206 bears repeating that given my limited ethnographic observations, I can only make
tentative claims about my participants’ material i.e., non-discursive practices. That withstanding, it can be reasonably assumed that their own accounts of their
material practices are likely to be strongly reflective of their actual material practices. Given this assumption, it can be argued from the above extracts, along
with the limited ethnographic data that I did collect, that
Mainstream
young people’s consumption practices are more congruent and reflective of dominant
neoliberal consumerist discursive practices. Thus, they are in effect, via their active and uncritical consumption of corporate goods, contributing to the
neoliberal global economy more than the
CriticalPolitical
and
ArtsyIndie
young people.
7.2 Media-Culture Influence and Aspirations: Rudy:
Where do you think they get these images and influences?
Jerald: They get them from everywhere. Their ads are on MySpace, on
YouTube, on the Internet, on television, cable television, on screens in the market, on billboards. It’s 360. Youth today are immersed in
this world. Youth Worker: Bresee Foundation Sean:
I live in the moment, ‘Yolo Yolo’. Rudy:
Alright. Sean:
Do you know what that is? Rudy:
Nah. Sean:
You only live once. Rudy:
Ah alright, where’d you get that from? Sean:
Um Drake [mainstream rapper] Hackney participant Even though at times critical of mainstream media-culture, another key
characteristic that distinguishes
Mainstream
young people from the others, is their tendency to appreciate and more directly engage with corporate media-culture.
This consisted of an engagement with a wide range of media-culture artefacts,
65
which did include some ambivalent or indifferent attitudes towards some of their preferred media-culture texts. In these cases, these texts were enjoyed solely for
their entertainment value as suggested in the following extract:
65
For example, Mainstream young people expressed an active use of the social-networking sites Twitter and Facebook to follow celebrity news and tell their friends of the corporatized music
that they are listening to.
207 Rudy:
Name some of like your favourite songs. Fernanda: Well I like Rihanna,
The Only Girl In the World,
I think. Rudy:
Is that the name of the song? Fernanda: Yeah.
Rudy:
The Only Girl In the World?
Fernanda: Or something like that. I also like the Rihanna and Drake, What’s My
Name
I think. Rudy:
Why do you like these songs? Fernnada:
I don’t know, they’re just cool. Rudy:
Anything in particular, like the lyrics or anything like that? Fernanda:
Uhm, I think it’s since their focus is all about them, I just like, make it seem like it’s all about me.
Rudy: What about TV?
Fernanda: Oh I like the Shore. Rudy:
Oh you mean
The Jersey Shore
. [….] Why do you like
The Jersey Shore
? Fernanda:
I don’t know, they’re just really dumb, and they do the dumbest things ever, but it’s so funny.
Rudy: Any other shows that you watch?
Fernanda: I like
Bad Girls Club
. Rudy:
Why do you like
Bad Girls Club?
Fernanda: I don’t know they just start fighting. It’s stupid but it’s entertaining.
Bresee participant However, despite this occasional critical distance, in most cases
Mainstream
young people drew direct inspiration from their preferred and highly corporatized media-texts as demonstrated in the following extracts.
Rudy: So what are some of your favourite [songs]?
Tyrone: My favourite artist right now? I hate to sound typical but Drake in it.
Drake is cutting it man. Rudy:
Why? Give me a song that you really like. Tyrone:
Um, Look What You’ve Done on his new album. [..]
Rudy: Why do you like about that song, what do you get from it
Tyrone: He tells a story in it, and obviously li
ke, it’s a deep story, and I recommend everyone listen to the story. […] Yeah the story he’s just
chatting about life, and his life and h ow it went. That’s the thing
about
Drake
, he tells stories though his mus ic. I don’t like to listening
to music that has no meaning to it. Rudy:
Like what? Tyrone:
Yeah I got a big gun, sold guns, just typical that. Whatever, I heard it before.
66
[….] Rudy:
What are some of your favourite movies? Tyrone:
Scent of a Woman
with Al Pacino,
The Hurricane, Malcolm X
,
66
Ela Zoo participant and Josh Bermondsey participant expressed this same view and critique of mainstream hip hop music.
208 Uhm,
The Pursuit of Happiness
with Will Smith. Rudy:
Why do you like
The Pursuit of Happiness
? Tyrone:
Well it’s like he’s telling my story. He kind of shows you that you can come from absolutely nothing, in the worst circumstances, and you
can strive towards something and always getting. He was sleeping in bathrooms with his son, and if you could come from that, than you
can come from anywhere.
Rudy: So you like that message then?
Tyrone: Definitely I think everyone would.
Anyone who doesn’t like that message then they just don’t want to be successful.
Iris:
Colombiana
. Anyone that’s in that situation etc.
Save the Last Dance
. Rudy:
Why? Iris:
Don’t know it’s just good. Tyrone:
That’s kind of one the ones about chase their dreams as well. Iris:
Yeah. Rudy:
Is it, is that why you like it [asking Iris]? Iris:
Yeah. Tyrone:
It gives us hope. Hackney participants Rudy:
What’s your favourite song? Sean:
House Party
. Rudy:
Who sings that? Sean:
Meek Mill. Rudy:
Why do you like
House Party?
Sean: Because it shows me how the successful life is.
Rudy: Ok, what’s the song about?
Sean: Hookers, drinks. Hackney participant
Rudy: Can you name one of your favourite songs?
Jack: Dappy UK rapper
No Regrets.
Rudy: What’s that song about?
Lindsey: It’s about life
Jack: No regrets
Lindsey and Jack [simultaneously]: Living life to the fullest. Bermondsey
participants. A noteworthy feature in these extracts is that they evoke a strong valence
relational affinity between these young people and the themes and characters of their preferred media texts, which corresponded with their career and materialistic
aspirations. For example, Tyrone states that the messages of the song
Look What
You’ve Done and the film
The Pursuit of Happiness
film both of which promote the
Horatio Alger
‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ discourse resonate with his own struggles and ambitions for upward mobility. Similarly, Iris cites the
Save The Last Dance
film for a similar reason. T his film also promotes a ‘chasing your
209 dream’ discourse, which is congruent with Iris’ stated ambition to become a model.
It is tempting to use the term passive to describe these young people’s
affirmation of dominant media-cultural discourses, even if measured along a continuum of agency. A
s Dedman 2011, p. 512 suggests, “passive […] is a relational concept, separating those whose cultural engagement is more centred on
the consumption of mass-mediated products. In this sense the dichotomous variables ‘active’ and ‘passive’ should not be considered as fixed states”. However,
under any interpretation no matter how nuanced, the term ‘passive’ denotes an
almost unconscious acceptance of exposed to discourses, which I do not believe that the participants in the above extracts are displaying. Rather these young
people appear to have a conscious and affect driven engagement and affinity with the media texts and discourses that they expose themselves to, but this conscious
engagement appears to be relatively uncritical, and does more accurately denotes an uncritical rather than passive disposition.
For example, Tyrone’s discursive interpretation of his favourite movie is thoughtful and deliberative, as are Jack and
Lindsey’s interpretation of the
No Regrets
song, which is incidentally similar to S
ean’s ‘YOLO’ evocation described above. What is not as apparent, however, is an understanding of how their interpretations strongly resonate with neoliberal
individualist and consumerist discourses. Nor is there is any critical read in these accounts as e
xemplified by Tyrone’s, “Anyone who doesn’t like that message then they just don’t want to be successful” affirmations.
7.3 WelfareBenefits Schemata
