Persistence of Time 07 grnge

Published in

· 5 years ago

  

 
			       What is Cool? 
			       ------------- 
			       by: Vlad Imir 

 
     Since when did punk music and grungy old flannel shirts come into style? 
Probably since the grunge music movement, in 1991, marked by the release of 
Nirvana's "Nevermind", and Pearl Jam's "Ten" album. Musicaly, they were remark- 
ably retro. They were also incredibly marketable, selling millions of copies. 
Success always leads to imitators, and soon there was a slew of "new" Seattle 
bands on the shelves marked "Popular", (more commonly referred to as "Pop"), in 
the record stores. These trendy new Seattle bands--who had before been forced 
to shop in the thrift stores of their native rural communities for their clothes 
--unknowingly spawned a new fashion dubbed "Grunge." This "cool" new look was 
characterized by jeans (often ripped), an old t-shirt, and an old grungy flannel 
shirt. If you were rich and never needed to shop at thrift stores that was ok, 
because you could pick up a brand new flannel shirt at Penney's! Suddenly, this 
previously unheard of sub-culture becomes the "in" fashion.   
     But the music industry insisted on marketing this obviously commercially 
viable new style as "alternative." Is it merely a misnomer, or is it really an 
"alternative"? But an alternative to what? To the disgustingly mass-marketed 
sounds of Pop music? No. Grunge, alternative, whatever you want to call it, IS 
pop. 
     America's number one alternative act now, Counting Crows, is touring with 
the absolute BIGGEST touring group this year, the mega-lithic Rolling Stones. 
It is mass-marketed, even though the bands don't like the fact that that's what 
it is. The grunge fad will end, once the america's suburban youth--and the 
industries that feed off them-- get bored and move on to the next "cool" fad. 
(At least it isn't the New Kids on the Block!) 
     Grunge, and more importantly alternative in general, is no greater a thing 
than the last fad. Styles will come and go. Don't let "them" control you! The 
REAL alternative is being different from the crowd. That's cool. 
     Remeber, before everyone and their cousin was wearing an old, flannel 
shirts, an individual had done it first. Somebody had looked at them and said: 
    "Hey, they're pretty cool," 
But once everyone was dressing that way it was just another Joe in his flannel. 
When people discover they can make money off of it, by making the new style 
accessible by all, it REALLY becomes uncool; just another industry fad. 
     Being unique is what is cool, not being a puppet. Don't let yourself be 
manipulated by the evil corporations and the mass-media! Cool is what you 
define it as. It isn't dictated by some MTV commercial.