Intro:
“What came first, the music or the misery?”
So asks Rob Fleming, the lead character of Nick Hornby’s immensely popular novel High Fidelity. He is in a contemplative mood, perusing his vast record collection in a post-breakup slump.
It’s a simple enough question, but pretty big when you take the second to contemplate it. After all, we imagine that our thoughts and actions are ours and ours only - conscious, independent, controlled. But while this may be partly true, the importance of environment probably shouldn’t be ignored.
The fact is that entertainment media is all around us, swirling in a dynamic and influential hurricane that hits us every day. So what if I hadn’t listened to pop music my entire life? Would I hold the same feelings about love, about relationships and anger and life in general? What if I hadn’t read The Catcher in the Rye? Does Jersey Shore make me stupider? Does listening to shock-rap like old-school Eminem and Odd Future make me more violent?
What came first, the media, or everything I know?
Let’s be honest, though: there aren’t going to be very many easy answers to such loaded questions. As a Lifestyle columnist for the Daily Trojan, I tried to wrestle with the issue of culture, controversy and media and how it can shape our mindsets in a column titled Culture Clash. It was a bit tough; examining new ideas and events and social phenomenon every week hardly provided a blanket answer for readers (and myself) at the end of the semester.
I’m thinking that the same will be true of this blog. At the very least, my weekly ramblings will help ask some curious questions about the world of media that we live in today.
That might seem pointless, but if I’ve learned anything from studying and practicing the discipline of journalism, it’s that we ought to ask more questions (not in the crazed conspiracy theorist/fervent Tea Party activist way, just in the name of learning). And we’re definitely not asking enough questions about all the shit we consume.
And maybe - just maybe - thinking about the media will help better it. I don’t know about you, but I think that American entertainment might be in a little bit of a slump these days. Thankfully, I haven’t seen My Super Sweet Sixteen on too often lately, but we’re still missing a spark of innovation and critical thinking that maybe existed some time ago. It’s time we changed that.
To get down to the nuts and bolts of it, expect writings on small issues, broad topics and everything in between. Anything from viral videos to a stupid moment on cable news to the fate of the film industry is, in my head, fair game. Think Esquire writer Stephen Marche’s always excellent 1000 Words About Our Culture crossed with New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, but with more collaboration.
Okay, so the writing won’t be that excellent, but still.
I hope that you guys will freely ask questions, both about the crazy stuff I might be saying or about other issues or happenings that you think I should bring up. Blogs are hardly the place to get lectured, anyway. They are - or should be - hubs of communication and discourse. So that’s what we’ll try to do here.
And if you end up not really liking what you’re reading...well, it was worth a shot, right?
Profile:
Apparently, there aren’t too many blogs out there that take pop culture analysis seriously. Oftentimes such a subject is featured in a few posts of someone’s otherwise random or entertainment-related blog. Real analysis - which involves research, deep thought, connecting various ideas across society - is harder to find.
Recently Trendy is a blog that does take pop culture seriously. It bills itself as “analyzing pop culture - one trend at a time” and pretty much delivers on that line - the blog talks about things like the rise of judged talent shows, the growing demand for tablet computers and the significance of Rebecca Black (of “Friday” fame/notoriety) to the music industry.
It’s a pretty fascinating collection of thoughts and conclusions that I tend to agree with, and seem to make sense. At the very least, Recently Trendy’s blog inspires thought and discussion, which is something I’d like to do with my blog.
Interestingly, though, the blog has no named author. Through the “About Me” section and the footnote on the blog, it’s clear that it is one person, and the author also goes ahead to note that he/she is “not an expert” and most definitely “not a spokesperson for pop culture today”.
In other words, they’re likely doing the posts as an independent exercise for themselves as opposed to an extension of their career or expertise. It’s possible that they do work in the entertainment field, but I never get the sense that this is the case; the blog posts themselves don’t reference the author’s own credentials.
Regardless, I end up not caring because the writing is at times pretty impressive - as solid as many so-called pop culture bloggers that work professionally. I think this is an absolutely key observation for myself and every other blogger that’s trying to write in a field where they don’t have established credibility. Consistently good writing can and will garner attention. Anything average will not.
And I think that Recently Trendy does a pretty solid job of fleshing out ideas or statements with convincing analysis and background. More importantly, the blog does so while using a balanced voice - more personal and casual when dealing with the author’s own subjective thoughts, and more academic when establishing objective points.
For me, the latter is particularly well-done - intellectual, without overt dryness, like in this example:
Voting is an interesting concept since it may lead to some unpredictable and even undeserving results. It takes the basic foundation of a talent show and turn the format into a popularity contest instead. Yet, this is not purely a democratic vote, as most competitions allow the public to vote multiple times for their favourite contestants. Thus, a small but devoted fan base can possibly triumph over the more widely popular candidates. In essence, the votes indicate the level of passion from the fans, rather than serve as an accurate measure of talent or popularity. As such, this faulty system is sometimes disputed by the voters, especially when it leads to surprising eliminations.
Best of all - and thank the blogging gods for this - Recently Trendy’s writing doesn’t tumble into the quagmire of hyperbole and awful, Perez-Hilton-like attempts at sarcasm and humor that so many entertainment blogs tend to. Apparently, some bloggers realize content and information trumps vapid “personality”.
The source of the blog is pretty much a mystery. I think this is an notable tactic used by a lot of bloggers that want to be judged purely for their work, as opposed to being recognized by friends/family and the like. While I can’t say for certain that this is what the author of Recently Trendy is going for, I wouldn’t be surprised, either. It does create a bit of a distance from the reader to the author - I do, in a way, wish I knew this person better, to connect easier. But anonymity is a major element of the internet, and I don’t blame the author for remaining behind the shutters.
Voice:
Voice could possibly the most important aspect of mainstream blogging today.
I say this because more often than not, bloggers aim to be persona-driven, with wit-filled prose that brings readers back (and back) for more. The sensational success of bloggers like Perez Hilton has inspired regular folk everywhere to try and do the same. So having a great voice to preach has become critical to having a brand in the blogosphere.
“The Girl From the Ghetto”, as she refers to herself as, has quite a voice - and builds it using a variety of methods. One thing I’ve picked up on in particular, though, is how personal she chooses to be. In fact, her anonymity is in stark contrast to how brutally honest she is about every other aspect of her life - particularly her upbringing.
This is pretty evident in many of her posts, and her willingness to share her backstory and moments from her life helps characterize her more than any fancy “About Me” could (not that she doesn’t have that, too).
“20 Books That Should Be Made Into Movies”, for instance, is a post that at first glance hardly seems to beg for a reflection on her past. Yet she does, and it really works to give the reader a personal connection with her and, by transitive property, her writing!
She begins the post with a look at how - and why - books have made an impact on her life from an early age:
I can remember walking around the complex we lived in (alone, but it was the 1970′s, and again, she was mentally ill and now pregnant and married to an idiot who never wanted me around), bragging to all the other mothers how I could spell and even write my full name in cursive. (Being an Italian, this was no easy task.)
The other mothers would bring out a piece of paper for me to demonstrate, as well as a book to read. Even back then, I was a bit dramatic, but I suppose that comes from being around a mother on an unmedicated manic high most of the time.
See, it’s not just the fact that she talks about her past - anyone can do that. But TGFTG chooses to personalize herself in ways that border the outright ballsy. Who would be brave enough to so brazenly illustrate her clearly choppy childhood? I know I certainly would hesitate.
Most importantly, it helps create weight behind her passion for good (“great”, as she says) reading, which is what propels the rest of the post.
In the more conventional sense of “voice”, however, TGFTG isn’t afraid to use sass and sarcasm to emphasize the points she wants to make.
In her post
“Michael Jackson: Man, Myth, Moonwalker and Alleged Molester” she writes:
Shame on all of these people who chose to ignore the bad things Michael Jackson did. Even in death, people need to tell it like it really is. At least Cher kept it real and spoke how weird he had become. I can appreciate the good things that Michael Jackson did just as well as the bad things he did or was accused of. Do us all a favor and start doing the same!
TGFTG isn’t afraid to state her mind in a commanding way, which is critical in providing some sort of “hook” to her posts from time to time. After all, who wants to read a blog that’s the emotional equivalent of vanilla?
“Even in death, people need to tell it like it really is” comes off almost as a command to the reader, locking in attention and likely inspiring a polarizing opinion - the result of a combination of tempting content and powerful voice. And she then finishes off with an actual direct command in italics, emphasizing the tone of voice (very pointed, demanding) while at the same time visually popping the sentence out of the paragraph.
While writing style and content are two things that have almost unlimited leeway in the blogosphere, these two main characteristics - a deep personal connection with the reader and the ability to have conviction in writing - are things that I would like to focus on going forward. I think it’ll make my blog easier to relate to and more interesting to read every week.
That’s in theory, of course. We’ll see where execution ACTUALLY takes my writing.
