Since the early 2000s reality shows have completely taken over not only television but pop culture as a whole.  MTV has been slowly changing their network into a reality based free-for-all since the 1990s when the The Real World was established, but the 2000s were really the origin of a mass across the board reality show influx.  Social Media also became popular around the same time and it seems like both of these now commonly accepted institutions have started to ebb and flow into one another and are sharing many similar cultural aspects.

MySpace was almost an incubation period for social media; all the kinks were still getting worked out, Blingees made loading pages almost like an off road course, and the visual format seemed like it took precedence over the actual function of the site, but when Facebook started rearing it’s monolithic stature, the entire world of social media was torn asunder.  That’s when the real similarities and gray area between reality show culture and social media really started to emerge.  Facebook has organically (and rather artificially) become a virtual parallel to the docu-reality series that have forever changed the landscape of television and our perception of cultural constructs.

One of the most similar aspects between social media and reality shows are the construction and evolution of archetype abstractions.  Every reality show casting director talks about the extremely specific almost algorithmic equations they use when formulating a new show.  They need Character A. to react to Character B. so Constant C. can interject creating a whole new set of variables for D, E, and F to become flustered with; and then this process repeats throughout the season, accumulating steam along the way for the inevitable finale / reunion where the whole process begins anew.

Social Media has become a similar half-fabricated / half-actualized venue that allows it’s participants to write their own storylines as they shape and mold the outcome through their personal online tableau; a cryptic little tweet here, a specific photo vaguely framed there, an eclectic Spotify playlist that seems incongruent at first but slowly reveals abstractions in the sense of a fiber optic board game.  All of these little details, whether purposely articulated or by accident, add up to an online persona that can be every bit as simulated as the most elaborate reality show scenarios.  Social Media allows us to change as little or as much of our own reality to create a linear or abstract storyline that ends up personifying our own persona construct.

Another major parallel between reality shows and social media is the ease of it’s participants to take part in the contruction of their persona.  That’s one of the major flaws reality show casting directors have talked about since the massive proliferation of reality shows since the 2000s.  It used to be easy for them to find the rough and tumble hillbilly with a heart of gold, or the housewife with golden locks and an armful of existential crises to match, but now everyone is way too self-aware of what casting directors are looking for, and they come to the auditions already in “character”, or they say something like “I’m the such and such arche-sterotype you’ve been looking for”.

The same exact thing has happened on social media.  Instead of organically articulating exactly what comprises themselves on a visceral level, people create versions of themselves that are more palatable both in the real world and in online venues; not in the context of “I don’t want my boss to know I went to Hooter’s with my gram-gram for Easter”, but more so that they’re sculpting and purposefully editing out or exaggerating their own online persona to appeal to a seemingly larger audience.  Even if you’re 100% authentic in real life there’s still aspects you might edit out within social media to present a more well-rounded auto-tuned version of yourself.  It’s kind of like how MSG evens out the five main tastes to create a more pleasurable but inherently banal palette, some people use social media to quality control their own organic shortcomings.  The same way reality shows have catacombs overflowing with 14-hour-a-day editing kiosks, social media can be used to crossfade or edit out our undesirable facets only to heighten and spotlight our glorious and nutrient rich accomplishments.

The Internet and especially new web culture have completely ushered in a new era of cultural reinterpretation and repurposing.  A large part of the underground artistic movements that are occurring online are sourced from previously existing culture.  The idea of sampling or remixing has become so commonplace for a net artist or a tech savvy Millennial, that sometimes no one stops to think if their reinterpretation is actually accomplishing something new.  There are definitely positive and negative attributes to this vantage point of creating new cultural models based on the old culture, but is this movement really benefiting the culture as a whole, or is it simply regurgitating the old principles without expanding on them?

Drake’s mad introspective Take Care album cover

The rapper / singer / former Degrassi maven Drake recently made an interesting statement on his blog about his decidedly negative outlook on the culture perpetuated by Tumblr:

“I’m really scared for my generation, you know. The thing that scares me most is Tumblr. I hate what Tumblr has become. Because it like, it reminds me of those clique-y girls in high school that used to make fun of everyone and define what was cool, but in five years, when you all graduate, that shit doesn’t matter. No one gives a fuck about that shit. Instead of kids going out and making their own moments, they’re just taking these images and living vicariously through other people’s moments. It just kills me. Then you’ll meet them and they’re just the biggest turkey in the world. They don’t actually embody any of those things. They just emulate. It’s scary man, simulation life that we’re living. It scares me.”

Although Drake the musical artist has definitely had some backlash from the hip hop community for his Woody Allen-esque softly crooned testimonials, he definitely makes an astute point about the possible negative aspects that Tumblr culture creates.  A massive part of Tumblr are the Notes and Reblogging features that allow someone to grab content for their Tumblr without having to actually create any of it on their own.  It’s similar to someone curating an art show or a compilation where their keen eye is the only lens that creates the overall aesthetic of the package.  When a compilation, a mix, or an art show is put together well it really highlights the astute focus and necessary editing that goes hand in hand with a competent curator.  Within culture there’s a practical use for the curator, even with online culture, but what Drake mentions, and is definitely commonplace within some social media platforms, are the people who only create their brand through the culture and abstract identities of other brands and entities.

Hunting In Haute Couture via Everything Is Terrible!

The Internet and especially new web culture creates an atmosphere where the physical origin of this media becomes extremely secondary, and it’s really easy to forget that almost everything that exists online comes from the real world.  Besides of course CGI graphics created with computer programs or other forms of entirely computer created content, almost everything else existed in a physical version before it landed online.  Every single old press photo of embarrassingly dressed celebrities, magazine advertisements from the 70s, old TV show clips, Z-movies, ironic / un-ironic / post-ironic clothing; it all existed before the Internet and someone had to take the time and effort and their insightful aesthetic lens to actually archive or capture it to be preserved in the digital realm.  Besides for user created content, a large amount of the clips on YouTube are from dusty rundown VHS bungalows or someone’s grandma’s attic ensconced treasure chest.  It’s not that simply recycling this culture negatively impacts it, but it’s important to remember that the Internet is merely a point in its destination, but very often not the origin.

Nicki Minaj in Versace

Another tangent on the concept of repurposing culture are the recent influx of massively popular capsule collections that have popped up at H&M, Target, and other mass retailers.  A large portion of the interest for these collections is both the lower price point that allows the mass market to own a brand that might otherwise be out of their price range, and to also resurrect certain aesthetics and cultural motifs that otherwise would have slowly faded into obscurity.  One of the most recent collaborations that’s set to go on sale this week is H&M teaming up with Versace.  In a recent article on MTV.com both Nicki Minaj, Big Sean (a rapper on fellow fashion provocateur Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music record label), and Donatella Versace discussed why right now was the perfect time for a capsule collection at H&M:

Donatella could clearly sense nostalgia was in bloom. “It’s a moment that I felt was the right moment,” she said of launching the mass collection. “It’s a lot of requests for Versace iconic pieces like printed shirts, and everybody is doing homage to Versace so I decided to give them the real thing to H&M, to the kids!” she smiled.

What’s different about this concept is the culture is being repurposed and relaunched by the same person (or at least related to) that originated it.  As Nicki and Big Sean discuss in the article, there’s been a long standing love affair between the hip hop community and the Versace sense of gaudiness and absolutely outlandish ornate prints.  The Notorious B.I.G, famously referenced the label in the J.U.N.I.O.R. Mafia song “Get Money“ with the lyrics “My Moschino ho, my Versace hottie“ as well as him and P.Diddy garishly dancing around in matching Versace silk shirts in the video for the track “Hypnotize”.

P. Diddy and The Notorious B.I.G rocking Versace in their video for Hyptnotize

The real question though isn’t whether or not there’s an audience for this capsule collection, but is it really beneficial to the brand, the aesthetic, and the Versace legacy?  You can still find vintage Versace pieces on Ebay, Etsy, and other high end consignment shops, sometimes at a very similar price point to the new H&M collection, but is there some aspect of authenticity getting cleansed from history by reinterpreting your own landmark prints and aesthetic?  There’s a facet of it that’s almost nice of Donatella to dramatically decrease the price points of their staple Italy via Miami via Guido Renaissance prints, but as we’ve seen with similar capsule collections from Missoni, Vera Wang, Stella McCartney, and couture hologram himself Mr. Lagerfeld, the original price points are tripled and sometimes quadrupled in the resell market on Ebay and other sites.  Even though aesthetically the collection definitely maintains the original vision of the best Versace garments, doesn’t it make more sense to just buy an original vintage Versace piece instead of waiting all night in line to wail along with the throngs of agitated shoppers grabbing at racks of a derivative take on a classic fashion totem?

Vintage Versace Magazine Ads

More then anything there’s positive and negative aspects to cultural reinterpretation and repurposing.  A lot of it has to do with the intent and the overall contribution it’s making to the culture.  Even if someone curates their Tumblr with content solely created by other people, it’s still possible that their astute lens will positively accomplish a new vantage point or way of considering culture that wasn’t previously articulated.  It’s always important to remember that a large portion of Internet culture was harvested from physical artifacts, and someone somewhere had to put the effort and consideration in to archive and purposefully capture these items so they could live on in the digital cloud of perpetuity.  It’s not bad to repurpose and reinterpret as long as it’s expanding the culture instead of diluting and diminishing its original impact.

As pop culture evolves, so does the context of how we frame and categorize culture, and the more rapidly it changes, sometimes the harder it becomes to exactly define what we’re talking about.  A great example of this new conceptual pop culture are the #HDBoyz.  Who or exactly what are the #HDBoyz?  Are they a boy band based on photo editing gradients that some Svengali cast from national auditions?  Are they a tongue in cheek conceptual art project that seems so authentic on the surface that it’s hard to decipher?  Why are they always wearing Under Armour and what do all those little icons mean in the corner of their promo photos?  More then anything the #HDBoyz are a perfect example of pop culture skewering itself by being as direct and authentic as possible.

The best examples of modern satire are so close in design to the actual culture they’re mocking that only the most astute audience can actually tell the difference.  The Colbert Report has been on for years now and there’s still a portion of his audience that’s convinced he’s just another layer on the O’Reilly Glenn Beck bandwagon.  The #HDBoyz truly evoke the same “are they joking or aren’t they?” response from anyone who’s unfamiliar with either online culture, boy band culture, or maybe a little of both.  The actual origins and background of the group is a little murky.  It’s comprised of 5 dilettantes who each have a vested interest in some of the best online and art world culture that’s out there.  One of the members Ryder Ripps is behind dump.fm and Internet Archaeology, and the #HDBoyz seems to be another expansion of his innovative aesthetic into a completely different arena.

The #HDBoyz had their inaugural performance at MOMA PS1 at an event sponsored by DIS Magazine that promoted a diverse roster of pop culture mutated art and performances.  Their tagline is “The World’s First High Definition Boy Band” and they totally brought out all the 1080p pixels they could possibly muster.  Their lyrical content is also an awesome approximation of standard Boy Band tropes mixed with common online tech speak.  On their song “Photoshopped” they try to convince a girl to leave her boyfriend because he looks too artificial and polished by the Adobe engine, and on “Unzip” they use the analogy of compressed files as a love induced come-on with other awesome tech speak double entendres thrown in for good measure.

After watching a few of their videos and hearing their lyrics most people would probably understand they were satirizing something, but exactly what they’re poking fun at is kind of up in the air.  More importantly I think that’s exactly how this project was intended.  I don’t know if, A, it’s really necessary to understand the punchline for the joke to be good, and B, the actual punchline might just be that this project or concept or whatever is actually done really, really well.  Their photoshoot for DIS Magazine is an amazing amalgam of early 2000s Backstreet Boys androgyny mixed with an awesome filter of tech jargon and new web stylistic motifs.

It’s almost exactly what the future of boy bands will really look like; completely cleansed of purpose but simultaneously wrapped in an aesthetic package that tells you everything about them without saying a word.  Just like how your grandma watches Colbert and agrees with everything he says right before the laugh track rolls in, the #HDBoyz just might be the most convincing boy band of the new web era because their aesthetic and overall concept is every bit as authentic as any other megazoid amalgamation that rose from the Florida catacombs in the last two decades.  The future of pop music and boy bands is truly going to live in the pixels and terabyte servers of every faceless Cisco warehouse and the #HDBoyz are just waiting for everyone else to catch up.

Images via DIS Magazine

In an article David Keenan wrote in The Wire magazine Issue #306, he coined the term “hypnagogic pop” in reference to an underground music movement that utilized the concept of memory and revisionist nostalgia as a launching point for an entire sub-genre.  Hypnagogic is defined as “Inducing sleep” or “Of, relating to, or occurring in the state of intermediate consciousness preceding sleep”, which is the perfect adjective for this loosely based micro-genre.  Hypnagogic pop is a recent quasi-movement within the experimental underground where musicians take aspects of modern culture and nostalgia and transform them into new collective memories that incorporate parts of the old model but at the same time shape them into an entirely new creature.  It’s a very Frankenstein-esque process where new organisms and ideas are conjured from the debris and rubble of the previous synaptic runoff.  Hypnagogic pop in general and the aesthetic behind it is one of the most accurate representations of our modern cultural perception and exactly what defines the new version of our muddled hyper-reality.

One of Keenan’s main focuses in the article was the beyond prolific artist James Ferraro.  He’s released countless limited run CD-Rs and more high profile releases on the record label Olde English Spelling Bee including last year’s critical darling Nightdolls with Hairspray.  There’s a lot of other examples of hypnagogic pop but overall Ferraro is the best representation of the aesthetic and how it mutates a culture that’s so familiar to us into an indecipherable slurry that becomes amorphous but still has it’s original parts visibly jutting out at oddly rendered angles.  Keenan sums up the genre as “pop music refracted through the memory of a memory” and it couldn’t be a more accurate summation for the overall aesthetic.  Especially Ferarro’s music, and for tons of artists who might be considered hypnagogic, they’re using the genre to create a revisionist history of popular culture that utilizes the concept of nostalgia to rewrite collective memories instead of simply trying to evoke them.

Teamm Jordann – “Stadium” from Haunted Internet

A major parallel exists between the inspiration of hypnagogic pop and the current trend of online cyber-nostalgia.  There are countless Tumblrs, YouTube channels, and basically every Social Media platform that exists who utilize the culture and aesthetic of the early Internet to revise and construct new memories based on bits and pieces of actual culture.  Everything from dunp.fm, Internet Archaeology, to ScannerJammer and “The Second Internet”, and even the Tumblrs of Midwestern small town teens are taking an entire culture and reshaping it to fit into whatever mold they see fit.  When this starts happening on a universal level, and everyone is rewriting the history and aesthetic of popular culture at the same time, it starts to change not only our perception of the past but the actual past itself.  If your only exposure to early Internet culture was through the modern revisionist take on it, your vantage point would be worlds apart from someone who experienced it as it was actually happening.

via Vela Phelan & Temple of Messages

One aspect of hypnagogic pop and especially James Ferraro’s aesthetic is his constant use of low culture and pop culture totems, which are very often one in the same.  Ever since Warhol started transposing soup cans from the supermarket to the gallery and Lichtenstein was taking single comic books panels and creating wall sized monuments from them, pop culture and high art have become amorous bedfellows.  Since then the concept has only expanded and grown larger and younger generations would never even think to question the idea of marrying low culture into a high culture venue.  Even Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp essay from 1964 (which is also referenced in the Keenan article) established an air of credibility for the inclusion of the kitsch aesthetic and camp culture within the confines of galleries and museums.  In an interview with Dummy magazine Ferarro even referred to his music as “pop in a pop art kind of way” which perfectly encapsulates the overall aesthetic and mentality behind the hypnagogic perception of culture.

Class of Nukem High Movie Poster

A great way of describing his music and a good amount of music within the genre is that it refers to everything in a broad sense while not referring to anything specifically.  A track like Ferraro’s “Leather High School” sounds like the soundtrack to every Class of Nukem High sequel that never existed.  It really puts Keenan’s description of “pop music refracted through the memory of a memory” into action.  It leaves you with a veneer of nostalgia through trash culture, B-movies, cyberpunk mythology, and dada mash-up street fashion that’s so familiar you could swear that you can pinpoint the exact of origin of each facet, but in reality it’s an entirely purposefully constructed new entity.

via Fruits Magazine

Hypnagogic pop is definitely an aural parallel to the current crop of new web culture and perfectly bastardized online aesthetics.  The sometimes haughty DJ / producer Diplo made a comment in an interview that teens growing up now don’t necessarily care or aren’t interested that 20 genres had to happen for the song their listening to come into existence.  They’re merely enjoying the modern equivalent of hyper-hybridization and the nonstop influx of cultural Frankenstein monsters.  Hypnagogic pop acts as the perfect vehicle for the current crop of musicians to absolutely Cuisinart everything in existence that came before them.  It doesn’t matter if its reality shows, action movies (one of Ferraro’s cultural obsessions), or some high end LED embossed Japanese fashion label, it’s all completely sample worthy and ready to be transformed into anything and everything.  These new Tumblrs and musicians and digital artists are the farm to table purveyors of the new cultural underground; they’re involved on a micro level with absolutely every minute detail as they prepare new sustenance from the ingredients of the past.

I’m so excited to be featured in an interview for WeAreNYTech.  It’s a really informative and comprehensive website that showcases some of the best people working in the technology industry in New York City.  I was happy to talk about my background in digital marketing and the different projects I’m currently working on.  There’s a transcript from the interview and a link below.

http://wearenytech.com/262-luna-vega-digital-marketing-consultant

You mention in your bio that at one point you just decided to make your childhood dream come true and start your own business.  How did you come to the decision that it was the right time?

I have always been a perfectionist. It was important for me to get plenty of professional experience under my belt before starting my own business. I took me several years to work up the courage to take the leap.

I vividly remember the day I launched an extensive project for company I was working for at the time. If I had successfully managed and survived this project, I could undertake anything that came my way, I knew I was ready. I had earned the confidence needed to be an entrepreneur. A huge weight also lifted the day I finally quit my job, as if I was finally allowing myself to be me and go for what made me happy deep down.

Is there any particular reason that you choose projects aimed at Gen Y, Hispanic, and Tween target audiences?

When I started my business, I quickly realized I needed to specialize. I dug and wrote down what came to me naturally. I had an affinity for pop culture, fashion, music combined with an internal flair because of my up-bringing (french/hispanic). Indisputably, my strengths rely in pop culture trend forecasting, and understanding the youth demographic. So I decided to apply this knowledge to the work I provide my client. A digital strategy is vacuous if you don’t understand demographic you are reaching out to. You can tweet and blog all you want but if no one cares about what you have to say than it’s a lost cause.

PluggedIn is a new project that you started that is a new web series where you invite your colleagues to debate digital platforms, relevant issues and new technologies affecting the New Media landscape.  Where did the idea for this project come from and what were some of the challenges that you faced when putting the web series together?

My goal in 2011 was to create a video blog educating folks about the power of social media. It was hard at first as,  everything had already been done. After going through a series of ideas, I decided to collaborate with my friend Trevz founder of  thenewpop.com and create a debate show where our colleagues would size up issues in the Social Media landscape. I felt there was little constructive criticism out there about new technology especially from “real users”. It was time we gave a voice to the non techies and for them to provide their insight about which tool they like or dislike. It was important for Trevz and I to create a specific aesthetic for the show while making it entertaining.

Google + hangout launched not to long after we came up with concept, as a logical progression we decided to use the chat technology to host our debates. Producing this show has been one of biggest logistical challenges we have ever faced. It hasn’t been done before so we are literally making it up as we go along. We are constantly testing new video screen grabbing technology, accessing which browsers are better for streaming etc..

For as long as rap music and hip hop culture have existed, its been known as one of the most hyper-masculine genres.  A lot of hip hop culture is based on machismo and posturing to the point where hyperbole eventually becomes actualized.  That’s why its interesting to see that rap culture and male culture to a certain extent has become more androgynous over the last few years.  Not that it’s become an entirely effeminate day at the spa across the board, but here and there a tinge of a cultural upheaval has become a much more common occurrence.

What’s really interesting is that the very early aesthetic if not directly was at least partially inspired by gay culture.  The very origins of some rap DJs and early rap records got tested out in New York City gay clubs before they had a chance to make it to the boombox, and on top of that many early rap songs were derived from disco hits.  One of the earliest and most famous was The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” which was based on a few second breakbeat from the Chic track “Good Times”.  Beyond the musical inspiration for rap origins the clothing was also appropriated or sampled at least partially from gay culture.  If you look at very early hip hop clothing from the late 70s to early 80s it was tons of leather and spikes, and gauntlets and chains; it was almost an urban spin on the collective aesthetic between punk and gay leather clubs.

With hip hop culture being one of the most experimental genres of course the aesthetic eventually mutated into tons of different forms over the years and quickly progressed away from its origins to a more urban sportswear look that came in the 1980s and 1990s with Run DMC and their Adidas partnership, and tons of other highly sought after hip hop brands like Troop, Fila, Nike, Coogi, Puma, and countless others.  Eventually this aesthetic changed again in the late 1990s to early 2000s and gigantic triple XL everything became the standard hip hop wardrobe.

It wasn’t until the late 2000s that the hip hop aesthetic made a return to a more fitted, and less comically oversized look.  Around this same time androgyny within male culture overall became more of a culturally accepted aesthetic.  The infamous metrosexual movement in the 2000s (as expertly satirized on South Park) made it okay for men to care more about their physical grooming and a feminine style without suffering the risk of mockery from their male counterparts.  As this trend progressed in the mainstream it eventually made its way into hip hop culture.

Kanye West, who has received his own fair share of sexuality comments, was one of the first rappers who made it okay to be seen in the front row at a Galliano show accompanied by Taz Arnold in leopard print leggings (again immortalized on South Park on the classic Kanye gay fish episode) while at the same time maintaining at least some element of street cred within the music industry.  Kanye was more of an isolated example at the time he first started immersing himself in the world of fashion, but eventually it became okay for hyper masculine rappers to reference these haute couture designers and still maintain a sense of bravado on their songs.

Artwork via Teen Witch

The last few years has really expanded on what Kanye quasi initiated and now androgyny in rap music has really come to the forefront of the hip hop cultural discussion.  One of the main if not the most vocal advocates of this new culture is definitely Lil B.  Even before he named his most recent album I’m Gay (I’m Happy), he was lacing his dada based raps with tons of almost gender neutral sentiments.  Although Lil B says that he’s 100% straight, he constantly refers to himself as a pretty bitch, has repeatedly called himself a f****t and lesbian on tons of different tracks, and he constantly refers to his wardrobe as “tiny shirt tiny pants” which is a direct inversion of the initial bigger is better aesthetic.  Because of his extremely out there album title Lil B has spoken on numerous occasions about the role of sexuality and androgyny in rap music and more then anything he refers to his perception of hip hop culture as all accepting genre with no judgment towards any minority group.

One of the most interesting aspects about this discussion is the sharp contrast between the experimental nature of rap music and its sometimes extremely strict rules of conduct.  It’s something that’s completely modern in nature in that it’s the only genre that is entirely based on sampling other genres, but at the same time its aesthetic for the most part has strictly defined rules about what’s acceptable.  Something like skinny jeans have really only been worn by men for a few years, and when sub-sects or small areas of the rap community began wearing them, there was a huge backlash in both interviews and songs from the more traditional rap artists.  Even recently the rapper Danny Brown was in talks with 50 Cent to be signed to his label G-Unit and one aspect that made the deal fall though was that Danny Brown wears vintage rock t shirts and skinny jeans and has half of his head shaved with an almost wavy pompadour, and even though he’s one of the most talented underground rappers right now, his aesthetic was enough of an issue to sour the deal.

That’s what’s really interesting about the current rap climate and even how androgyny is perceived in different cultures across the board.  There was an article in The New York Times recently about a trend among gay men in New York City that wear pumps and stilettos with their otherwise masculine outfits (which is also something that’s been a constant on The Real Housewives of Atlanta since Season 1).  On the runway and with street fashion especially in Japan and Europe male leggings have become at least somewhat commonplace for more experimental aesthetics.

In tons of different cultural arenas male androgyny has started to make headway as a more accepted form of expression, and its interesting to see that even in the hyper masculine climate of hip hop culture there’s at least a tinge of that happening, even if the proponents are few and far between.  Andre 3000 was wearing absolutely garish almost drag-esque costumes for years, and even the ultimate anti-hero “your rapper’s favorite rapper” Cam’ron was absolutely infatuated with the color pink for a year or so in the early 2000s, to the extent that he was constantly seen hopping out of his custom Laffy Taffy pink Range Rover in head to toe pink chinchilla that looked like a cotton candy factory imploded.  Of course Camron and his Dipset cohorts also came up with the well known “No Homo” adlib, its still interesting that hip hop culture has evolved to the point where you can maintain a sense of hyper masculinity while still immersed in an almost Lisa Frank esque aesthetic.  Hip Hop culture will probably always have a complicated relationship with androgyny but at least over the years its scope has expanded to start including more experimental aspects that truly hark back to its groundbreaking origins.

Part of this phenomenon comes from the normalcy most teens feel when going online.  They don’t really see any separation between the real world and social media and they view their online profiles as merely an extension of their actual personalities.  If you literally grow up within Internet culture then it never really seems false or inorganic; it just becomes another layer of your actual life.  Some people take this concept further and create online personas for themselves where they can evolve into any idea they want and shape and mold each and every variable that personifies their online presence.

With the Internet and especially the evolution of new web culture an online persona is easily attainable for anyone that wants to participate.  You can create a multifaceted presence within social media by incorporating different elements of your persona through the various online platforms.  You can tweet about your avatar’s daily minutia, you can post pics of yourself and your scope of influences on your Tumblr, you can post webcam snapshots or entire vids on your vimeo or Youtube while personally interacting as your persona on your Facebook wall.  Each platform becomes another layer of your avatar that eventually accumulates and begins to personify your entire “brand” as a whole.

That’s almost what these avatars turn into, depending on the extent someone wants to get involved or what they’re attempting to accomplish with their persona.  Dracula in Dior is a blog that covers current fashion trends from the perspective of a fashion obsessed vampire.  Although it’s a persona that’s slightly less real world accented then some other examples, its still exemplifies the infinite possibilities one can incorporate when developing their own persona, avatar, or online brand

Molly Soda has definitely become one of the standout stars of the new web Tumblr era, and her brand has become really well represented through every online platform, eventually leading to physical press like her interview in the underground culture magazine SuperSuper.  There’s numerous examples of people that develop an online persona for themselves, whether purposefully or letting it organically evolve over time, which could potentially become as influential for others as some of their own personal persona influences.

That’s another aspect that’s so interesting about the phenomenon of social media avatars.  It’s still such a new concept that’s its evolving everyday and someone could start a Tumblr based on aspects of the avatars of other personas and if they’re innovative and standout enough their own “avatar” could eventually come to influence others, and the process and culture would keep evolving and changing from there.

That’s what’s so intriguing for the current crop of tweens, teens, and other Millennials that spend a majority of their waking hours online.  Within a certain extent you really can be anything you want online.  Sometimes when reality interferes with this concept as in the “documentary” Catfish the results aren’t exactly what’s initially expected, but for the most part developing your own persona or avatar online in the context of creative pursuits only serves to expand your brand and the extent of your creative possibilities.

A lot of people’s online personas incorporate aspects of their real life personality but they expand upon them to include qualities people might feel their lacking or wish they had in real life.  That’s why so much of this new culture is so attractive for tweens, teens, and almost anyone who’s grown up or to a certain was extent raised by the Internet.  You can be anything online you can dream up and it doesn’t matter which aspects are real or which are hyperbole; they all eventually coalesce into an amorphous mush that’s one part organism and one part entirely virtual until the two are virtually indistinguishable from one another.

Way before MTV started showing videos around the clock in the early 1980s music was primarily an aural medium.  There was always the visual element of magazines, posters, and sparse television programs, but for the most part unless you attended a concert the only visual element you had of your favorite band was their album cover and if you were lucky maybe a few page spread in Rolling Stone.  MTV completely changed this concept and from there on the visual aspect became just as or even more important then what the music sounds like.  In the new web era of unlimited bandwidth and non-stop visuals from YouTube, Tumblr, and every other media platform (twit pics I’m lookin’ at you buddy) music has become just as visual as movies or television.  So much so that there’s been micro-genres sprouting up where the visual element is almost more concrete and substantial then an actual unified musical aesthetic.

The extremely recent Tumblr incubated micro-genre of Seapunk is definitely the best example of this concept.  Witch House, the micro-famous / micro-infamous genre that had some critical fanfare in 2010 has a real definitive visual aesthetic that accompanies the sound, but the sound itself is also really specific and pretty easy to nail down.  Seapunk honestly seems like the first musical sub-genre that’s invented for and by the Internet where the visual element is more concrete then the sound itself.

Seapunk is kind of an inside joke of a joke which isn’t too surprising considering it’s fiber optic origins.  Web celebrity and all around digital hooligan Lil Internet said he came up with the term from a dream he had and from then on, as most Internet concepts seem to do, it became viral in a matter of months.  Seapunk can be loosely described as the 90s early Internet cyberpunk culture filtered through a utopian glossy gif aesthetic of dolphins, yin yangs, CGI rendered dreamscapes, and everything aquamarine you could possibly cram into an animated gif.  It’s kind of like if that Kevin Costner box office bomb Waterworld was shot on the Internet with a 4D camera and then turned into a elaborate Tumblr theme.

Actually the visual element is easier to describe then the musical aesthetic if that even seems possible.  Part of that is due to the extremely short time span it’s been around for.  Only a handful of artists are producing music under the Seapunk umbrella, and out of those there’s only been a handful of label releases besides for the abundance of web only Seapunk mixes, which is definitely a parallel to the witch house movement.  The first official release was the Coral Records compilation Seapunk Volume 1.  There’s definitely a similarity in the sound across the whole compilation, but more then anything it’s a genre where the visual element is a much more concrete tangible concept.

The sound on the compilation spans everything from old school jungle, rave, and breakbeats you might have found in London in 1995.  There’s also some aspects of the lo-fi chillwave sound, but with an overall aquatic kind of shimmery vibe.  If you sat down and listened to the whole compilation you could probably pick out 15 – 20 genre elements which are then rearranged and put back together in a familiar but decidedly off kilter fashion.  As with so much other new web culture, Seapunk takes the last 20 or 30 years of electronic music history and even visuals and completely Cuisnarts them into an entirely new sound and visual aesthetic.

That’s one of the most interesting aspects of Seapunk which is definitely become a common theme for new web culture in general.  It’s a musical genre that’s based more on the visual then actually how it sounds, which is something you can really only pull off on the Internet.  It’s like when a new brand launches or an esteemed company releases a new product.  Before you even use it or have a chance to buy it you’re introduced to it through the visual element; the type of the package, the logo, the actors in the commercial representative of the potential audience’s demographic.  Before you actually make a purchase the visual element is the first thing that gets you to the store to even contemplate buying it.

That’s kind of what Seapunk has done.  In the last few months there’s been so many Seapunk Tumblrs popping up, Seapunk photos where everyone’s hair is turquoise, Ecco the Dolphin screen captures, and enough yin yang animated gifs to fill an aquarium.  Before you even have a chance to listen to the music you’re already so familiar with how the music looks that it changes and affects your perception of how the music sounds.

That’s one of the concepts the new web culture has accomplished that’s extremely hard to pull off in other mediums.  It’s the visual abstraction of the genre that personifies the music, instead of people’s perception of it being defined by it how it sounds.  It literally sounds like how it looks, but unless you’re online or familiar with new web culture, that concept is extremely confusing.  That’s what the Internet has accomplished over time almost by accident.  No matter what creative endeavor someone is working with, the Internet has the capability of merging all the preexisting mediums into an entirely new blurry amalgam that’s made from the parts of the old model but looks nothing like the history it was conceived from.  Seapunk may be only the beginning of a cultural evolution where all of our senses could potentially be engaged in a medium instead of the conventional aspects we’re used to.  In a few years people might be talking about how a new song tastes or smells instead of how it sounds, and considering what’s happening now, that really doesn’t seem too surprising.

Note:  We want to credit the seapunk graphics and images to artist Kevin Heckart who is the main artist behind the Seapunk aesthetic.  We’re sorry that we didn’t give credit earlier to Kevin Heckart for his artwork.  Thanks.

The other day I came across a Groupon for liposuction, and I was at the least a little bit in shock. Granted if I was looking to get lipo hey 50% off sounds like a great deal, but I’m not sure I would really trust an establishment that would give out a deal like that for plastic surgery.  Don’t get me wrong; Groupon is a great way to get your brand noticed and there are definitely some tremendous deals on their site, but a Groupon for liposuction, that seems like it’s going too far. Was this particular deal actually beneficial for both parties involved? Would you really subject your health to an institution that’s willing to make a deal like that? On top of that, it makes me wonder what type of corners they had to cut just to make the deal.  Aren’t there certain things you just don’t want a deal on?

Overall it really feels like Groupon has stopped curating the content it sends out to it’s customers, and that any random promotion will do. As a brand, it’s so important to keep your reputation in mind and part of that is ensuring that every deal you have on your site is A) from reputable sources and B) is mutually beneficial for both parties involved.

With the rise of so many competing coupon sites, I feel that it’s important for Groupon to keep their brand pristine.  Even though they have a huge market share I still think that if they keep giving out groupons for lipo and other ridiculous deals, users will eventually go to different more specialized sites.

What are your thoughts?

One of the things the Internet has accomplished more then any other medium is the extent of interactivity possible.  Almost every other medium elicits a passive process where we ingest visual or audio content but it doesn’t usually allow us to alter or change it.  The Internet and the rapid expansion of technology has truly created an almost universal remix culture that has increasingly become more interactive and easier to accomplish as time goes on.  Literally the same week a rap album comes out the chopped & screwed version pops up on YouTube and mixtape sites, sometimes even with more acclaim then the original.  YouTube itself is literally overflowing with every type of “remix” you can fathom, from Funny or Die esque meme parodies, to video mashups and collages that could span 50 years of visuals in 3 minutes.  The more technology advances, the more established and advanced this remix culture becomes.

The interactive element of the Internet is one of the main reasons people are so attracted to it.  Television, films, and to a lesser extent music has always been almost entirely passive mediums where the viewer is never allowed to alter any aspect of the original content.  Before digital audio software became so affordable and easy to use, even music remixes were relegated to professional musicians or at least serious music hobbyists.  Now because of the way culture exists on the Internet the passive nature of all these mediums has become completely reversed.  Not only do some companies and artists encourage interpretations of their creative output, but some aspects of culture are entirely based on this concept.

Rap music is probably the genre most associated with the remix.  It’s literally the only genre based on sampling, which is inherently a version of remixing.  The earliest rap songs from the late 70s were for the most part based on breakbeats from disco records, and from then on rap culture has engulfed every other genre into a seamless melange that sounds distinctly like itself while still resembling aspects of every genre it’s based on.  The Internet has created an environment for every single medium that rap could only achieve with music.  Now instead of sampling old funk or some obscure idm record, people sample TV shows, movies, webcam snippets, images; literally anything that can be replicated and reproduced in byte form.

One of the most widespread current trends within remix culture is the new-web Tumblr aesthetic.  Tumblrs are very similar to a concept of a blog minus the inherent structure and organization that comes with regular blogging.  When a Tumblr is really executed well it’s a perfect pastiche of anything and everything you can imagine, very often with little to no explanation of the context or an inferred cultural message.  Very often you’ll see YouTube clips next to a soundcloud demo underneath some 70s fashion advert and then a collage of webcam images superimposed over the exact time stamped dialogue of the webcam exchange.

That’s why the Tumblr aesthetic is such a great example of the new remix culture and the almost universal sampling that takes place in every facet of the web.  They encompass everything the author is thinking about or wants to think about all in one place without needing to be placed within the canon or properly contextualized for the audience.  I think that’s one reason Tumblrs and remix culture in general is so attractive to the web audience; people don’t need or want to have these cultural mashups explained to them and its possible the explanation might even ruin some of the mystique behind them.  Just like a song or film or piece of art that you might enjoy on a visceral level, sometimes the unanswered questions that Tumblrs often propose are the most exciting and innovative aspects about them.

Another facet of the new-web remix culture is defintely video collages, and the homemade music videos that currently populate YouTube.  Video collages are new videos specifically cobbled together from the remnents of old clips, whether they’re derived from dusty VHS tapes, a DVR archive, or even old scratchy Super 8 transfers.  Video collages are one of the best examples of the current remix culture and a definitive cousin / accompaniment to the Tumblr aesthetic.  Video collages have almost become the defacto visual element for the qusasi-nostalgic aesthetic of certain Internet based music genres, especially the tongue in cheek “chillwave” and some dream pop (or even dreamwave) and ambient electronic sub-genres.

That’s what the new-web culture has become; people that sample sounds from old songs and then make a video for their track sampling old videos they found in a thrift store or even some rubbish bin.  The new remix culture is creating an entirely new medium based on the detritus of the old.  Even record labels and media conglomerates can benefit from this recent massive trend of remix culture.  By letting people put their own spin on a record label’s hit single or maybe even remix a television skit or commercial, it gives them a more direct and personal relationship with the media that’s impossible to create from passive participation.

Instead of thinking about remix culture and audience reinterpretations of media as a threat to the original concept, some companies can actually benefit from these ideas and very often people will develop a much deeper and more visceral appreciation for the media by personally interacting with it.  Remix culture provides a level of interactivity that can potentially benefit everyone that’s involved, but most importantly it helps to advance and perpetuate the experimental nature of creative mediums which has become one of the most important tenets of new-web culture and the Internet as a whole.