This reading was incredibly interesting to me because I guess I’d never really thought about the power or a brand. I work at BYU broadcasting and they rebranded the logo for BYUTV which was a huge deal. The first presidency had to approve it and they didn’t approve the first few designs. When I heard about this, I thought they were just being picky but now I realize that in reality, they just understood the power of a good design and its ability to stand for something much larger. In response to the reading prompt, I feel like icons are exactly how popular culture creeps its way into our everyday lives. I don’t recall ever sitting by myself and thinking about how I look in American Eagle apparel, what I have in common with sports pros who wear Nike or what my keychains say about me. However, I find myself consistently developing first impressions of people before they’ve ever even said a word to me based off of what they wear, the technology they use, jewelry, what they carry around, etc. Whether we like it or not, pop culture has been embedded into our thinking style. I’m ashamed to say that but I’d be lying if I said pop culture didn’t affect how I approach certain things. Because of this, we need to be more aware of what we put out than ever before. Since every logo, every action and every style we put out is noticed by others, we’ve almost created a new language that speaks louder than a lot of the things we actually verbalize. Take Lady Gaga for example. When I see Lady Gaga, I see glamorized white trash with very little taste in what’s actually classy. I think her ideas of what’s cool are the exact antithesis of my ideas of what’s cool. Seriously, who wears a dress made out of meat to an awards ceremony? That’s just bad taste. But during a recent conversation with one of my roommates, he told me that Lady Gaga actually had a scholarship to NYU. Here I was, hearing that she’s actually a bona fide genius but I simply couldn’t believe it because of the image she puts out. Because of this I decided I needed to take a good hard look at my media consumption and see how it affected my media output. I’ve realized the “you are what you eat” principle holds true in this context and that the media I use to define myself is similar to the media I ingest. I can almost literally define myself by pinpointing what types of pop culture I surround myself with. As the pop culture changes (not just media), I admit that I change.
Haha, I so did not know Lady Gaga was that smart. Nice post Nick. I like how you mention the point that our ideas of icons are so deeply ingrained that our image of that icon is difficult to change despite new found information like that of Lady Gaga getting a scholarship to NYU. It is sad to have that idea, even with people who are not famous sometimes. We tend to judge that way. That is usually the case thanks to the stereotypes, but also to the icon. People dressing in certain ways create that for us.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! you brought up some nice points about how we identify people because of the image they project, usually with logos, apparel, etc. We should probably be more conscious of that image; I know I don't really think of the image i put out based on the labels (or lack thereof) that I wear, I just hope that people will look beyond what I consciously or unconsciously project. This brings up a good point that you explained with your experience with Lady Gaga: operating by the Golden Rule. Great insight!
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that we change as media changes and icons change. When you said that, I thought of how the reading mentioned Michael Jordan being an icon. But as he has gotten older and no longer plays basketball, new icons have emerged such as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and even (feeling sick as I type this) Kobe Bryant. What we may view as important in our culture now won't hold true for future generations. So I love that pop culture changes and how we have the opportunity to change it for the better with whatever we produce in media.
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