If you are a college student, or a part of any social circle, big or small, that has a presence on Facebook or Twitter, you have come across something that looks like this:
Every big savvy college/student group/company has a page with thousands of these memes. If you're in csc300, chances are that you know what 9gag is.
What is interesting about these kind of memes, is that before they became so popular, they used to be a very nerdy trend that gamers would use to share inside jokes with their cyber friends. Before becoming "mainstream", memes were mostly an underground cyber-geeky thing to do. So the question is, what changed the meme culture to make it universal?
Another example is the music industry. We all know about the Justin Beiber story, and bands such as Walk Off The Earth and Lonely Island finding success through YouTube. Music groups nowadays, find it more effective to use the internet as their platform rather than playing small live shows and using the radio. The internet is convenient. You can create a mini-studio with equipment as simple as your iPhone and an acoustic guitar. It's accessible to the audience that you want to target. It's open to feedback, comments and hit-counters, which is the kind of statistics that are vital to the entertainment industry.
What we see happening is that music that was primarily shared only within certain circles
is now becoming widespread. Everyone with an internet access has become a potential celebrity, through video blogs, and twitter feeds. The 'niche' genres don't exist anymore because of how easily accessible stories become on the Internet, especially when they gain momentum.
So what does that say about the quality of information and entertainment surfacing today. It's true that certain talented people that would have gone unnoticed otherwise, are beginning to get 'discovered', but it's also true that anyone who has grown up in the era of 70's rock 'n' roll, are not shy with their opinions on Justin Beiber and Rebecca Black.
I guess it goes back to the idea of the world becoming more and more naked through the internet. Exclusivity and uniqueness is slowly disappearing and people are all beginning to fall on the same curb of labelled stereotyping. The Hashtag culture has only begun, and it seems like it's going to be around for a very long time.
There has probably been no period in history where the influence of a person or idea has been stronger than now, and all thanks goes to the power of social networking and the internet. It's no surprise that with an audience upwards of 800 million and counting, you can reach all corners of the globe.
ReplyDeleteI think you've raised an interesting point about the proliferation of music, and the quality of information. I think the only thing that has changed with social networking/Internet is the accessibility of information. It's now easier for information to spread. I think the quality of information and talent of people has been the same throughout time, all things being equal; it's just much easier to get noticed now.
http://mzrtdot.blogspot.com/
That's true... the interesting question to ask then is does accessibility make the quality of content better or worse? And what of exclusivity?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, will hit you back on your blog for sure :)
I think there's a flaw in your idea that accessibility can make the quality of content better or worse - the simple fact that "better" and "worse" are entirely subjective. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think this is why meme culture has become so widespread. The memes that are popular are ones that people can easily relate to, iconic yet complex in their simplicity. For every meme, there are set contexts in which it is appropriate. It's interesting to think that memes are almost like a pictorial language, conveying thoughts and feelings without having to say a word. In the example you posted with Bill O'Reilly, the underlying concept is that the statement anteceding "You can't explain that" is entirely explainable, which makes it funny.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right in the fact that quality of content is subjective to a certain extent. I guess the point I was trying to make was that exclusivity of certain cultures are sort of merging into one another. For example, the meme culture used to be something that was shared only within certain cyber circles, but now it's becoming a much more universal concept.
DeleteEither way, I'm not denying that empathizing with an idea makes it much more appealing. Thanks for the comment. Will be sure to return the favor :).
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is very important to have a niche when it comes to music. Musicians, actually any celebrity, should either worry about including only certain followers or excluding only certain followers. My main concern is that young children are able to access too much too often. Their brains are being corrupted. The responsibility is on the parents and celebrities. For example, Miley Cirus. She abandoned her original followers. Unfortunately, her original followers haven't left her, they are still following her.
I think you bring up a good point with the idea of niche and genres. I guess it comes down to the fans. You can see that musicians that have the most loyal following have stuck to who they are and have not tried to change their persona just for more fame and traction.
DeleteHowever, I think that too much information, even too often isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think one should not underestimate the capacity of children to understand and filter good content from bad content and have opinions even at an early age. Just a thought.
Thanks for the post. Will hit up your blog as well! :D