two streams of consciousness in one!! enjoy the yap sesh
I think I'm not alone at all in these sentiments but I think that generations r a scam made up by companies to sell more stuff by using the trend of tying one's identity to the shit they consume, so they can make you feel even more yourself (if that makes any sense). Women have gotten this for centuries, but all the microcyles and -cores and thousands of slight-different pinterest boards are hitting everybody. Boys are out here defining their whole identity based on a clip of a girl in a faked street interview rejecting a man (good for your mental health and future relationships). Especially after the 60s in which magazines realised teenage girls are society's cultural innovators and exclusively made stuff to market to their tastes and shit, and now we're in a spot where retailers are literally devising the next trends for us to discover and consume.
People have clothes already lined up for 2025, rather than people discovering stuff organically and coming up with their own ideas. The most notorious example of this was the Mob Wife, but I think there are a bunch of forced aesthetics that were absorbed anyway (Office Siren is one). Somehow, I think coquette has dodged this, because many teenage girls are already under the belief that it's healthy to fantasise about older men (cheers patriarchy x). And Lana makes some utter bangers, what can I say?
But beyond fashion, there's the generalised politics (and therefore more stuff to consoom - like anarchist coffee shops) and I know a lot of it is just elderly people bitching, but I also think it's another way to hook people in and spend more shit. People my age r only realised a year ago that no actually, we probably won't end all the wars and stop capitalism (and replace it with what bro what) and you end up getting super-priced (Unless the drink is 50 pounds it's not overpriced) vegan smoothie establishments and eco-friendly shops that make your rent triple next year & end up forcing vulnerable people out. And yh millennials started it but we could've ended that cringe shit ... But it's okay bc you feel cool and trendy and super fucking cool and young in your stupid shein clothes innit. We got the wrong priorities people
I think there's some merit to describing cultural developments within a lens of people born within Year X-Year Y, but it can only stretch so far yk?
I don't ID with half the shit people say about gen z partly because yeah it's manufactured to high hell. And because of the speed at which algos go, what's trendy now will become irrelevant in literally a fucking month!!!! back in my day you could abuse a meme for a good 3 months, or a new jacket for a year straight. I neeeeeeed to be liked I need to feel complete I want to kill myself but luckily I have to be around to purchase a SKIMS shirt (did you know the composition of a SKIMS shirt is the same as practically any other shirt?? wow) and make my sense of self revolve even more around items and products n shit I forgot what I'm even meant to say with this post omg.
Anyways, have you ever heard of death ditties?
They were emo-before-emo, essentially. In the 50s and early 60s, teen pop sensations sang depressing music about doom and gloom, and 70 years ago, that was considered virtually satanic and unheard of, so they became a moral panic stick & were banned from the air sometimes - didn't stop them charting tho! My favourite atm is a 1961 song by John Leyton, called "Johnny Remember Me." It was covered by Bronski Beat when Somerville was still in the band. I think they're fun and a cool addition to any under-researched playlist set in those times.
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Gluma
I've heard of death ditties but I never actually knew the name for them :o somewhat related but i was reading the wikipedia article for it and apparently songs specifically about car crash deaths were very popular around that time which is pretty interesting
Anyway, I've always hated generation labels with a passion because I always felt like the labels were used as excuses to divide people against each other (at least, that's how I see it often used) but I never thought about the consumption aspect of that :0 but then again, I guess it's not that surprising, with industries targeting certain groups and all u_u
and wait
anarchist coffee shops are a thing???
by Gluma; ; Report
there was like one anarchist coffee shop but it closed down due to people stealing (the morally correct thing to do when you come across the anarchist coffee shop)
by caweyka; ; Report
allt
i agree with everything you said about generations, “aesthetics” and consumerism here (it is indeed capitalists trying to force people into a metaphorical box in order to make people believe that they need to spend money on completely unneeded things in order to fit a certain image to me too. this is also making the fact that “aesthetic” is becoming somewhat assimilated with subculture recently really scary), but the reason why i want to comment on this is because i am so glas someone else knows “johnny remember me”! it sounds wonderful in both leyton’s and bronski beat’s versions (though, i prefer leyton’s version because joe meek’s mixing on it gives it a wonderful haunting quality that suits it. quite a bit of work produced by joe meek got banned by the bbc when it was released (mostly due to what you mentioned about songs that “johnny remember me” and also the strange ban on pop music based on classical and folk music in the 1940s and 1950s for “distorting rhythm and harmony”)! it is rather unsurprising to me that many broadcasters banned these sorts of songs, as a lot of them generally show a pattern of wanting to make listeners feel comfortable and undisturbed through their music banning (the clear channel memorandum on iheartradio in 2001 is a good example, as well as, for example, (the bbc has countless examples) the banning of songs about the bloody sunday of 1972 released in that year by the bbc).
sorry for the infodump: it was wonderful to see something i am knowledgeable about being mentioned here!
see you and I share the same mind
by caweyka; ; Report
see you and I share the same mind
by caweyka; ; Report