Firocket1690
Jan 10, 2008, 03:07 AM
The Merchants of Cool (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/)
Note: Keep in mind, the above video is a few years old, and slightly outdated.
Hm. This was a rather .. amusing session.
On Tuesday, we finished watching The Merchants of Cool in Sociology. I was amused at the .. inner workings of corporate marketing. I was amazed at the time, effort, and money corporations invest into creating 'cool' or rather, pop culture. Companies try to market and sell any and everything to consumers for a profit. They get to define pop culture because they can. Culture can control one's eating habits, clothes, music tastes, and even behavior.
Well. It probably had a stronger impact on me than some of my peers. 'cause when I was younger, I've been .. a little isolated. And I like it. Well. Sitting at a computer has quite a few perks. Being a social hermit at home, I generally have nobody to impress, no? So I'd wear what's comfortable, what I want to wear, etc. I didn't get my first pair of jeans till .. about a week ago. And again, the lack of friends means there's nobody for me to 'blend' into/with, hence, no physical standards I should be living up to? Good. I have sweatpants and I'm comfortable. To hell with aesthetics.
File sharing sources usually list artist/album title; online, nobody cares about what's popular, and that's probably how I developed a rather .. odd eclectic of musical tastes. Which also brings me to another point I found rather interesting about the music corporation thing. Anyone here heard of Radiohead? Finally liberated from a major label (EMI), they recently tried an experiment of their seventh album, In Rainbows where the consumer could select the price of the album. The result? Radiohead earned more money with In Rainbows than the royalties of all their other studio albums combined. (Article (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080102-radiohead-artists-often-screwed-by-digital-downloads.html))
Really goes to show how ... what's the word, unbalanced? Biased? Unfair? the corporate media can be.
I'm not saying get up and rebel against pop culture/corporations/etc, and I'm not saying go buy Tullycraft's newest indie record because nobody's heard of them. Personally, I think I have a strange blend of both, which forms my own character. Individuality isn't formed by following trends. I find it funny that so many people are wrapped up in .. whatever's popular? So go on. If you like that tacky shirt that your friends think you're crazy for, go get it. If you listen to Hilary Duff, enjoy it. Do what you want, not what they want you to want?
Eh. That last sentence didn't even make sense. It worked out in my mind. I dunno. It's 3am, I have an internship in five hours. I was just thinking.
Discuss.
Note: Keep in mind, the above video is a few years old, and slightly outdated.
Hm. This was a rather .. amusing session.
On Tuesday, we finished watching The Merchants of Cool in Sociology. I was amused at the .. inner workings of corporate marketing. I was amazed at the time, effort, and money corporations invest into creating 'cool' or rather, pop culture. Companies try to market and sell any and everything to consumers for a profit. They get to define pop culture because they can. Culture can control one's eating habits, clothes, music tastes, and even behavior.
Well. It probably had a stronger impact on me than some of my peers. 'cause when I was younger, I've been .. a little isolated. And I like it. Well. Sitting at a computer has quite a few perks. Being a social hermit at home, I generally have nobody to impress, no? So I'd wear what's comfortable, what I want to wear, etc. I didn't get my first pair of jeans till .. about a week ago. And again, the lack of friends means there's nobody for me to 'blend' into/with, hence, no physical standards I should be living up to? Good. I have sweatpants and I'm comfortable. To hell with aesthetics.
File sharing sources usually list artist/album title; online, nobody cares about what's popular, and that's probably how I developed a rather .. odd eclectic of musical tastes. Which also brings me to another point I found rather interesting about the music corporation thing. Anyone here heard of Radiohead? Finally liberated from a major label (EMI), they recently tried an experiment of their seventh album, In Rainbows where the consumer could select the price of the album. The result? Radiohead earned more money with In Rainbows than the royalties of all their other studio albums combined. (Article (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080102-radiohead-artists-often-screwed-by-digital-downloads.html))
Really goes to show how ... what's the word, unbalanced? Biased? Unfair? the corporate media can be.
I'm not saying get up and rebel against pop culture/corporations/etc, and I'm not saying go buy Tullycraft's newest indie record because nobody's heard of them. Personally, I think I have a strange blend of both, which forms my own character. Individuality isn't formed by following trends. I find it funny that so many people are wrapped up in .. whatever's popular? So go on. If you like that tacky shirt that your friends think you're crazy for, go get it. If you listen to Hilary Duff, enjoy it. Do what you want, not what they want you to want?
Eh. That last sentence didn't even make sense. It worked out in my mind. I dunno. It's 3am, I have an internship in five hours. I was just thinking.
Discuss.