Old School vs New School Part 1
Set-up: I went to the dealership Saturday morning to get some work done on my car. While in the waiting room, the TV is on and I guess they showed the new Britney Spears video or Gaga's performance or something, so this older black woman starts going off (you know how they do, lol). Once I realized this was a blog-worthy rant I began recording her on my phone. Now before you all judge me and my legal basis: her name is not mentioned, her face is not shown, I have not mentioned the time or name of the dealership, nor will I quote directly from the recording...so I'm good, I hope. Okay so through the 5 mins of recording I deciphered two main streams of thought: naked white women are still role models, and "facetime". (Facetime will be covered in a later part of this post).
Basically, you see Gaga and Britney taking it off, exposing it all in videos. They aren't necessarily stripping but they are in something scantily clad. Here is the thing when Spears first launched her "Hit me Baby" video, the Catholic school girl uniform (considered naughty since the 70's see: porn) was launched into the pop culture limelight. Similarly, her 2000 performance of "Oops I did it again" at the VMAs with the flesh-colored body suit caused a flurry. Check the video now though [see above], yeah you probably would not even consider it wild at all, but then it was. It would be too easy for us to say, "So what, this is how our society works. The envelope gets pushed and then the standard of what is appropriate is lowered." Well I thought this way too, but compare this video from 2000 to some of the even-more revealing videos in 2009-2010 such as Lady Gaga's Alejandro, which I will not post here for obvious reasons. The point being that the standard of what is considered appropriate has been pushed so much further in this decade than any other single decade or generation before.
The reality is with what is appropriate constantly being re-defined in pop culture the lines between old school and new school are constantly changing. Seriously, think about 80s babies. Is it not true when you being born between 81-85 seeing someone born in 87, 88, you do not really consider them an 80s baby? What they know about Thundercats, Fraggle Rock, TGI muthafuggin F? We watched Martin when it was on, but they were too young to watch it. We remember Madonna before she became a mother and a Briton. We remember when reality tv programming was limited to Real World and Road Rules. It is not limited to cultural references. Younger people wear clothes that are more revealing at a younger age. For example, when I interned for a judge, there were many clerks. However, I noticed the older female clerks dressed in long skirts or pants suits, whereas younger females wore shorter skirts (still tasteful by today's standards) or pants suits with the shirt open revealing just a bit of chest. Older people tend to use their phone for calls, and often will make them very quick or close their office door; younger people text, tweet, facebook on their phones while at work and generally are not overly cautious who sees them. Obviously I am from the latter generation, and I admit I am guilty of these things but.. we shall discuss this further in Part II of this blog featuring "facetime".
There is old school, new school, and now. Because videos like Gaga's Alejandro or Rihana's S & M are not new school, they are now. Can you imagine either of these videos in the 90s or 80s, people would have flipped. Don't get me wrong I love a lot of the things that are now, but there is a difference between enjoying them for entertainment value and watching them as you grow up. When I was growing up shows like Different World, Saved by the Bell, Family Matters, Cosby Show, Martin, Living Single and Boy Meets World were not just entertainment to me, they served as guidance. Families should stick together, cheerleaders are hot but will leave you for an older man, you must treat people with respect, you must attend college, and friends, for some reason, hang out in groups of 4 or 5 (perhaps a later post). Now, however, kids look to what the Kardashians, The Game and...well a lot of reality television, and I do not really see how they can find guidance in that. All those shows teach is sex sells, and money talks. Granted these are valuable lessons, but the former values of the 90s and before should still be taught today. I guess as I write this post I realize not only is there old school, new school and now...but the "now" does not seem to be a school at all. I'm starting to see what the lady in the dealership was saying...I can not tell who the role models or guidance are for today's youth in terms of pop culture. Old school wins this one, but as I said there is a Part II that will tackle a subject the lady brought up, what I call "facetime" until then....
Basically, you see Gaga and Britney taking it off, exposing it all in videos. They aren't necessarily stripping but they are in something scantily clad. Here is the thing when Spears first launched her "Hit me Baby" video, the Catholic school girl uniform (considered naughty since the 70's see: porn) was launched into the pop culture limelight. Similarly, her 2000 performance of "Oops I did it again" at the VMAs with the flesh-colored body suit caused a flurry. Check the video now though [see above], yeah you probably would not even consider it wild at all, but then it was. It would be too easy for us to say, "So what, this is how our society works. The envelope gets pushed and then the standard of what is appropriate is lowered." Well I thought this way too, but compare this video from 2000 to some of the even-more revealing videos in 2009-2010 such as Lady Gaga's Alejandro, which I will not post here for obvious reasons. The point being that the standard of what is considered appropriate has been pushed so much further in this decade than any other single decade or generation before.
The reality is with what is appropriate constantly being re-defined in pop culture the lines between old school and new school are constantly changing. Seriously, think about 80s babies. Is it not true when you being born between 81-85 seeing someone born in 87, 88, you do not really consider them an 80s baby? What they know about Thundercats, Fraggle Rock, TGI muthafuggin F? We watched Martin when it was on, but they were too young to watch it. We remember Madonna before she became a mother and a Briton. We remember when reality tv programming was limited to Real World and Road Rules. It is not limited to cultural references. Younger people wear clothes that are more revealing at a younger age. For example, when I interned for a judge, there were many clerks. However, I noticed the older female clerks dressed in long skirts or pants suits, whereas younger females wore shorter skirts (still tasteful by today's standards) or pants suits with the shirt open revealing just a bit of chest. Older people tend to use their phone for calls, and often will make them very quick or close their office door; younger people text, tweet, facebook on their phones while at work and generally are not overly cautious who sees them. Obviously I am from the latter generation, and I admit I am guilty of these things but.. we shall discuss this further in Part II of this blog featuring "facetime".
There is old school, new school, and now. Because videos like Gaga's Alejandro or Rihana's S & M are not new school, they are now. Can you imagine either of these videos in the 90s or 80s, people would have flipped. Don't get me wrong I love a lot of the things that are now, but there is a difference between enjoying them for entertainment value and watching them as you grow up. When I was growing up shows like Different World, Saved by the Bell, Family Matters, Cosby Show, Martin, Living Single and Boy Meets World were not just entertainment to me, they served as guidance. Families should stick together, cheerleaders are hot but will leave you for an older man, you must treat people with respect, you must attend college, and friends, for some reason, hang out in groups of 4 or 5 (perhaps a later post). Now, however, kids look to what the Kardashians, The Game and...well a lot of reality television, and I do not really see how they can find guidance in that. All those shows teach is sex sells, and money talks. Granted these are valuable lessons, but the former values of the 90s and before should still be taught today. I guess as I write this post I realize not only is there old school, new school and now...but the "now" does not seem to be a school at all. I'm starting to see what the lady in the dealership was saying...I can not tell who the role models or guidance are for today's youth in terms of pop culture. Old school wins this one, but as I said there is a Part II that will tackle a subject the lady brought up, what I call "facetime" until then....
posted by K. Jobe | 22:49
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