Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the Blog! Now it’s time to use this space for some real work.
Your homework for this week is to respond to the prompt I have provided below by posting at least one well developed paragraph (P.I.E.) as a comment (just click on “comment” and begin writing or, to be safe, type it in Google docs or using a word processor and then paste it). Before you make your comment, read what other have said and make some reference to them, either to agree or disagree with them or to go into more depth.
Prompt for this week:
After watching the documentary Merchants of Cool, consider some of the arguments the film makes about popular culture and the origins of “cool.” What makes cool cool? What did you learn about where these trends or patterns you follow (and pay for!) come from? What surprised you?
What is your reaction to this new knowledge about “cool”? Is cool still cool to you? Do you feel like your culture is being attacked? Do you feel it continues to have the same value it did? Are you angry? Are you numb? Do you care?
Be sure to check back in to see how others are responding to your comments.
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15 comments:
Basically these merchants of cool are looking for what is "cool" through everyday teenagers. They are not going to superstars to find out what is cool. The superstars just promote what is cool. When teens see the stars with the latest fashion and the sweetest phones and cars on the market, they have to get them because they see that the stars are the trendsetters. But in reality its average normal teens who are the trendsetters because thats who the merchants go to the find cool.
well after watching the "merchants of cool" in class. i feel that all those things are killing our cultures, and giving a new shape to our own identities because sometimes we don't exactly know who we are, we look in t.v. internet and shopping malls for an answer, maybe the credit card or the cashier machine have the answer, and sometimes we set our main priorities aside for example school. like mr. maxwell was telling us about this girl who was wearing very expencive jeans, nice coat and she looked like she was comming from a beauty salon, so she was talking on the phone with a friend and saying that she could't buy the book that were required for school because their were very expencive! and i think thats a good example of how our lives are changing with all these things, she looks really cool, but we found out that she was that cool at all. i hope u know hat i mean! thats all i have to say ! :)!
okay, so i finally got the realplayer to work on my computer, and after seeing what consumerism is doing to our youth, it makes me not want to contribute to what they are pushing on us. hemp clothes are 'cool' too right? the focus groups seemed pretty lame in that the kids were all so uninterested that it almost seemed as if they were lying about the trends they chose. maybe it was just because they were on t.v. I think it is pretty crazy that the people we think are trendsetters are actually taking the trends from us teenagers!! consumerism and superstars have no respect from me. i will keep shopping at malls and setting my own trend, as i always have.
I must admit that in the past, I’ve let the media control what I spend my money on. I do look through magazines and get fashion ideas from celebrities on TV, but I still don’t let it affect my own definition of “cool”. The video defined “cool” as what we see on MTV or how celebrities dress like. I still think of “cool” as originality.
After I watched “Merchants of Cool”, I realized how big of an effect the media has on what we teenagers spend our time and money on. I wouldn’t call it “bashing" our culture though, but the media definitely influences the way we dress and spend our money. If Hannah Montana were to get braces, all these young little girls would probably beg their parents to let them get braces, too. I do believe that teens should learn how to adopt the values of the culture that we live in.
Watching "Merchants of Cool", i feel that its true that the market pushes the culture of cool onto the kids and that as kids we find everything to be cool, but thats in our interest. For example, I find certain styles cooler then others. I find myself to be unique cuz yea i do buy somethings i see in the media and put out by the markets but i like to find the different in me, rather then being like everyone else. Honestly, most teens do follow the trendsetters because thats whats in, not out..and for those who dont care what cool is to others but themselves...more power to u...
After watching the Merchants of Cool video I have realized how much advertisement is involved in being "cool". I never really knew how much influence there was in advertisement. I also noticed it cost a lot of money to be "cool". While having the latest clothing or newest cell phone will make you "cool" it will also leave you with an empty pocket. Even though advertisements try and set trends they get their information from teenagers and trends that are already out there.
Yeah I had no idea that the media has so much of a role in what people buy. I never knew that there are people who exist purely to study the idea of "cool", how lame. I feel like the media never influenced what I bought because when buying clothes, I always bought for comfort. I agree with the idea that after a certain "cool" trend has been exposed it no longer becomes cool. I noticed the older and more mature you get, the less we care about trends and the more important money gets to buy things we really need (like damn gas). I think the real reason why these kids follow the trends that are supposedly "cool" is keep from being made fun of if they were wearing something that was not currently trendy. I feel that the idea of "cool" is irrelevant because it really depends on each individual's idea of what cool is. Ultimately I think that it's still the merchant's idea of what is cool that is being recorded because the merchants are the ones that are choosing these kids. Their own opinions about who is "cool" is what they look for when trying to find kids.
After watching merchants of cool i realized why trends are "cool" at one point and die little after they have been found by coorporations. I believe that once something is called out as "cool" its just not cool anymore :/ Once everyone knows how to become "cool" or how to make "cool" then the trend becomes overused, old and boring. I think that Merchants of Cool is just another adverstisment for these correspondants to sell more information to coorporations. I think that correspondants will never be able to catch up with teens and catch up with what is cool, because one can not say what is cool about one's self, but instead about somebody else, and adults and correspondants and coorporations can not say what is cool, because what they think is cool is just not cool.
After watching Merchants of Cool, I'd have to agree with Juan. I think it is very interesting that the tables turned. Companies are now seeking "coolness" when before, they were promoting "cool."
I Learned alot by watching this short video. i never really thought that the media had such a big impact in how we are going to live our lifes. i noticed that as you get older you realize these things because you just want to be yourself, but growing up you want to be cool with all of the knew styles because you want to fit in to a certain set of friends and feel comfortable with them. at that age kids are worried of what other people are going to think about them, but now that we are old we can care less. basically what the media is trying to do is make young adults something that they are not. I really think there is no defenition of cool cause everybody thinks different everybody likes different things. also cool keeps changing constanly. what was cool last year may not be as cool as today. kinda like a new song.
After watching "merchants of cool", I realized that I have let the corporates to overpower my own traditional culture. We all teenagers are impressed by the fads that we see on television, internet, and marketing adveritsements. I totally agree with Joseph that we would not like to look different from the people around us in the society. That's all i could think as of now..
Do you, after all of our discussion in class, accept the main argument of Merchants of Cool that corporate interests have hijacked teen culture in order to exploit teens, their labor, and their parents' labor?
I most definitely think teens have control over what is cool because they give the ideas of what to design and produce. however, some teens are influenced by this therefore they are out of control and following the trends of what others say.
I would say I accept the fact that the merchants of cool have hijacked teen culture. they take the idea the teens give them and in turn overwhelm them to buy all their products. teens spend so much of their and their parents money on the "cool" stuff it is ridiculous. i think it is really unfair how these merchants have so much access to what we buy and what we are interested in, but after all it is a free country is'nt it?
“Merchants of cool” was a really entertaining documentary movie. Even though I was confused half the time I was able to get something’s out of it. Like for example the trends or patterns most people follow come from really boring people. What surprised me the most was how they actually take the time to find out what is actually “cool”, so that they could stay on top of what is cool nowadays.
Eh well I had watched this movie a while back, forgot when so I guess I kind of of knew what these people were doing. For me, I guess I usually just wear things that are clean I really don’t pay attention on what’s “new” or what just came out. My culture has been around for years; I doubt it would disappear in the next year’s cause it comes out and in on being the “cool trend”. To tell the truth…I really don’t care; the world will always keep changing on what is cool. So in the end those who had the cool thing will have the old thing the next year…
After watching "Merchants of Cool" I realized that the meida attempts to take control of what is cool and what is not cool. They try to learn trends which are set by teenagers and expand on them and put in new things which they can make money off of. In reality though, cool depends on each person and thier opinion and outlook on pop culture. Each person has different views and it is very difficult to find a universal cool. This is why these "merchants" spend so much time researching this specific topic.
After watching "merchants of cool", I realized that I have let corporations tell me what I should think is cool. I tend to follow that. I spend most of my time working to pay for what society thinks is the new, happening thing. I realized that in a way this has made me lose my voice in society and that I should start to regain my originality or uniqueness.
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