Merchants of Not So Cool

“Merchants of Cool” brought me to the belief that I was never cool. I understand that this film was made in two thousand and one but I cannot ever recall sharing the beliefs and feelings portrayed in the film. If that is what “cool” is then I am the antichrist of cool.

The location of the film presents a problem of relativity for me. It was obvious from the start that the film captured the thoughts and representations gathered from a very urban environment. If I had to guess, the central location for the film was New York City, New York. Having been reared in a small town in Mississippi, I did not experience the same things as the teenagers in this film. I was so far detached from the “real” world that I guess I didn’t have the same conceptions of what cool was. For me “cool” was playing guitar, books, tennis, and friends. I listened to music that I liked. Not what MTV liked!

My main disappointment with the film is that the teenagers were pictured as a herd that follows the leader. I never lacked an opinion of my own and I don’t think that an ad or marketing scheme could make me like music that I simply didn’t care for. I think there is something deeper within the soul of a human being that has a taste of its own. I remember hearing Jimi Hendrix for the first time and being deeply moved. The song was “little wing” and it was on a mixed cassette my father had. I had no false pretenses about who Hendrix was. I didn’t even know if he was alive or not. What I did know was that his song struck a chord within me. I didn’t like his music because it was cool to like his music. I would even say that I didn’t choose to like his music. I just liked it. Not everybody likes Jimi Hendrix and that’s ok. The fact that not one of my friends liked Hendrix did not stop me from developing my own opinion.

My opinion about MTV was reinforced with this film. I do not care for MTV to say the least. I think that they represent the complete opposite of what I stand for. The film gave an insiders view of how terrible they actually are. Why are they spending hard earned dollars going to kids homes in New Jersey to look at what they wear? Who F$#%&*G cares? Does that matter? I guess that I have a strong opinion about MTV but that’s because I was around when MTV was actually a great channel of music videos. Memories flood back to me when I think of what MTV was before. MTV was a brilliant channel that gave a visual component to the audio of the times. I am lucky to catch an actual music video on MTV these days. Reality shows and the TRL that “Merchants of Cool” portrayed plagues the screen like a bad virus. So much has changed. I feel old when I think about the early nineties as the good old days of MTV but it’s true. They no longer picture music but rather a sad and deformed version of reality.