Since 1999, Popular culture has experienced significant changes, driven by technological advances, the expansion of the media, and the rise of the new digital world. The documentary released in 2001, The Merchants of Cool, reveals an insight into how media corporations strategically targeted youth culture, trying to shape the behaviors of the younger generations. In this essay, I will evaluate how contemporary popular culture has changed since this documentary, using John Storey’s Cultural Theory and Popular Culture to examine the major differences and similarities in popular culture. By analyzing Storey’s six definitions of popular culture, I will argue that The Merchants of Cool reflects many themes, but with the rise of new media, popular …show more content…
The word “coquette” has even become a way for girls to complement each other, as in saying “You look so coquette”, to express a sense of cute, girly style. In turn, a few months after this trend was created, it is now classified as old and cheesy to wear bows or say coquette anymore. Another example using TikTok of how trends can rise and fall rapidly is the “Hawk Tuah” girl, Hailey Welch on TikTok. Hawk Tuah went viral in an interview on Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee, where she said a catchphrase” Hawk Tuah”. The video quickly gained significant traction, leading people to make merchandise: t-shirts, cups, and flags, featuring her and her catchphrase. Her brief period of fame led to the launch of her podcast Talk Tuah with Hailey Welch and prompted her to move to Los Angeles in pursuit of an influencer career. This example shows how TikTok and other social media platforms can push an individual into the spotlight overnight, demonstrating the quick rise and fall of social media and influencer …show more content…
This is shown with the recent trend’s coquette and Hawk Tuah, both rose to fame extremely quickly and fell even faster. Next, something that has remained consistent with The Merchants of Cool until now is the commercialization of the “youth culture”, especially through sexuality. In The Merchants of Cool, the media talks about the “mook” and the “midriff” portraying them as young women and men defining themselves through their sexuality. Commercials and TV shows based on sex and marketing women around appearance instead of being individual have remained a consistent theme throughout the media world. Both now and previously, young women and influencers are encouraged to use their sexuality as a form of self-expression to gain popularity. With social media platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat taking over from MTV and TV shows from the early 2000s, this trend has increased. Continuous patterns of self-image and desirability through social media platforms remain just as evident, if not more, than in the 2000s. The concept of “cool hunting” from the documentary relates to multiple of Storey’s definitions of popular
In Rushkoff’s film, The Merchants of Cool, he rhetorically questions if “teenagers even have a culture to call distinctly their own.” In the late 1990’s when the documentary was made, the implication was that they do not. However, with the internet’s advancements and the accessibility of communication with massive amounts of people, teenagers today can form authentic cultures that are not contaminated by the corporate media. When the documentary was produced, media exposure was limited to private
A documentary titled, “The Merchants of Cool” focuses on the marketing machine and the media's reliance on the machine in diffusing information to teens. One of the scenes from this documentary that stood out to me was during an Insane Clown Posse concert. As the Juggalos (fans) of Insane Clown Posse lined up outside in downtown Detroit to see the band perform, they express their reasoning behind their support of the band. In this paper, I will mainly use Neil Smelser's Value Added Theory, focusing
controversial arguments that were presented in the film “The Merchants of Cool”, one in some ways should be affected by the actual realization that this level of disinformation could be present within our society. Tv executives, movie producers, record producers and many others confine teens today with the most contradictory marketing pitches that causes teens to look towards the media to provide them with a ready-made identity of what is considered to be “cool”. Instead of empowering young individuals, the continual
The Merchants of Cool: Teenagers reflected in media Corporate America: the marketers of popular culture. They broadcast their influence nearly everywhere: billboards in Time Square, music videos, and teens' clothing. In the expository video documentary, "The Merchants of Cool," Douglass Rushkoff interviews teens, industry professionals, marketers, and academic critics to explore the symbiotic relationship between teenagers and media. Rushkoff defines the feedback loop as a marketing stratagem in
have in common with medieval childrens fashion? Actually children were dressed as miniture adults, but with less exaggerated details. they were mini dolls, not much has changed has changed today. This is illustrated through noble children's dress, merchant and town folk's children basic clothing and peasent childrens's dress. Fashion in the elizabethan era was very important there were even laws made, only allowing certain classes to wear certan things. This law was called the sumptuary law and
The paradox of "cool hunting" is that it kills what it finds. In America, as well as across the globe, trends are consistently changing and the trend spotters are trying to keep up with the ever changing ideas of today’s teenagers. Every big-city scene-kid or bored teenager in the suburbs stays connected to the moment's hot clubs, restaurants, hobbies and clothing. Trend Spotters travel the world, watch people shop, eat, and mingle, videotape and photograph them, study census data, examine online
The media has created the representation that criminal procedures contemplate juries and forensic science. The CSI-Effect was created through the evolution of the popular crime dramas CSI, NCIS, Bones, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds. The false of perception through these hit TV-shows are the result for the increase of criminal crime and criminal justice careers. It has been proven that people from the younger age have been the most influenced by these shows. These shows have been oversimplified
The story “God Sees The Truth, But Waits,” by Leo N. Tolstoy, takes place in the town of Vladimir, Russia around the mid 1800s. It follows the dynamic protagonist Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov, a handsome and successful merchant that lives in Vladimir with his wife and children. Aksionov decides to go to the Nizhny Fair one summer, but before he is about to embark his wife stops him and tells Aksionov that should not start on his journey that day because she had dreamt of him returning with grey hair
The video starts of by using biographical criticism. The narrator states, “From the guy who made Batman comics cool again and the guy who’ll probably make Batman movies suck again.” The narrator starts of by introducing the directors of the film. He criticizes the directors based on their past work. Another form of criticism used is Jungian & Myth criticism. The
We often believe that childhood is one of the most carefree and innocent times in our lives - a time where social hierarchies and brand names had no significance and value. We thought that kids didn’t have to worry about fitting in or being popular and they could use their imaginations to bring any old object to life. However, this view of childhood is idealistic and improbable. Children are often looked at as subjects who are passive and easily manipulated. However, it is important to recognize
Discrimination is a resounding theme in The Merchant of Venice (Meyers). All of the characters are affected by inequality. This inequity is evidenced clearly in Shylock, the Jewish usurer. He is treated with scorn and derision by all the characters. Shylock’s misfortunes stem not from poor attributes or even a poor background; it stems from the fact he is Jewish, and what is more, he is impenitent of that distinction. If he had been more daunted by Christian influence, he might have been forgiven
1 Introduction： With the development of global economy, the profits of enterprises are facing tougher competition and adjustment. Then the traditional sales model was not competitive any more compared with other new alternative promotion tactics. In general, the promotion will increase the overall product sales by stimulating the purchasing intention of customers and influencing customers’ behavior. For instance, a large portion of the early entrants in the market could not survive without promotion
Sleeping beauty Giambattista Basile story Sun, moon and Talia This story takes place in a country mansion. The major characters are Talia, her kids and the king and queen. Some of the major events are when Talia pricks her finger with a splinter of flax and she falls asleep forever. But then she gets moved to a country house and a king finds her and rapes her, She gets pregnant and has twins the king finds out, then one of the twins sucks the splinter of flax all the way from her finger to her
roads are? Well, would you believe that they were invented around 1800 years ago! In Rome! The Romans built over 400,000kms of paved roads, after a couple of years there were almost 30 main highways going in and out of Rome. If you think that’s pretty cool they even invented the Julian calendar, which consisted of 365 days and 12 months. These were the names of the months: Ianuarius (January) Februarius (February) Martius (march) Aprilis (April) Maius (may) Junius (June) Julius (July) Augustus (august)
region to develop unique characterteristics. The New England colonies had rocky, sandy soil. The poor soil along with short growing seasons and cool climate caused few farms. The farms that did reside in the New England colonies were small and colonists got little from them. Due to little farms colonists had to but goods from the harbor and merchants. The jobs that were needed the most in the New England colonies were blacksmiths, shipbuilders, carpenters, preachers, lawyers, and doctors. The Puritan