Popular Culture is most of all commercial; it is what sells in society. It is familiar; we are consciences of it without thinking about it at all. What sold last year is usually expected to be what sells this year. Innovations occur in our creative attempts to make more money and satisfy the needs of people to be “up on the latest trends” and we get the Chia Obama figurine ‘http://www.chia.com/’.
Right now it is the Jonas Bros, but they are certainly not the first ‘boy band’ to come along life’s highway and if there aren’t the last will anybody be surprised! Is any ‘boy band’ just a group of wonderfully talented kids that get together to play music sing some songs and then every kid in the country comes along to spend big bucks to fill arena’s. Miley Cyrus is the soon to be too old to be teen idol that rocks the teen world. She isn’t the first and will not be last… probably … to fill our television screens and music mediums, and eventually tabloid covers. Miley and the Jonas boys are both creations of the Disney entertainment machine and as long as we are living in a society that values youth and has the money to spend someone will be out there to make the business move.
The ‘times they are a changing’ and nothing is inevitable. The stock market didn’t keep going up no matter what we did, Popular Culture will change to reflect the times though, our Zeitgeist! What trends might be lingering in the simmering world of folk culture that will suddenly become today’s hot trend in popular culture? Will the Jonas brothers or Miley cool down and go on to great carriers on the stage, cinema or some new medium; movie into the world of elite culture or will the fade away into the dusty bin of history to be some future story in ‘whatever happened to late night program…?’ Producer director Ron Howard was always just cute little ol’ Opie Taylor son of the Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor.
Why do we see things like this, what does it say about our society.
The chia Obama is unbelievable! At first I thought you were kidding, then I went to the site given and could barely believe it. Whatever sells I guess.
ReplyDeleteObama is almost a cult figure now. He is charismatic following a not-so-popular president... so its inevitable. It does concern me how much he is honored when he's barely been in office long enough to make any kind of difference.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the boy band/teen idol sensation. Soon the poor kids will make some sort of mistake as teenagers are wont to do, and the same media that built them up will almost ritualistically tear them back down. An episode of South Park actually addressed this phenomenon regarding britney spears.
It actually depresses me.