Journal 14: "Merchants of Cool"

The first thing that popped into my head while watching this documentary was the movie "Drake and Josh: Really Big Shrimp". Drake is about to land a record deal when Josh is eating really big shrimp and somehow this interferes with Drake's performance on TRL on MTV. I was too young to understand what this program was and even until now, I did not really know what it was. Nevertheless, the point is that MTV probably paid Nickelodeon some huge some of money to be featured in the show. A company that sells trend for profit is advertising in other outlets to increase their publicity and thus make more money off of the culture they are buying into.

The interesting part of the documentary is it's revelation on this "feedback loop": companies see what teens are into and ultimately sell back products that cater to this culture. I agree with this. However, the documentary takes a pretty hard stance against this, claiming that it has caused teenagers to be mindless, innocent figures at the hand of big companies. The host of the documentary makes a comparison to his childhood, claiming that he has culture and he did not know what to call "today's teens". To say that teen's hold no culture to themselves is stupid. Stuart Hall says that it is more complicated than that; people are not these robots that big companies completely control. Teenagers have autonomous minds. However, no teen is out of this company controlling scope. It is a mix of the two.

For example, I play a lot of video games. Big companies that hold stakes in this industry is Microsoft and Sony. While this is become largely commercial, I play video games to escape the stress and responsibilities of my life. It becomes my rock in troubled times, something that video game companies do not really address (which they should not). Video games has helped me through some tough shit, and I am proud to be a part of the gaming community. To say that I am a pawn of the commercial complex almost insults me.

I laughed when one women said "I don't think teens should be having sex" but goes on to support the sex filled shows on her channel because it is a "reflection of the world". Bitch, what kind of logic is that. She probably said she is against teen sex because she is on camera, but regardless whether or not she does, it is making her money and that is all she is concerned with.

These stupid shows do not accurately represent teen culture. In fact, it homogenizes it, making it seem like we are all mook and midrift. I always thought those spring break MTV shows are stupid. While women should have control over their sexuality, they are not pawns to men. I do agree that the kind of messages these shows are sending out are stupid, I do believe that most teens are smarter than this. Again, we are not helpless; we are autonomous. We are smart. We are the next generation of minds. My culture is not on MTV. Coorporate America may be in my life, but it does not control me.