an interrogation on ‘cool’
I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept of ‘cool’ and ‘coolness’.
The first thing that comes to mind and really impacted me as a teenager was Fiona apple’s quote ‘This world is bullshit. And you shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.”
In this quote she uses her platform at the VMA’s Big Corporate Music guys to express the importance of finding cool within yourself, don’t look for others approval to continue your own expression. The context is important because not only was she speaking to the general public, but she was speaking directly to the corporate machine that defined ‘cool’ ie: profits.
When I was 12 years old I was in the ‘in group’ at school. I’m not sure when the switch happened, but I understood the shift in social dynamics when a girl in the group later remarked a few years later ‘remember when you were popular?’. Well as a 16 year old, I can remember this idea of popularity to be completely arbritary and I vowed to never be apart of a group again. Especially the ‘Popular group’. This has made me reflect on the concept of cool and it’s iterations in my life over the years, if only like a strange television station that runs in the background of culture but one I never felt the need to tune into. I think that girl was on the bachelorette later in life actually. In fact, not being in the popular group really liberated me as an artist and a person, finding my tribe and later in life always and endlessly being surprised by the people who have connected with me. When you wave your flag you will find others waving the same flag, even if it means leaving your hometown.
As I’ve started asking my music nerd friends about this concept of ‘Cool’ they have generously given me an abundance of resources dating back to the origins of the commercial industry dating back to the 1920s. It has occurred to me that this concept of the push and pull of originality, authenticity and then the later commercial suction of that individuality has actually formed and informed the way audiences choose to express themselves and then form their identities. When we think about what does ‘Cool’ mean to oneself and how that is expressed and then perhaps validated or encouraged by the people around them. Are people accepting you for the ‘Cool’ found in authenticity of self, or a disingenuous imitation of the style of someone else? Do people think you are ‘Cool’ for the work you produce, the kindness you express or just because you adhere to some commercialised and packaged ‘Look’ of a style found within a fashion magazine. I fear like pigeons flocked together, perhaps most in certain ‘scenes’ or communities, people’s identities could end up in a feedback loop of style, devoid of the originality of the culture that originally formed that style - mostly derived from previous decades where artists were forced to scrounge for affordable clothing or cheap accommodation in low-income areas.
When I think about ‘Cool’ I think about the Subpop music label T-Shirts, who were decidedly anti-corporate and anti-cool. According to (a very good book Loser, by Clark Humphrey) The T-shirt was a statement against corporate adoption of authentic punk music, in support of the ‘losers of the music industry’. It changed my brain chemistry as a teenager and there is a photo floating around of the internet of me wearing it with some strange hair colour.
To end this, I will finish with a quote from a friend, a record store owner in Melbourne and my Yoda of all things music. He says “The one thing people with ‘effortless eternal cool’ do is BE THEMSELVES. Especially in music, keeping up social appearances has no impact on the quality of your music”.
Video Compilation:
Fiona Apple for Music The Book 2011
Loser - Beck
David Bowie Interview Excerpts
Miss World - Hole