The New American Dream?

Over the past few years something has occurred that's blurred the lines between "mainstream" and "independent". From movies to fashion to music, it seems the two worlds have collided and left no discernible way to determine where one ends and the other begins. In 2009 it almost feels like popular culture has caved into itself and from this point forward, will just continue to metaphorically "devour itself" until there's nothing left. A prime example of this is the "new breed of indie movie" (Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, the movie with Jim from The Office) which are so utterly aware of their "indie" status and have somehow successfully courted mainstream audiences (stupid people) and alternative audiences (stupid people who like to pretend otherwise) and brought the two camps together. By positioning themselves firmly in the middle (LOL, sounds dirty) and pandering to both sides, these films have essentially "gotten their cake" and were able to "eat it too".



That brings me to my next point, "selling out". When it was once a badge of honor for independent bands and artists to openly reject any kind of endorsement from the mainstream, now it's become a "right of passage" of sorts. An indie band knows its "made it" when it's asked to reconfigure the lyrics to one of its songs to tout the wares of "Outback Steakhouse" or allow their songs to be utilized in commercials for luxury vehicles, personalized computers or even towel racks (Target, Kohl's, etc.)



Indie music has finally cast aside its "holier than thou" attitude and aversion to making a profit/living off of their craft and joined the parade of "sellouts" that used to only consist of rappers and indistinguishable pop-punk or punk-pop bands.



Before I would be appalled by this lack of "artistic integrity" and sullying the purity of "the music" by attaching a price to it. But now, especially in these economically troubling times, I have come to accept, nay, admire sellouts. Selling out is, and has always been, The American Dream. A nice house, white picket fence, 2.5 children, so on and so on. However now, in the Internet Age, anyone can achieve a newer, modernized version of the American Dream. With the advent of Youtube in 2005, all walks of people can become (Internet) famous. All you need is a decent "gimmick". For examples:


This kid's "shtick" is that he's "autistic" and has a fucked-up grill, meaning his lack of social grace and unappealing looks make him an easy target for anonymous assholes online to insult, which equals page hits which in turns equals a video with semi-famous rappers.


This guy's overweight and doesn't believe in God. He's always very animated and brash, constantly letting loose with "politically incorrect" opinions and a "devil may care attitude."

Again, he stirs up "controversy" because people love to argue and get offended, especially online. Result? Crazy page hits, ad rev and apparently a book deal.

Most importantly (for me anyway) is blogs. Blogging can make you internet famous as well and if you're lucky, maybe even rich. Like Youtube personalities, a blog that wants to "hit a nerve" with people needs a good gimmick. One of my favorites blogs, and the one that inspired this post is the popular Hipsterrunoff.com. HRO is a fertile breeding ground for gimmicks. From the blogger Carles' "text speak" writing style, to his saturation of the word "bro" and pretending to get hacked and rise from the dead. All these gimmicks have made Hipsterunoff, like its tag line proclaims, "a blog worth blogging about." Now it even has its own clothing line. (Did u get ur shirt yet?)


With all that said, I have decided that I, too, need to get on this bandwagon of self-branding/promotion and maybe make some money in the process. My blog needs a decent gimmick or two to get people's attention and generate page views. Here are a few ideas I'll throw out.

-I could take my "jail bait" posts up a notch and paste the heads of famous underage teen starlets onto the bodies of porn stars in sexually explicit poses---but I'm afraid this might cross some kind of "line of ethics"& get me in trouble with the authorities or blogger.com

-I could turn my blog strictly into a "celebrity gossip" blog, ala Perez Hilton and try to "out" closeted homosexual celebrities.

-I could use my blog to perpetrate false celebrity death rumors/start a Celebrity Death Pool and take bets on who readers think will expire next.

-I could just post hardcore pornography and hope enough people come to my page to masturbate and tell their friends about all the awesome amputee & bestiality flicks on Perpetual Adolescent Funk.

I'm not sure if any of these ideas would hold up in the long run, or if they'd just get played out very quickly or never really take off in the first place. I'm also unsure if I want to cross any kind of ethical lines, like I said before, and all of these ideas seem to require my doing so. Maybe selling out isn't all that important. Maybe I can just blog without worrying about page hits and becoming "bigger than HRO." Maybe there's more to life than being famous for doing something trivial on the internet. I suppose time will only tell.