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Willravel · 03-20-2006, 09:30 AM

Charlatan, a few thoughts about your last post.

I also agree that the few define, and the many imitate. It's a matter of willingness to spend energy trying to define yourself as an individual, I suppose, but the fact is that many do not take advantage of their own personal growth potential in society. I suspect that if more people in the US were to drive those interesting cars, we'd see dependence on oil (and huge, 9 mpg SUVs dissapear). There has to be a degree of responsibility in the power of defining pop culture.

As for the question of who defines pop culture...this is more complicated. Yes, many things are simply a matter of someone really cool doing something new, people emulating it, and the media catching on and commercializing it for the masses. That is not always the case, however. There are also times when a media comglomerate sees that a particular trend would benifit them greatly. Often it is a matter of tweaking a current of continuing trend. Let's take entertainment insider television shows for example (a la Extra, Entertainment tonight, Access Hollywood, etc...of course there are older shows and news papers, these are simply the current manifestations). People have always been interested in entertainment, and there have always been celebrities of one type or another in society. Western culture often falls short in the production and distribution of the stories of heros and celebrities, so it was decided that glorifying modern story tellers would be benificial in that people would watch the shows, AND it would explore a new avenue of promoting a film. Why not promote a film based on the star power, not just the story? And maybe even the director? And why not the third boom handler? It's a matter of creating fandom in order to boost interest in films that might not otherwise have interest (Mr. and Mrs. Smith).

I WISH I could feed the machine. That kind of power would be amazing to yield. It's the tweaking after it goes into the machine and before it gets rereleased that worries me. I'd love to start a trend of smaller, european type cars that have better gas milage and are more ecologically sound.

Also, your new avatar gave me nightmares.

03-20-2006, 09:30 AM	#43 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Charlatan, a few thoughts about your last post. I also agree that the few define, and the many imitate. It's a matter of willingness to spend energy trying to define yourself as an individual, I suppose, but the fact is that many do not take advantage of their own personal growth potential in society. I suspect that if more people in the US were to drive those interesting cars, we'd see dependence on oil (and huge, 9 mpg SUVs dissapear). There has to be a degree of responsibility in the power of defining pop culture. As for the question of who defines pop culture...this is more complicated. Yes, many things are simply a matter of someone really cool doing something new, people emulating it, and the media catching on and commercializing it for the masses. That is not always the case, however. There are also times when a media comglomerate sees that a particular trend would benifit them greatly. Often it is a matter of tweaking a current of continuing trend. Let's take entertainment insider television shows for example (a la Extra, Entertainment tonight, Access Hollywood, etc...of course there are older shows and news papers, these are simply the current manifestations). People have always been interested in entertainment, and there have always been celebrities of one type or another in society. Western culture often falls short in the production and distribution of the stories of heros and celebrities, so it was decided that glorifying modern story tellers would be benificial in that people would watch the shows, AND it would explore a new avenue of promoting a film. Why not promote a film based on the star power, not just the story? And maybe even the director? And why not the third boom handler? It's a matter of creating fandom in order to boost interest in films that might not otherwise have interest (Mr. and Mrs. Smith). I WISH I could feed the machine. That kind of power would be amazing to yield. It's the tweaking after it goes into the machine and before it gets rereleased that worries me. I'd love to start a trend of smaller, european type cars that have better gas milage and are more ecologically sound. Also, your new avatar gave me nightmares.