Hot Topic Killed the Subculture Star

I hate ‘the mainstream’.
Not necessarily for the products it produces, but for what it represents. It represents mediocrity in arts, one of the areas it is most desirable to have creativity & difference. (well I hate most of the products as well.) the problem is ‘the mainstream’ is backed by big bucks, big bucks that realize that ‘youth movement’ & ‘underground cultures’ can grow quickly. So, if they want to make the $ then they have to have the goods for these up & coming creative movements.

Look at all the money lost by letting hippies make their own tie-dye for so long. So along comes ‘hot topic’ or other chain store that feeds upon these sub-cultures. But by making the nick-nacks & doo-dads of an up & coming subculture available, coast to coast, from day one, they rob the creativity from the movement.

By this I mean that a sub-culture gains its identity not by where the people shop, but by the energy people put into creating ‘the looks & the lifestyle’. By making the looks & lifestyle pre packaged off the shelf in cookie cutter molds, it reduces the drive for people to create their own unique styles within that culture.

Now one could say that ‘no, it gives people more time to focus that creativity elsewhere!’
And one would be wrong.

creativity, like anything else needs to be practiced. A simple thing like making a tie-dye shirt starts the creative process. Then you start hanging out with people who have made similar items of adornment. In doing this you start to talk about what you all have created. Ideas start to be shared back & forth and the next time you make something it is greater than the first.

Through this growing & changing the various subcultures are formed & can become something large. As the creativity grows & feeds upon itself artists & musicians start to come together. All striving to be creative above & beyond an already creative subculture.
They want to impress people, people who they are creatively impressed by.

Ta-da quality entertainment, great looks, amazing art, it all becomes the norm. because someone made a t-shirt. Or spiked collar. Or whatever accoutrement fits that particular sub genre.

Now the problem enters when a corporation comes in and realizes that one of these groups are forming. And they mass market things that appeal to these groups, before the groups have time to mature on their own. This stunts the creative growth of the community, so the music, styles & art never have a chance to mature, they remain at a sophomoric stage. Which is fine, when you are a sophomore.

Now I realize that the corporations are not going to get the hell out of anything that makes money. So how does creativity get cultivated on a mass scale in today’s world?

anyone? anyone?

ah well..

-De