(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

What's up with LJ? Couldn't get on today at all.

Here's a very interesting site. It's got a video that I had to watch for my critical writing class called "The Merchants of Cool", about how merchandizers do teen market research, and how such icons as MTV play into that. It's about 50 mintues, broken up into six smaller videos. I watched all but the section about girl's clothing and midriff- superstars like Britney Spears, because that one wouldn't load on my comp. Anyway, it was interesting to see some of the market research techniques these companies do-- I was quite surprised.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/

Comments

merchants of cool

[hecatehatesthat.livejournal.com]

Good lord, is that the one where they named adolescents... Mooks? was it mooks? and midriffs? I think I watched the same video in my english class during my junior year of high school.

I seem to remember something about Insane Clown Posse, and how by getting popular they ceased to rebellious and weren't the cutting edge of cool anymore... and I think the midriff section is the other one I remember well. I do remember enjoying the whole thing. My teacher kept pausing the video to make fun of the students for being mooks and midriffs. He was cool ;).

Re: merchants of cool

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Good lord, is that the one where they named adolescents... Mooks? was it mooks? and midriffs?

When they mentioned those names, like "mook", I could really see the stereotype as it is built into what I've seen on MTV. They like to show that type.

I actually got the midriff part to download, eventually. It was disturbing, but not anything I couldn't see already as being stereotyped in popular media.

Did you watch last week's episode of Farscape? In it there was one scene where Chiana, a female alien, is commenting to a young human boy with a camcorder on sex and how she observed how the young girls dress since the time she's been on earth for a few days. I remember the conversation went something like this:

Chiana: You're not allowed to have sex? Why not?
Boy: My parents don't want me too. I'm too young.
Chiana: But if you're not allowd to have sex at your age, why do those little girls dress the way they do?
Boy: I dunno, I guess it's what they see on tv. But they're not allowed to have sex either.
Chiana: But someone ...has to sell them the clothes. So someone wants them to have sex.

I thought it was interesting to see a sort of commentary on this sort of thing in a popular tv show. I've heard regular people (mostly women, a few guys) talk about it to me, but I'd not seen the topic presented in a negative light on tv before really, at least not on a show I'd watch whose regular audience includes the young adults.

Then again, Farscape, like Buffy, is a show with such strong female characters (more women cast than men, actually), that if anywhere things like this woudl pop up, that would be the place.