3.13.2009

Cool Hunting and the like...

The film we watched this week was very interesting to me. First off, it brought me back to the days when I watched TV programs like "The Tom Green Show" and "Jackass" religiously. It's interesting to me because back in those days I was in high school and watched MTV all the time. I watched TRL even though I couldn't (and still can't) stand Carson Daly. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I even watched "Undressed." That show was so naughty to me, and yet I could not help but watch it.
I never realized what a hold MTV had on my youth until now. I bought
right into its marketing ploy and sadly spent too much of my high school days fixated on its programming. Thankfully, I have freed myself from the grips of MTV's claws. I guess I just got fed up with reality TV for the most part. But that doesn't mean I am free from the media. I still need my daily fix of Sportscenter and Conan (June 1st can't come soon enough). And I certainly can't miss TV shows like 30 Rock and Flight of the Conchords. So I guess while my taste in entertainment has evolved, I suppose the media will always have some sort of hold on me, which is scary and sad.
I also resonated with the concept of "cool hunting" that was explained in the film. I remember when I was in junior high, and I first heard of the band "Sublime." I was singing the lyrics to "Santeria" in school one day when a friend of mine stopped me.
"You know 'Sublime?'" she said.
"Yeah, they're one of my favorite bands now," I r
eplied.
She then went off on how she discovered them first, and now she was upset that the band was going mainstream. The band wouldn't be "cool" anymore.
That's how it was as a teenager for me. Something could be considered totally cool one day and lose all of its coolness the next. In high school my friends and I would wear trucker hats and aviator sunglasses because we thought it was really cool and retro. When I returned from my mission and saw that everyone was wearing them I couldn't wear them anymore. To me, it had lost its "cool factor" now that it had been discovered. It's pretty selfish. It's like something that is so precious to us that we don't wanna share, something that gives us identity. Then everyone else starts doing it, or the media exploits it, and it's not ours anymore.

P.S. Does anyone know where I can find "The Tom Green Show" on DVD? I guess my sense of humor hasn't evolved as much as I'd like to think it has.

3 comments:

  1. I think how interesting it is when we are kids that we justify what we are watching and say it was ok. But, most times when we look back on it we regret having supported it. We say what the kids are watching today is far worse then what we watched, but is that really true.

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  2. Haha, i can't believe you aired your dark secrets from your tv past! Undressed.... tyson, tyson, tyson... haha, just kidding. I had my MTV indulgences (of which i do not have the guts to air on the internet). I agree tho, i had no idea the grip MTV and other stations had on me and the idea of the person i wanted to be just like. so sad. Luckily, now im into trash such as the bachlor and gossip girl... that programming TOTALLY dosnt eat your brain.... im a media addict.

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  3. I wish I could help you with the Tom Green show cause that ish was so funny. I would laugh for hours about that show and then I moved to Chappelle show and now I have nothing. MTV has been a network that i have watched for years and they really made it fun for me. The quotes the shows everything they did was entertaining and I cant say I regret one single moment as I watched.

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