Defining the “uncool” as “those who dress, act, and have the same tastes as the masses and are vulnerable to corporate influences.”
In a provocative (and slightly satirical) essay on Tumblr, blogger POWERevolution asks the question everyone’s been afraid to say out loud: “Why are so many millennials so uncool?”
Defining the “uncool” as “those who dress, act, and have the same tastes as the masses and are vulnerable to corporate influences,” the blogger wonders why millennial musicians, in particular, seem less “cool” and more conforming. Alongside photos of “cool” figures from generations past—Grace Slick, Kurt Cobain, Patti Smith—the blogger shows photos of Grizzly Bear “looking like their mom dressed them,” Adam Levine’s grunge clothing line at Kmart, and Beyoncé as Pepsi spokesperson. “Beyoncé endorsing a drink that contributes to obesity and diabetes—Not Cool.”
The reason, the writer proposes, is less the fault of the so-called millennial generation, and more about the massive, unstoppable consumerism that pervades our culture, directed toward youth.
“In 1948, jazz critic Sidney Finkelstein summed up commercialism in music superbly when he said it ultimately leads ‘to what is really destructive in culture: the taking over of an art by business,’” POWERevolution writes. “It seems that with the advent of the internet, and the seeming freedom and ease it could provide to get relevant music out there, corporations have gotten even more aggressive to keep people’s thoughts on consumption, rather than cultural and social change. And millennials are the ones most vulnerable.”
(Via POWERevolution)
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