Questions of Cool

In a few of the articles we have read, the culture of cool has been discussed, defended, and opposed. In class we discussed several perspectives of “being cool” and the desire to be perceived as cool. Counterculture has become a powerful force that has actually begun fueling the mainstream culture. Gladwell highlights this paradox between counterculture and mainstream culture in his article The Coolhunt. The mainstream brands such as Reebok and Converse discussed in the article have people specifically figuring out what is cool and trending with inner city young people and then replicating that look in the mainstream market. This creates a cycle of ‘street fashion’ converting to mainstream fashion. The article sites that companies do this in 6-month cycles. That’s a lot of fashion!

So, my questions regarding the art of being cool: Do companies consciously create mainstream culture in order to have a counterculture to replicate? In other words, are companies like Reebok and Converse creating a fashion that young people rebel against in order to take their revolutionary fashion and market it as mainstream fashion? You can see how this confuses me. If this is true, then companies would need to create a balance between maintaining a mainstream culture and pushing the limits with the counterculture. 

These are all tricky questions. And to be honest, I do not personally think the concepts described above have real life implications on each and every one of us. However, as a critic of popular culture, I see a trend that enforces foundational tenets of our society such as consumerism and a high priority on economic gain. It is interesting to me to see corporations straining to find out what we want, and then meeting those desires.