I agree with her remarks that people were able to fly under the radar of advertisers and marketers, at least in some measure, and at least for some time. There seemed to be an anti-commercialism in the culture, and I think this was most evident in some of the music of the time. For instance, I recently listened to portions of an interview with the late Chris Cornell. He said that after the success of their album Superunknown, the band decided to call it quits because they didn’t enjoy the large arenas, and commercial gigs more generally.
She was cool guest and this was a cool topic. “Look At Me!” was good. Tons of explanatory power on changes in journalism, and the “nothing-based economy.”
“Self-actualization through shopping,” has deeper roots than I would’ve guessed. And of course, you’re right. Counter-cultural movements which are new (or at least, new-ish) are essentially powerless against the power of the market. It might take a minute for strategies to develop, but at a certain point the market will come out on top. The situation is much more advanced now.
In UnHerd next week, I'll be discussing the book "The Kingdom of Prep," which is about the rise and fall of J. Crew. This is another chance to examine branding and identity; were places like Hot Topic and J. Crew the true forerunners of digital identity construction sites like Tumblr and TikTok? Maybe so (at least to some extent)!
Cool. There does seem to be a connection ( the Hot Topic to Tumblr pipeline ) and it's all migrating online. It's an interesting time to be alive, more generally. Everything is up in the air with no place to land.
I agree with her remarks that people were able to fly under the radar of advertisers and marketers, at least in some measure, and at least for some time. There seemed to be an anti-commercialism in the culture, and I think this was most evident in some of the music of the time. For instance, I recently listened to portions of an interview with the late Chris Cornell. He said that after the success of their album Superunknown, the band decided to call it quits because they didn’t enjoy the large arenas, and commercial gigs more generally.
She was cool guest and this was a cool topic. “Look At Me!” was good. Tons of explanatory power on changes in journalism, and the “nothing-based economy.”
“Self-actualization through shopping,” has deeper roots than I would’ve guessed. And of course, you’re right. Counter-cultural movements which are new (or at least, new-ish) are essentially powerless against the power of the market. It might take a minute for strategies to develop, but at a certain point the market will come out on top. The situation is much more advanced now.
In UnHerd next week, I'll be discussing the book "The Kingdom of Prep," which is about the rise and fall of J. Crew. This is another chance to examine branding and identity; were places like Hot Topic and J. Crew the true forerunners of digital identity construction sites like Tumblr and TikTok? Maybe so (at least to some extent)!
Cool. There does seem to be a connection ( the Hot Topic to Tumblr pipeline ) and it's all migrating online. It's an interesting time to be alive, more generally. Everything is up in the air with no place to land.