I Buy Therefore I Am!

I work in a pretty diverse environment when it comes to people. A nice amount of these people are in their early twenties. Having been around for approximately forty years it is funny to see fashions come and go. For the readers of this that are older than I it must be even more hilarious.

When I was in high school back in the early 70's/ late 80's when the new music forms coming to the fore were new-wave, rap and hip-hop. It was the early days of these music forms when the music was rising from the streets. Mostly, this can attributed to the proliferation of existing technologies (e.g. the keyboard synthesizer) and new use of existing technologies (i.e. the turn table).

But the "fads" we see today were once expressions of something new and not re-packaged nostalgia. These days I have this gut feeling that too many people are listening to, wearing, watching, buying and listening because they were convinced in a subtle way that these things are cool and/or necessary. It's a bit sad to think that some people may think they are buying into their sense of individuality when they are just following the Pied Piper's of Madison Avenue.

That is to say, is it, "I think therefore I am." or "I have been successfully marketed to and therefore I am."?

Pretty scary stuff. Even more scary if you don't know what I mean by "Pied Piper" or "Madison Avenue". If you don't know then I suggest you Google yourself some freedom!