Clyde Smith said...
You raise some interesting questions inspired by this family. I think the fact that he's a boy and some boys want to be like their dad should also be considered.
Clyde
You're right, not every boy must reject his parents as he grows older... there's certainly nothing wrong with healthy admiration for your parents; surely everyone wants/ needs to love and be loved by their folks.
I just see youth rebellion as an important factor in the progression of culture: yesterday's heroes become tomorrow's reactionaries and it's the job of the youth to rip it up and start again. And that doesn't mean dressing like your dad.
When I was editing Sleazenation, I was slightly worried that youth culture had come to a standstill; club culture had reached a dead end, celebrity was dominating the news and every aspect of youth had been bought up by Playstation and adidas. When the Face and Sleaze went down, it really did feel like the end of an age.
All I can say is good, I'm glad it happened. Look where we are now; my generation are looking at what the new kids are doing and are completely baffled (though we pretend to understand out of sheer desperation) which is how it should be. DIY rock, online communities, and the fashion; the new uniform of polysexual Russell Brand-style foppery is a complete anathema to you average Bathing-Ape-Star-Wars-Toy-Collecting-Hip-Hop lad. Suddenly all the things that The Face were championing five years ago are completely dead in the water. As long as the previous generation of youth feel irrelevant to the next, I reckon things are running smoothly.
Is this new generation as branded as the last? On the face of it, the answer is no. There's no overtly branded sportswear or designer gear to be seen (save Dior Homme for the rich kids). There's no iconic kit like the Technics or the Vespa or the VW Camper before. If anything, it’s the computer that links the igeneration together, but having a shiny new Mac to communicate with doesn't really seem to be the point. It really feels like a rejection of branded youth on their part.
An ad-planning friend of mine recently told me that the old platforms for branding are really starting to give way to the net. You can't imagine the new generation of kids sitting down to watch ITV of a Tuesday night, when they could be creating their own entertainment online. As business (Newscorp owns myspace of course) and brands (Apple sponsors Facebook communities) begin to appropriate this new energy, I wonder, will the kids continue to reject commerce or will they welcome it with open arms, as my generation did when we were young? As we bemoaned during the doomed relaunch of Sleaze…
'Selling out isn't an insult anymore, its an aspiration'
5 Comments:
Thanks for following up on my comments. I don't really disagree with anything in this post in a major way.
I just think the kid in your previous post that seemed to be the inspiration looked still at that prerebellion age. He's got plenty of time to explore rejecting the values of his parent's generation. Perhaps you were simply a quick starter?
Often the generational narrative breaks down in a variety of ways on the individual level and in this post I find it confusing as to which generation you're actually referring to at times or even how broad you would consider a generation.
That might be helpful to clarify for readers like myself at some point. Helping us not get bogged down with how you mean certain concepts will help us in understanding your pursuit of a difficult path connecting your own personal process to larger social phenomena in a public way.
By the way:
"Selling out isn't an insult anymore, its an aspiration"
You could be talking about changes in hip hop here for real.
Wow, youve got some really smart people reading your blog...
Also, theres a little known 'proven' scientific fact, that ones dad is the main role model until the age of eleven and 3/4 and then the roles reverse...
Its true, i saw it on BBC 4...
Clyde
its a pleasure to respond to an email form someone who is genuinely sane for a change.
Apologies for being so vague. In referring to youth culture, I guess I'm talking about the 14 to 19 staqge of life. You're absolutely right, that poor toddler in the picture probably has no say in what he wears until he's six or seven. the father is possibly just projecting own his aspiration of the perfect childhood on to his boy.
And re the state of Hip Hop, you're absolutely right there. Daisy Age rap and the likes of Public Enemy seem like a naive dream now don't they? I know Chuck D does a radio phone in show now, but what happened to KRS One?
Lee, you are truly the smartest person on this blog, so stop being anxious about it.
Hi Neil,
Thought I'd drop you a line again - not quite related to this post though. I stole Fiddy's ES Magazine on Friday to read an article about Christy Turlington and she mentioned that she no longer uses her Blackberry. Apparently when she decided to give it up, she had it cast in bronze (or something along those lines). Can't find the article on the net - let me know if you need the clipping.
Holly (hollyahowe@hotmail.com)
Haven't been called sane lately. I appreciate that!
KRS-One seems to be building a cult of some sort. Keep an eye out for The Temple of Hip-Hop.
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