There is a common pattern in the cycle of culture. People (mainly teens) find something they like or identify with and once media discovers something that is popular, they overuse it until it is no longer appealing. An example of this is music. One of my favorite bands was Twenty One Pilots and I used to listen to their music before they were so popular. The first time their song, "Stressed Out" was played on the radio, I was super excited because it meant that more people might share a similar taste in music. However, their song was played so many times that eventually, I cringed every time it was on. Then I was just disappointed because this song that I really enjoyed was twisted into something I hated. Afterwards, I looked for new music that I would like and stopped listening to Twenty One Pilots. I still like the band but now it is much less appealing.
This same scenario happens all the time. We find something interesting from the media or vise versa but then we obsess over it until we move on. This happens with songs, clothing style, movies, and so much more. Something is cool for a while but we always move on to something else. It's debatable whether this is good or bad. Even though we grow tired of things easily, we are always open to trying new things.
Often times we see ourselves as original, but in actuality, if we were to take a step back and look at our lives, we would see that our "originality" is very similar to that of others. The radio targets this, by claiming that they play only "new" and "original" music. However, in most cases, if we were to change the station, we would hear the same song on a different station making the same claims of originality.
ReplyDeleteI think that we don't have our own culture. Media seems to be the source of all supposed original creations. Even in music, media creates the setting that inspired the music, even if that is often an unintended consequence of companies striving for profit. Therefore, in creating our own culture, we are actually just sculpting whatever information or ideas that the media gives to us into another thing for them to profit off of.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a lot of the things we think are cool come from media, but I wonder if the constant cycle of cool to uncool would still be present without the forms of media we have today. Without social media, tv, or movies, how would the idea of cool change?
ReplyDeleteI have my own yogurt. (Get it? Culture?)
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