'Kewl'
I just saw 'The Merchants of Cool' (a report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers) on Dutch television. Call me blinkered, but I had no idea just how sick the business is. Or perhaps I chose to ignore it. I mean, I know it's fucked, but I didn't know to which extent. The whole 'Sprite/Hiphop/MTV' section made me want to retch. Paying kids to look cool in an audience. People paid to 'hunt cool kids'.
The best thing about it was exposing Limp Bizkit for what they are. A carefully manufactured product.
It did make me proud of the choices I've made in music, and made me understand those choices more. Of course, I had it easier choosing. When I was growing up, this hellish machine hadn't started working yet.
Particularly disturbing was the 13 year old intent on 'being succesful' and the women applauding her for being able to pass as an adult and later prancing around like a hoor. Ugh. Also... that whole spring break thing? Do we even have something anything like that over here? I suppose we do, perhaps the summer holidays, the kids going to Zeeland camping sites here in the south west getting off their heads on bear and sex. I'm not sure, I never did that kind of thing when I was that age.
Rebecca Blood wrote about the programme a while back: Fighting the Merchants of Cool. Jason Kottke mentioned it too. And, of course, the MetaFilter discussion.
MTV, Viacom, WB, AOL/Time Warner... they are all vile. Repeat after me. They. are. vile.
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