Despite years as a college radio DJ, Imagethief has never had much time for Bjork. I find her pretentious to a degree not entirely compensated for by talent. But, then, I think the future of pop music died when Led Zep broke up, so you may want to control for my tastes.

Despite my inclination to be dismissive of all things Bjorkish, I was interested to read that the Icelandic singer chanted the word "Tibet" several times during the finale of her song, "Declare Independence", performed as the second encore. There is a good video of the moment on the Guardian website. In fact the song was originally written about that hotbed of fiery separatism, Greenland. But it seems to be one of those songs easily customized to needs of the moment. The singer inserted "Kosovo" during a performance last week in Japan. One assumes Kosovo isn't a particularly emotive issue there.

Was this a Serious Political Statement? Looking at the zillions of headlines now generated by this, Imagethief has seen the moment described as a "protest", an "appeal", an "outburst", and a "declaration". But given that I cannot find any record of Bjork commenting on Tibet prior to the concert (although it may simply be hard to spot given the snowdrift of concert coverage), it seems more likely that this was simply showmanship tuned to the moment at hand. Bjork's actual sympathies apparently lie more with the Greenlandic and Faroe Islander splittist movements than the Tibetan one. Sorry if this leaves anyone disappointed.

I have mixed feelings about this event. Confronting people and making them uncomfortable is a legitimate role for art, including pop music. While most indigenous pop music in China is apolitical bubblegum safely free of anything more controversial than romantic heartbreak, all the world's music can be easily had here. I presume the kind of people who buy tickets to a Bjork concert have fairly worldly (if questionable) taste. Certainly no shoes, mobile phones or very small people were thrown at the singer after her performance. Perhaps that's because she was performing in English. Or perhaps Chinese Bjork fans can take political statements in stride.

Still, people probably don't go to pop concerts expecting to see national shibboleths attacked by foreigners. In China, where memories of foreign-inflicted humiliations are used as a motivational tool and Tibet is a done deal, this is cultural dynamite. Thus, it was no surprise to see the Chinese online commentariat light up with hostility, much which was presumably driven by the kind of people who don't go to Bjork concerts. Imagethief was particularly amused to see one commenter on Shanghaiist refer to her as a "dwarf bitch". Ouch.

So, ultimately, was it appropriate for Bjork to do this? From the point of view of art, yeah, probably. But it was also rude. No one should have to sit through the cacaphony of "Declare Independence" only to have their illusions crushed. This episode seemed to Imagethief like politics-lite for the sake of showbiz. There are more subtle ways to confront an audience with uncomfortable issues, especially in a country where the Stones' "Brown Sugar" was considered to hot to handle.

Certainly it was bang-up PR for the singer, who is now getting heaps of press coverage, much of which will offset any resentment that particularly weepy fans may have felt about her performing in sinister Communist China. Of course, she won't be performing again in China anytime soon. But a buddy of mine once flew six hours from Singapore to go see Duran Duran in Tokyo (he also brought back a photograph of himself in an elevator with a slightly uncomfortable looking Simon LeBon), so for true Bjork fans Seoul and Kong Kong aren't far away.

If Bjork had wanted to make a really powerful statement she would have sung "Declare Independence" at the beginning of the concert rather than during the encore. Now that might have been a show worth watching.

Note: Imagethief apologizes to any Bjork fans among his readers. To be fair, I probably like plenty of stuff you think is awful.