I was flipping through one of these Urban Outfitter rags today when I got home from work, these highly stylized depictions of ideal young existence, complete with fashion and setting keyholes. We've reached this sort of apex in nostalgic redeaux, so many elements can be combined to get right amount of hip. A lot of it is about photography to...they basically give a ground view of what's exactly you want to happen in your life, and what you wanna see.
It got me thinking about our generation of hipness and individuality, and the umbrella of our dredge toward celebrity or at least hip status; be it a mommy blogger with a readership of 30 people a week or an actress/model with a in a notorious reality series.
Mark my words and I've said this before to various people, we're getting to the point where if you can manage to NOT become famous or reach any levels of celebrity success, then you've done something commendable in your life. Celebrity will become a bastard part of our culture...I mean, it already has to a very distinctive degree.
In the mid 1960's, Dylan parodied success in his famous flash card video...writing "suckcess" to the tune of Subterranean Homesick Blues. There was irony in American success 45 years ago, as I'm sure there always as been. At this point, it's the layers of irony and cynicism piled on top of one another that get me. It used to be that you could be on the radio and be a success, WHAM-BAM, fame in it's purist most temporary pleasure. Whereas now, you can be on the radio and be virtually unknown. This is partially due to technological change, but still, think about the layers of bullshit you have to go through when you're at a party and you ask someone "what they do." I don't mind the times a'changin', I really don't.
Sure, we should try to be a success on some level, it's all relative. Just watch where you step.
5 comments:
Didn't Andy Warhol have some sort of dissertation on the ease of fame in the future? Feels very much in line with what you're talking about.
Being famous to Me is equivalent to someone being a good singer, who cares. There's tons of good singers in the world, but if it doesn't feel real and if there isn't some shred of authenticity to it then really who cares, it's just a good voice. But there are those that have that certain intangible quality that allows them to transcend. Only problem is that there's so many flashing lights out there that it's easy to get lost in the mix.
I try to keep my celebrity status to a minimum by working middle-office at a bank in New Jersey.
It's not us I'm worried about.
Haha...Interesting inspiration to heed caution. I think I saw the same ragazine yesterday on my kitchen table. I noticed they weren't so much selling clothes as they were flaunting their models. Some outfits looked cool in their setting and at the angle they were laying but would look ridiculous walking around in.
I mean of course, what young 20 something guy doesn't wanna go to the beach and see his lady friend ankle deep in water, no one else around, she's wearing a leather jacket, silk blouse and silk shorts with her ass cheeks hanging out?
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