Merchant of Cool

Jimmy Hoang
913146051

What the documentary "Merchant of Cool" really focuses on is the teens and their spending habits. As state in the video, teens make up the majority of consumers and is the biggest of its generation. As a result, marketers try to focus their sales and ideas around teens to make the largest profit. I believe this video really shows the definition of popular culture for teenagers, and that popular culture is an erratic thing. Popular culture is in my opinion is defined by the masses and in class, we talked a lot about how popular culture is constantly changing. It is erratic because times change and the interests of the people change. What people found amazing yesterday may be dull today. If we look back at Stuart Hall's definition of popular culture he claims that popular culture is dependent on the people and that it changes rapidly. In this case, right now this popular culture of marketing and merchandising depends on this new generation of teens. Merchant of cool really shows and talks about this idea, for instance when interviewing the few kids, they all thought a similar thing was cool and their ideas were related. The identity of popular cultures takes form depending on those who live in it.