does not actually possess.

BARRY SHAPIRO

Los Angeles