Merchants of Cool

Okay so I started this documentary at 12am and was like "no way I'm going to watch this hour long documentary this late." Fast forward to 1am and here we are. Surprisingly interesting production, particularly for me because most of the groups featured were big when I was first discovering MTV and music in general (although I was still a bit below the demographic age-wise). The documentary was about marketing to the teen demographic, and how marketing strategies are symbiotic with the culture, in that they change what the consumer wants, and they have to adapt to those changes in effect. Basically it's an impossible task: give kids what they want but don't let them feel like you're trying to give them what they want, also read their minds and know what they want. I think it's interesting how music videos and MTV depictions of sexuality and raunchiness are intended to be exaggerations, popular due to their lack of existence in the real world, end up encouraging that behavior in the real world, causing the need for more extremes in increase to meet the now rising demands. To me, it seems like a collision course. At what point is the level of extremism necessary to satisfy teens going to just explode into unattainability, and what happens then? In this way, American culture is sort of a bubble. We do crazy shit, then look at pictures of us doing crazy shit as affirmation to keep doing crazy shit. Being at the forefront of the world, nothing is around to tell us to knock it off (except maybe car accidents, STDs, and teen pregnancy). Personally, I believe this is a cultural phase that is not sustainable, and will naturally level off, giving way to some era of calmness and realization of our ability to be manipulated. Here's to hoping.