How to overcome the oppressive omnipresence of youth culture
Cathy Parker
Go to the theaters. It's youth first, adults second. Yet, why should
this be so? Youth market constitute ages 11-17. Anyone 18 and over
should consider himself an adult, a serious person. We represent
everyone from age 18 to 100, damn it!
Why should we bow down to a bunch of horny teenagers? Well, I'll tell
you why. It's because many of us have never grown up. As kids we got
such orgasmic addictive joy from pop music it became the centerpiece
of our cultural experience forever. It's true! Ask yourself what
category of artistic expression matters most and you'll likely say
rock. Except now it's much worse. Yes, some young moron is being
introduced to and fixating on such cultural sewage as eminem. Can you
imagine anyone growing into middleage thinking that shit is the
highest achievement in music, art, and philosophy?
When rock n roll first arrived it soon ran out of gas, and young kids
got into the more civilized folk music. When rock n roll was revived
as rock it matured into something far more complex than
Wopbobadoobopabeebopbam. However, danger lurked as rock became serious
and gained respectability; kids began to think rock was a total art;
that you could find elements of literature, high and low culture,
religion and spirituality, etc simply by listening to Jim Morrison's
belching homage to Rimbaud.
And, since then, with successive generations only relying on and
becoming fixated on rock as THE culture for life, it reverted to its
original form of caveman utterances.
And, this caveman mentality has affected, indeed infected, rest of our
culture. Teen movie is THE movie. Remember the time when a film like
the Graduate or Godfather ranked as the highest grosser of all time?
Ancient history.
How shall be revive a more mature culture? Well, I thought long and
hard, and came up with the following solutions.
1. Tax breaks for anyone who purchases books, goes to jazz or
classical concerts, visits museums, and watches art movies.
2. Ban on rock(and related)music for first half of every decade. Just
as folk music boom following the decline of rock n roll enriched youth
culture, forced respite from rock will push kids to other areas,
expanding their, and thus our, cultural frontiers.
3. Lynch a youth day. We do a nationwide search for the ultimate
dumbass teenager and lynch and burn him on national tv. That'll show
we mean business.
4. Hollywood studios must finance at least 10 artmovies per year.
5. Lynch a studio exec day. We find the most greedy obnoxious suit and
lynch his ass on Pay-Per-View.
6. Your recommendations are welcome.
James Neibaur
catherine...@hotmail.com wrote on 9/16/03 6:38 AM:
> Yes, youth culture IS culture in America. Turn on the radio, the tv.
> Go to the theaters. It's youth first, adults second. Yet, why should
> this be so?
Youths have more disposable income.
JN
steve
On 16-Sep-2003, catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote:
> How shall be revive a more mature culture? Well, I thought long and
> hard, and came up with the following solutions.
"95% of everything is bullshit." Dont know who said this, but it's a great
sentiment and clearly part of the remaining 5%.
Frankly I disagree with the premise here. More quality art is available now
than ever before. CDs, DVDs, books, magazines...more variety and
availability and it's only going to get better.
You want to have a positive influence? Buy some great films on DVD. Give
your kids some Coltrane or Mahavisnu on CD. And stop giving your kids money
to buy or see crap (or to attend a fake college, for that matter). Let them
earn it themselves.
But I must admit, "Lynch a studio exec day" has a ring to it...
steve
--
"A man was severely injured today in the Nutsford area."
Benny Hill
leo86
your outrage. We live in an age where no one wants to be a grown-up
anymore. Everybody wants to stay eternally youthful and consume the
same products their kids do. So the kids have to consume the worst
junk possible in order to properly repulse their parents and teachers
and keep them away. ("Maybe if I listen to Eminem and DMX, these old
farts will stay out of my room.")
The big problem here is not with the kids, but with the inability of
parents, teachers and media gatekeepers (studio heads, record execs,
TV programmers, magazine editors, etc.) to teach kids history and pop
culture of the past so they have something to compare it with. When I
was a kid, there were only seven channels of television so we had to
watch old movies half the day if we wanted to watch TV. So we all
knew our parents' movies as well as our own and we all knew the TV
programs that had preceded ours. And in the pre-Walkman era, we all
listened to the same music. So if my parents listened to Billie
Holliday, Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong, we did too. (And they
heard Motown and the Beatles when we listened to that.)
But today, the kids can watch MTV all day, or the Disney channel all
day, or Nickelodeon all day, or the Cartoon Network all day, or listen
to gangsta rap all day, so they NEVER get exposed to anything else.
And it's the job of parents, teachers and media execs to expose them
to other things. But especially parents and teachers. They should
teach old movies and old TV shows and old music in elementary school
classrooms (as well as art and literature, of course). You can't wait
for or expect kids to discover these things on their own. Who among us
is not the richer for being forced to read Shakespeare in school? But
how many of us would have read Shakespeare on our own if we hadn't
been assigned to it? The whole point of school is to make us learn the
things we NEED to learn but which is too hard for us to tackle on our
own. So you show the class a John Ford movie like FORT APACHE and they
not only learn what great filmmaking (in black-and-white) looks like
and how the movies treat historical subjects, but they also learn who
John Wayne and Henry Fonda were. You show a Howard Hawks movie like
THE BIG SLEEP and they not only learn what great filmmaking and
screenwriting are, but they also learn who Humphrey Bogart was. But
you can't expect the kids to go home after school and turn on TCM on
their own. But if you INTRODUCE them to old movies that they might
like, then their interest may be sparked and THEN they might turn on
TCM on their own.
catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote in message news:<c8ae7594.03091...@posting.google.com>...
rande...@rrogers.com
Parker) wrote:
No. At least in Canada, there is enough subsidies for the leftist
art crowd.
>
>2. Ban on rock(and related)music for first half of every decade. Just
>as folk music boom following the decline of rock n roll enriched youth
>culture, forced respite from rock will push kids to other areas,
>expanding their, and thus our, cultural frontiers.
No again; EXPOSE all students to varied types of music, classical,
etc. The cream will rise to the top and appreciate it, but lowlifes
are lowlifes and it's both genetic and cultural.
>3. Lynch a youth day. We do a nationwide search for the ultimate
>dumbass teenager and lynch and burn him on national tv. That'll show
>we mean business.
But use the ones who commit crimes at least.
>
>4. Hollywood studios must finance at least 10 artmovies per year.
Covert financing of porn is more in their nature.
>5. Lynch a studio exec day. We find the most greedy obnoxious suit and
>lynch his ass on Pay-Per-View.
This might be a good thing. Especially the ones who hang around
inexplicably, despite very poor records.
>6. Your recommendations are welcome.
Cheer when rap singers shoot each other. Encourage it.
Give them all guns, assuming any don't already own them.
-Rich
Cathy Parker
> On 16-Sep-2003, catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote:
>
> > How shall be revive a more mature culture? Well, I thought long and
> > hard, and came up with the following solutions.
>
> "95% of everything is bullshit." Dont know who said this, but it's a great
> sentiment and clearly part of the remaining 5%.
>
> Frankly I disagree with the premise here. More quality art is available now
> than ever before. CDs, DVDs, books, magazines...more variety and
> availability and it's only going to get better.
>
> You want to have a positive influence? Buy some great films on DVD. Give
> your kids some Coltrane or Mahavisnu on CD. And stop giving your kids money
> to buy or see crap (or to attend a fake college, for that matter). Let them
> earn it themselves.
>
The funny thing is we suffer from the avalanche effect. Yes, dvds,
cd-roms, and the internet expand opportunities but they also empower
big corporations with ever greater means for domination. For every art
film that goes on dvd and gets disseminated on the internet, there are
20 DUMB movies released ever so widely on dvd, advertised thru
internet, saturated thru all new forms of media. The little guys get
buried.
The big voice drowns out the small voice. "One God comes to drive out
the many".
Why were young people better read in Russia during the Soviet era?
They didn't have recourse to rock and schlock. To be pitied in a way
but they read more quality books than Americans, who had greater
access to literature but were too occupied with what the big
corporations were doling out to them for mindless entertainment.
Think of this way. Let's say there's this kid who lives in a small
town and doesn't have access to art films. Now, we think with dvds and
internet he might gain access, learn about the treasures of the French
New Wave,etc. But, before our nice small community of cinephiles get
to the kid the megacorporations have conquered him first. Conquered
him body and soul, to the point where he'll grimace and sneer at
anything that doesn't rattle his ass and pump his hormones.
The new expansion in media is great for the initiated like you and me.
We know what to look for. But, for the uninitiated and gullible, our
voices our drowned out by mass media. Check Yahoo movie website.
Money, money, money, box office, celebrity news, blah blah. When did
it ever feature an headline article on Sukorov's Russian Ark?
steve
On 16-Sep-2003, catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote:
> The funny thing is we suffer from the avalanche effect. Yes, dvds,
> cd-roms, and the internet expand opportunities but they also empower
> big corporations with ever greater means for domination.
Hi Cathy.
With all due respect, I think tales of corporate domination are nonsense.
Crap doesnt sell because coporations push it; corporations push crap because
it sells. How else could we explain the many $100 million flops? Those
films get pushed just as hard as the successful crap (which always amuses
me...I mean, the successful crap and the unsuccessful crap seem so similar I
wonder how people see a difference). Anyway, it's not a power thing, it's a
"profit deal".
> The big voice drowns out the small voice. "One God comes to drive out
> the many".
I think you've got it in reverse. With more avenues for communication, the
"big" voice is now just one of so very many. When I was a kid, if I
discovered I liked an obscure band, I had to work damn hard to find similar
stuff. I'm talkin many visits to distant record shops, scanning album
covers for notes on personel...now you can do an internet search on band
members, listen to samples, read reviews. It's too easy. If, for example,
you like a particular director...bam...all of his films listed in seconds.
> Think of this way. Let's say there's this kid who lives in a small
> town and doesn't have access to art films. Now, we think with dvds and
> internet he might gain access, learn about the treasures of the French
> New Wave,etc. But, before our nice small community of cinephiles get
> to the kid the megacorporations have conquered him first. Conquered
> him body and soul, to the point where he'll grimace and sneer at
> anything that doesn't rattle his ass and pump his hormones.
Again, I think this is nonsense. People who have taste will not be
conquered by crap. I had little or no interest in films until I started
seeing better ones (uh, this part of the discussion assumes I have
taste)....and I didnt get exposed to film on any great level until the 90s
and that was through VHS rentals. When I was a kid, luckily for me, my
older brother had a couple friends who were into jazz, prog rock, etc.. My
brother didnt bite, but I did. I was listening to Tull, Mahavisnu, King
Crimson, and even Stravinski at age 13. My point? For anyone with the
potential to appreciate art it's just a matter of initial exposure. Today a
kid might stumble of a great film just channel surfing. I mean, where was
TCM, IFC, Sundance...etc when we were kids?
> The new expansion in media is great for the initiated like you and me.
> We know what to look for. But, for the uninitiated and gullible, our
> voices our drowned out by mass media.
The uninitiated are not necessarily gullable. Expose the right kids to cool
stuff and they will go for it. The other kids are hopeless anyway. I think
there is no point is teaching people to like art.
John Harkness
>
>On 16-Sep-2003, catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote:
>
>> The funny thing is we suffer from the avalanche effect. Yes, dvds,
>> cd-roms, and the internet expand opportunities but they also empower
>> big corporations with ever greater means for domination.
>
>Hi Cathy.
>
>With all due respect, I think tales of corporate domination are nonsense.
If you saw a movie in North American last year, odds are 9-1 that it
was produced and distributed by one of six corporations -- Fox
Newscorp, Sony, DisneyABC, TimeWarnerAOL, Universal Vivendi, Viacom
If you bought a CD last year, odds are 19-1 that it came from one of
five corporations -- Bertelsmann, Sony, Universal Vivendi, Time Warner
AOL, EMI.
Popular culture in America -- and most of Europe, too -- is a
corporate product, bought, produced, paid for and packaged.
Rejecting one $100 million blockbuster usually means choosing another
$100 million blockbuster. It's sort of like rejecting MacDonald's. And
declaring your independence by going to Burger King.
John Harkness
WareWolf
>
> On 16-Sep-2003, catherine...@hotmail.com (Cathy Parker) wrote:
>
> > How shall be revive a more mature culture? Well, I thought long and
> > hard, and came up with the following solutions.
>
> "95% of everything is bullshit." Dont know who said this, but it's a great
> sentiment and clearly part of the remaining 5%.
Sounds like a paraphrase of Sturgeon's Law (named after sf writer
Theodore Sturgeon.)
Dusty
--
This Week's Column: Requiescat in Pace, That's All She Wrote
http://dusty.booksnbytes.com/columns/2003/2003_0914.html
Mark Jones
news:c8ae7594.03091...@posting.google.com...
> 3. Lynch a youth day. We do a nationwide search for the ultimate
> dumbass teenager and lynch and burn him on national tv. That'll show
> we mean business.
the lynching methods are effective.
Mark Jones
> The uninitiated are not necessarily gullable. Expose the right kids to
cool
> stuff and they will go for it. The other kids are hopeless anyway. I
think
> there is no point is teaching people to like art.
Who gets to decide what is tasteful, cool or artistic?
It is a matter of interpretation that will vary from one
person to the next. Even art and movie professionals
can't agree.
Ed Stasiak
>
> Yes, youth culture IS culture in America.
>
> culture. Teen movie is THE movie. Remember the time when a film like
> the Graduate or Godfather ranked as the highest grosser of all time?
> Ancient history.
IMO there is no better example of the legacy handed down to
America by the Boomer generation then that of their spawn
rioting, burning, looting and raping during Woodstock'99.
Reap what you sow.
Amanda Reckonwith
"Cathy Parker" <catherine...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c8ae7594.03091...@posting.google.com...
I left the original post above un-snipped so that people could red it.
A thought-provoking post. The lynching suggestions were amusing.
I believe that we need to ask ourselves why youth culture has grown so
strong, and I believe that the answer lies along the lines of what Bill
Maher calls 'The Feminization Of America.' Feminine values, by and large,
have become America's values.
One of the results of feminization is that kids have become more important
than people. Kids are therefore pandered to.
Do not think that I am anti-feminist. Quite the opposite. In the past, I was
way-too-anti-male. An extreme feminist. But just as only Nixon can go to
China, I now preach both female and male values, which is considered a
Deadly Sin by many staunch feminists. I think balance is important - it adds
stability to American culture.
To reduce the high levels of 'kid-appeal' in movies, songs, art, etc., we
need to move our culture back to the center, away from the current feminized
swing.
Case in point:
Stand before any large group and say that women are smarter than men. You
might get laughs, head-nodding, etc. - the usual and general response will
be a positive one, even if the people don't really believe what you are
saying. Many women will agree, though. And many men (the whupped ones) will
agree.
Now stand before a different group and say that men are smarter than women.
You will almost certainly get a negative response. Sometimes hostile.
It doesn't matter whether or not the people believe what you are saying, or
whether or not they believe that you believe it, it only matters that they
respond with a significant difference to each statement. This difference in
response is a prime indicator of the underlying assumptions that produce the
feminization of American culture.
The underlying assumptions are subtle, not overt. They derive from feeling,
not rational thought.
To reduce the feminization of American culture, we must fight not to return
our culture to a flawed past, as this is not the way of evolution, but we
must find ways to bring about a society in which family values are NOT more
important than individual values, in which women are not more important than
men, and in which kids are not more important than adults.
To fight the feminist movement, we need a masculist movement, and to fight
the 'kid appeal'/'teenager appeal' movement, we need an adultist movement.
When the masculist movement has taught society that male values are as
valuable as female values, and when the singleist (single people) movement
has taught society that single people's values are just as important as
family values, and when the adultist movement has taught us that adult
values are MORE important than kids values, then balance will have been
reached. Then we will have better movies.
How to achieve this is anyone's guess.
齯躬陘�虜,齯躬陘�虜,齯躬陘�虜,齯躬陘�虜,齯躬陘�虜,齯躬陘�虜齯躬陘�
鶹鰬 E=mc� ~
Buffy The Cache Coder
How to overcome the oppressive omnipresence of youth culture?
Move into a retirement home!