Authentic Subculture? Never Heard Of It...

I think that because of the Internet and how global our resources are nowadays, teen culture that begins as authentic quickly loses its authenticity. Take for example Facebook. The website started out small- at one college, and snowballed into a giant phenomenon. As the website grew, it got the attention of advertisers and was seen as an outlet for marketing. There are ads in the sidebars, various advertising related applications, and other advertisements. Because of the Internet being so fast and so vast, the website grew and attracted marketing attention much more quickly than movements have in past generations. The Internet really expands and limits capabilities for teen culture at the same time. More teens can find out about a subculture, but advertisers can as well. Another example is the Emo subculture. Emo actually started out a number of years ago; in fact it dates as far back as the late 1980s. It began as a grassroots movement, but Emo has evolved over the years. With the rise of the internet, especially sites like Myspace, where bands can post their music, Emo has caught the attention of major record labels and advertisers and has become warped and commercialized. The triple-platinum, #1 chart topping mega stars Fall Out Boy are a testament to how commercialized Emo has become. What began as a subgenre of hardcore punk has been thrown into the marketing blender and come out as a wrist-cutting, skinny jean clad, eyeliner-wearing girly boy smoothie. Marketing nowadays chews up any subculture we may devise and spits it back out in packages for us to buy.


Sunny Day Real Estate, one of the first Emo bands (1992). Notice the non-skinnyness of their jeans and their non-girlyness.


Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy (2006). Notice the eyeliner, or "guyliner", emo haircut (bangs over face), and if you could see, he would be wearing skinny jeans.

People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening

Advertisers are hired to promote the sale of products, so naturally they want to know about their consumers. They run focus groups, subscribe to expensive culture spying websites, with the goal of really understanding teenagers. No, not understanding teenagers- understanding what makes them want to buy things. This tactic, almost fake empathy, is used to sell anything and everything. It is really a shame that advertisers are the only ones listening, but they're not listening. They're hearing without listening. They hear what they want to hear; what teenagers buy. They don't really listen or care about anything else teens might be trying to say. But that's not their job. Advertisers shouldn't be concerned with anything else. The problem is that no one else is listening either. Politicians, teachers, even parents or adults in general, rarely ever do they really listen to teenagers and take what they say seriously. Teenagers are expected to talk without speaking- be concerned with getting a prom dress, not about the AIDS pandemic. So many teens don't even vote, and it's probably because they believe they can't make a difference. They've been indirectly told that their opinions don't matter, so why bother give them? People should start listening to teenagers for a greater purpose than selling a soda. The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls- and those prophets are teenagers.