The Decision Strategist

It’s interesting how different our perceptions of the world can be. I had a conversation recently in which a friend of mine was lamenting the pop culture orientation of young people these days (compared to the early 90’s grunge scene of Nirvana et al.), but I’ve been consistently and pleasantly surprised by the active rejection of pop culture and mass media and an embracing of the obscure.

Somehow geeks and the socially awkward have become in vogue. I like to think that people are realizing that most people in high school weren’t in involved in sports and cheerleader activities, and that their stories are also interesting. Take for example both Superbad and Juno. They are the first movies I can think of in a long time (in truth ever, but there must be others right?) that accurately capture the awkward phase of being in high school and very unsure of yourself, but focus more on the rejects than the cool kids. The soundtracks for both movies are also notably devoid of songs by top 40 artists. I know the names of four artists on the Juno Soundtrack.

I think there have been lots of movies about the ‘rebel’ elements of teenagers, but few about the ‘normal people’ element.

But it’s not just movies. Music seems to be diversifying away from the big hits and toward increasing eclectic genres. It doesn’t seem to be happening to television, but that shouldn’t be surprising since TV’s supporters are advertisers and so want to cater to the biggest group possible. And younger generations seem to be more interested in watching videos on youtube than in following television series.

I think it’s more than just another reiteration of the ideas behind The Long Tail or the effects of the internet, though both are important here. It’s more of an active embracing of quirkiness with a touch of not taking things so seriously.

Of course, it also has a lot to do with each generation rejecting the views of the previous generation, so maybe ultimately nothing has changed and I’m just getting old enough that my alternative culture bias is becoming the norm. Either way I’m glad of the explosion in variety and tastes.

Oh yeah, and if you know of other movies, books, or music in the folksy alternative geeky genre, let me know. I’d like to broaden my own tastes as well.

-zot

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am and is filed under Culture.