Yeah, in the comments some folks drew out the connection I sort of waved my hands at where TRL pitted metal/punk against pop against hip-hop, in a complicated sort of dance that still included it all. And then Blink-182 makes a video parodying boybands and Eminem takes shots at Xtina but they all still show up in Times Square and square off on the same stage, as it were, which gives this feeling of the whole thing as spectacle rather than as genuine conflict, a thing to locate yourself within rather than people you don't know arguing about things you don't care about. Maybe. As a teenager, of course, it all seemed very very very important.
which gives this feeling of the whole thing as spectacle rather than as genuine conflict
Something's being a spectacle doesn't mean that the conflicts aren't genuine (e.g., Repubs vs. Dems). I think one of the mistakes people make in thinking about culture is that they assume that sharing a culture means "having" values that the members of the culture all "share." Whereas I'd say crucial features of cultures and subcultures are what people in the cultures tend to fight about. So clashes between cultures and between subcultures will often take the form of people not comprehending each other's battles, so conflicts might be over what's worth fighting about.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: general response
Date: 2008-11-19 07:35 am (UTC)Re: general response
Date: 2008-11-19 03:03 pm (UTC)Something's being a spectacle doesn't mean that the conflicts aren't genuine (e.g., Repubs vs. Dems). I think one of the mistakes people make in thinking about culture is that they assume that sharing a culture means "having" values that the members of the culture all "share." Whereas I'd say crucial features of cultures and subcultures are what people in the cultures tend to fight about. So clashes between cultures and between subcultures will often take the form of people not comprehending each other's battles, so conflicts might be over what's worth fighting about.