I've recently read a book on movies that described certain directors as "commercial", and I began thinking... Does everything that is popular or "mainstream" - however you might define the word - by definition un-progressive, whitewashed, "dumbed down", non-inclusive, "safe", or whatnot? Does something getting popular signal the meggido of its individuality/originality/convention-defying?
And does liking "mainstream" stuff say anything about you?
(Sorry if this is poorly articulated, I'm eager to clarify stuff if you ask.)
I want to enjoy what I enjoy. But I feel so ashamed...
As an extremely wise scientist specializing in hydrogeology (a very
underground discipline) was fond of quoting Heraclitus
(c. 535 – c. 475 BC so old school) to me:
you never step into the same river twice.
I encourage you to read this very relevant thread:
Guilty Pleasures... or just Pleasures?, one small excerpt:
But beware: the opinion of the tribe is always evolving. Yes, my friend -- you have to be ready to adapt to new trends. For example, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Nirvana, and Radiohead have released records that received horrible reviews. However, the same publications that dismissed these releases have now declared these former duds to be among the most timeless records that rock and roll has to offer.
Have you ever seen those blind wine tasting parties? The tasters are poured wines from assorted bottles, all of which are concealed. Then each gets to personally rate the wines without regard to vintage or price or perceived superiority. Its supposedly the truest way to get a sense of
what one really enjoys.
Do you think I need to make another thread focused less on aesthetics and more on whether consuming mainstream stuff is detrimental to the advancement of society or whatnot?
You are not the music you buy, the brands you are loyal to, the decorations you put on yourself. Its what culture has been
selling us for quite a while now. There are interesting theories about
conspicuous consumption especially in regard to social media and the underground coolness factor.
from
The Big Think
Coolness makes people buy things they don't need, merely as a way to signal their evolutionary fitness. If that's the case, what is the new source of conspicuous Web consumption? It's not marketing, since, let's face it, the cooler a service is, the fewer people know about it. Facebook was cool at 100 thousand, but is it still cool at 100 million?
I would argue that the new source of conspicuous Web consumption is the cult of the celebrity, which has finally migrated from the world of traditional media to the world of digital media. With its global scale and reach, the Internet has created the illusion that celebrity is easier to attain than ever before, with only the click of a mouse.
from
n+1
In social media, where everyone can employ design ideology, the persistent messages of advertising—that magical self-transformation through purchases is possible, that one’s inner truth can be expressed through the manipulation of well-worked surfaces—become practical rather than insulting. Not only do the methods and associative logic of advertising become more concretely useful, but its governing ideology no longer seems conformist but radically individualistic. Social media encourage us to appropriate whatever we want and claim it as our own without feeling derivative or slavishly imitative. On Facebook, if I link to, say, a YouTube video of Bob Dylan singing “I Threw It All Away†on the Johnny Cash Show in 1969, I am saying something particular about myself, not merely consuming the performance. I am declaring that video clip to be essentially equivalent to an update I may have written about a trip to Philadelphia or to pictures of me at a party that someone might have tagged. It is all bricolage for personal identity building.
I don't have the answers, but its interesting to watch and ponder, an interesting time to be alive. And in these days of social media saturation I think it can show some courage to be honest and like what you like.
I remember Sophie B. Hawkins saying, "good pop music makes the fucking world go 'round" and I'm inclined to agree. In keeping with posting 90s pop vids, here is hers reaching the 5th spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1992:
[YOUTUBE="Lt6r-k9Bk6o"]Free your mind and you won't feel ashamed[/YOUTUBE]
Distaste for the banal comes from growing accustomed to the exquisite. Reading only complex literature, you are easily bored with the simple and obvious patterns of pulp fiction, but it also spoils the fun you might otherwise have drawn from it.
Middlebrow is not the solution!
Perhaps it sounds contradictory, but I, too, believe and practice offsetting and training away from a taste for the more trashy cultural amusement offerings by engaging in what I find has been elevating throughout time, which is often challenging, but enriching and gratifying in the long run. I feel the same way about when I consume a fast food meal versus when I make my own homemade meals from scratch. Fun isn't the same as happiness. But both have their place.
Oooh, its a refreshing new spin on
this thread (formerly cool, but now decidedly mainstream).
Men need knowledge of the real world in order to hunt animals and collect crops. Women watch shadows on cave walls and make up stories to entertain children. Uga-uga.
The shadows inspired them to
make a singing magic while those men were asleep