zine chapter 6 DISCOVERY

Chapter six in Zines deals with the mainstream media’s discovery of Zine’s and the culture of “neglected…angry, lazy cynical, media savvy, apathetic” 18-29 years olds worth potentially “$125 billion” in the early 90’s and teases through the corporation’s infiltration process, harkening back to other moments in the 20^th century when the underground is discovered and marketed.

            When record companies discovered the underground, they signed Nirvana and sold millions of copies of their albums, and “zines became de riguer on the new generation and its music” (132).  All of the mainstream magazines covered these “wacky” zines in their more frivolous sections, for they were “not to be taken too seriously”, of course.   But the mainstream media had found a gold mine.  The underground was accessible, and the key to selling products to this disaffected generation.  All concepts that the underground held sacred were exposed; “the underground’s condemnation of the dominant culture was being used to package and sell that very same culture” (133).  For example, MTV had shows like alternative nation, which played ‘alternative’ music and had converse commercials, as well as a road trip show called “road Rules”.  A plethora of magazines came out that were incredibly corporate- slacker, details (how to make your expensive clothing look dirty), Slant, by Urban outfitters, another corporation posing as underground fashion, and Dirt, commissioned by Time Warner.  All these were tools to reach the alienated generation.

            But how exactly does a corporation trick the generation of “media savvy” people into thinking they are not corporate?  Says one magazine, “the idea is to fake an aura of  colorful entrepeneurship as a way to connect with younger consumers who yearn for products that are hand-mad, quirky, and authentic” (135).  The first way to do this is to make them believe that what is being sold is not imposing upon the individual, but rather it is part of that culture’s life already.  In order to do this, they make it seem homegrown and stylize it after respected artists or styles of that culture.  The second is to appeal to “bohemian libertarianism” that demands constant change (137).  Unfortunately this has been going on since the 1920s.  Apparently Bohemians are the perfect consumers, as they have to be with it at all times, and, as Edward Burnays, the guy who basically started PR, found out, products define being with it.  For instance, women’s seeking suffrage in the 20s was defined by smoking cigarettes- the liberated woman smoked the “torches of freedom” – a huge boost for tobacco companies.  The same thing happened to the beats, the hippies, and people in the 70s seeking inner freedom as opposed to social freedom. The reaction against corporate bullies appropriating the underground for profit is and has always been to “stay pure”, meaning stay one step ahead, do anything you can to escape the man, even if it means becoming militant (in the case of the 60s and such groups as the weathermen).  In the next chapter, entitled, “Purity and Danger”, we will discuss the dangers of staying pure at all times.