When Kurt Cobain died, I found out about the news on MTV. For quite a number of days there was coverage of people flocking to Seattle to mourn him. Like many years earlier with the death of John Lennon, this generation found a way to network and a way to cope with the death of someone they thought of as an icon.

When Michael Jackson died, he was such a legend in music it didn’t matter that MTV didn’t do music videos anymore. All of the cable stations, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and even the financial channels covered his passing. It was so big that Farrah Fawcett, who had died a few hours before and was considered a major passing, was made an afterthought.

Cobain and Jackson were major music icons and their deaths would be mentioned in depth my mainstream media, it’s a given. In many cases, what I would call icon deaths are given short service, basically because their impact isn’t known by those who follow so called popular culture. If it isn’t hip, happening and now it’s going to be ignored, the impact of the loss is going to be a possible one paragraph footnote in People Magazine.

Frank Frazetta died last week. His artwork has been an inspiration to young men all over the United States. If you go to any comic book convention, go to any comic book store and you will see the influence of Frazetta. His artwork for the Conan paperback books may not have been modeled after Arnold, but the rugged barbarian was so correctly committed to canvas by Frazetta that there was no way someone like Arnold couldn’t have played him. Without Arnold there would be no Conan movie. Heavy metal legions have seen his art on the cover of countless album covers. Arguably his best work would be Death Dealer, which was probably the single most iconic representation of pure id evil before Darth Vader (Death Dealer, Darth Vader. Similarities there?) came around.

Frazetta did get some long articles written about him in the LA Times and the NY Times, but most papers and magazines treated his death as a footnote, an also ran story. His impact was great on the id of Middle America yet he was never mentioned in the broadcast news.

Another icon, Ronnie James Dio, died yesterday. As a solo and group artist, the short, slightly balding and kind of odd looking singer was someone not to trifle with. When he belted out songs like Holy Diver or Last in Line, that voice of his, that big voice from such a small body, would shake a room. It didn’t matter that he looked like a slightly crazy uncle rather than a heavy metal god; when he sang legions of the heavy metal faithful would hold their hands high in allegiance and bang their heads into submission.

He died in the morning yesterday and I found out about it from a random Twitter contact well into the afternoon. Last in the evening there were some lengthy articles, again in the LA and NY Times, but only a footnote mention in the broadcast news.

I guess where I’m a little saddened by this, other than the loss of another icon, is that people who are pioneers, people who meant something to a long legion of fans is routinely dismissed in life and in death for flash in the pan celebrities. The past week I have learned more than I want to know about Justine Bieber, Greyson Chance and Lady Gaga. Maybe Lady Gaga will have relevance for more than three years but Beiber and Chance? Do people really think the constant focus on these internet blips is going to be relevant in five years? In two years? Dio has survived since the 70s yet gets a ‘did you know he died?’ notice while a guy singing Lady Gaga and a guy who got a record deal because of YouTube are considered the next best hope for the music business.