Merchants of Cool Journal 5/25 - Leigh Bagood

In the documentary The Merchants of Cool, marketing companies actively demonstrate the construction of popular culture in Stuart Hall’s terms by commercializing and commodifying already existing cultures that they observe in teenage groups. Through “cool hunting” they identify a minor trend and with mass marketing, bring that trend into the mainstream to become more widespread. I agree that this is could be considered a feedback loop given that established trends originate from observances from small groups of teenagers and then becomes a part of popular culture. However, to view this as an exclusive process of culture formation among teenagers would be to assume that teenagers are passively consume whatever is thrown at their faces and are incapable of massively creating cultures on their own without being exploited. This would consequently deny the impacts of social media and the advancement of digital media that have allowed teenagers today to set trends without the institution of capitalism.

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