Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
(n) The principal or dominant course, tendency. or trend.
A society of people move in phases
Within those phases lies a generation
Each one marked and defined by one or two huge cultural/social breakthroughs.
There was the explosion of jazz in the Harlem Renaissance, rock 'n roll in the 1940's and 50's, the Beatles in the 70's, Michael Jackson in the 80's and 90's, and now Justin Bieber's hair. Wait, that doesn't count because his hair isn't responsible for anything relate to music. So then I guess just, Justin Bieber.
And then there's the inventions. The invention of the automobile and the telephone. Cinema and Jersey Shore. The take over of Apple, and a little something I read about somewhere called Facebook.
It's crazy to think about how especially at this time of age, a kid in his or her 20's can create a multibillion dollar company from the comfort of his dorm room.
Or that a company can single handedly monopolize everyday technology, and then some.
I remember watching that commercial on TV of the people counting down the minutes like they're waiting for an apocalypse to come. And then realizing at the end that it was a Verizon Wireless commercial of their users waiting for the iPhone 4 to arrive.
And we all know by now relationships don't require people to physically meet each other anymore--just a Facebook status that says "in a relationship with 'I think his name is John'" while John is expected to comment on at least 30% of your profile pictures and post on your wall occasionally.
If you told someone that 20 years ago they would stick a post-it on one of the walls in your room saying "Is this what you mean?"
The best part thing about being apart of this generation is that a 7 year old girl might not know what its like for a 25-year-old girl to be on her period but they will both jizz in their pants every time a 16 year old kid can flip his hair and say "baby" 50 times over in a song,
Ah, the things that bring people together, God and Justin Bieber.
At this very moment something is in the process of changing society. The way we think, the way we interact with one another, the way we live.
Does that not blow your mind?
We are all a variable factored into this formula. This magical, profitable, history-making formula. A formula that says if you can find something that people want but don't have and mix it with sex appeal, advertising, and a good business plan you can get people's attention, I mean, really get people's attention.
So are we so easily manipulated, are we so predictable, are we so quick to follow the mainstream?
Yes.
We are. We feed on only what is in front of us, something that everyone is eating; placed on a shiny silver plate and in a way that will make us all "ooh" and "ahh". And people like Mark Zuckerburg, Steve Wozniak, Karl Benz, and Usher, are the people who are perceptive enough to see that.
Because if someone came up to you and said Hey do you want to pay to see a girl talk to music while her drunk ass stumbles around stage? Unless your Charlie Sheen and you're thinking she sounds like easy shag, you'd probably say no. Yet half of the girls I know went to see Kesha this weekend...and oh god I just remembered her name's actually spelled Ke$ha........
And thus within in 2.5 seconds I have proven my point.
We don't listen to so many artists because they make good music, we listen to them because they are turned from a normal human being to a record label's marketing strategy, hoping that we buy it. Ke$sha isn't even a person's name. It's a brand. Kanye West might be an asshole, but at least he didn't replace the "e" in his name with a "3".
Don't get me wrong, no matter how condescending and sarcastic I sound, in the end, I know I'm just as guilty of believing all this hype. It's human nature. And while it's easy to sit here and say, "don't give in to the mainstream and all its bullshit", I do it all the time, every day. I'm almost afraid. Like because I'm apart of a society, I don't have control over how I'm going to be influenced in the future. Am I my own person, or am I just a reflection of the society around me?
All I know is that I'm trying to be more open minded to what's out there - over shadowed by the mainstream. The fact that there's so many underground issues in our world, so much undiscovered talent, so many underrepresented people that are out there.
I'm also going to try to be okay with following the crowd every now and then.
Because for all you out there who think you're too good to listen to Ke$ha or go crazy over Justin Bieber like me, sometimes trying too hard to be anti-conformist just makes you look like a pretentious asshole.
Within those phases lies a generation
Each one marked and defined by one or two huge cultural/social breakthroughs.
There was the explosion of jazz in the Harlem Renaissance, rock 'n roll in the 1940's and 50's, the Beatles in the 70's, Michael Jackson in the 80's and 90's, and now Justin Bieber's hair. Wait, that doesn't count because his hair isn't responsible for anything relate to music. So then I guess just, Justin Bieber.
And then there's the inventions. The invention of the automobile and the telephone. Cinema and Jersey Shore. The take over of Apple, and a little something I read about somewhere called Facebook.
It's crazy to think about how especially at this time of age, a kid in his or her 20's can create a multibillion dollar company from the comfort of his dorm room.
Or that a company can single handedly monopolize everyday technology, and then some.
I remember watching that commercial on TV of the people counting down the minutes like they're waiting for an apocalypse to come. And then realizing at the end that it was a Verizon Wireless commercial of their users waiting for the iPhone 4 to arrive.
And we all know by now relationships don't require people to physically meet each other anymore--just a Facebook status that says "in a relationship with 'I think his name is John'" while John is expected to comment on at least 30% of your profile pictures and post on your wall occasionally.
If you told someone that 20 years ago they would stick a post-it on one of the walls in your room saying "Is this what you mean?"
The best part thing about being apart of this generation is that a 7 year old girl might not know what its like for a 25-year-old girl to be on her period but they will both jizz in their pants every time a 16 year old kid can flip his hair and say "baby" 50 times over in a song,
Ah, the things that bring people together, God and Justin Bieber.
At this very moment something is in the process of changing society. The way we think, the way we interact with one another, the way we live.
Does that not blow your mind?
We are all a variable factored into this formula. This magical, profitable, history-making formula. A formula that says if you can find something that people want but don't have and mix it with sex appeal, advertising, and a good business plan you can get people's attention, I mean, really get people's attention.
So are we so easily manipulated, are we so predictable, are we so quick to follow the mainstream?
Yes.
We are. We feed on only what is in front of us, something that everyone is eating; placed on a shiny silver plate and in a way that will make us all "ooh" and "ahh". And people like Mark Zuckerburg, Steve Wozniak, Karl Benz, and Usher, are the people who are perceptive enough to see that.
Because if someone came up to you and said Hey do you want to pay to see a girl talk to music while her drunk ass stumbles around stage? Unless your Charlie Sheen and you're thinking she sounds like easy shag, you'd probably say no. Yet half of the girls I know went to see Kesha this weekend...and oh god I just remembered her name's actually spelled Ke$ha........
And thus within in 2.5 seconds I have proven my point.
We don't listen to so many artists because they make good music, we listen to them because they are turned from a normal human being to a record label's marketing strategy, hoping that we buy it. Ke$sha isn't even a person's name. It's a brand. Kanye West might be an asshole, but at least he didn't replace the "e" in his name with a "3".
Don't get me wrong, no matter how condescending and sarcastic I sound, in the end, I know I'm just as guilty of believing all this hype. It's human nature. And while it's easy to sit here and say, "don't give in to the mainstream and all its bullshit", I do it all the time, every day. I'm almost afraid. Like because I'm apart of a society, I don't have control over how I'm going to be influenced in the future. Am I my own person, or am I just a reflection of the society around me?
All I know is that I'm trying to be more open minded to what's out there - over shadowed by the mainstream. The fact that there's so many underground issues in our world, so much undiscovered talent, so many underrepresented people that are out there.
I'm also going to try to be okay with following the crowd every now and then.
Because for all you out there who think you're too good to listen to Ke$ha or go crazy over Justin Bieber like me, sometimes trying too hard to be anti-conformist just makes you look like a pretentious asshole.
Friday, February 11, 2011
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