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Mainstream, I Guess? (part une)

(Originally artikel ini ditulis beberapa hari lalu via BB dan hilang karena browsernya ngereset. So if it’s not that sharp, sori aja deh yah, gw orangnya moody :D)

So yeah, banyak pikiran yang berkecamuk setelah acara #klubfilm beberapa hari yang lalu. Mulai dari diskusi di ruang yang panas penuh peluh dan keluh gara-gara PLN, sampai beberapa obrolan kecil bersama sang tamu di mobilnya pasca acara itu.

But what I write now? Something slightly unrelated.

It’s about mainstream – sidestream which lately haunt some (a lot?) of us living in creative industry. Mainstream, such mighty word that strikes fear to every single person that believe that they are different and special individual born to be ‘edgeeeeh’.

Cynical? Maybe. But I seriously can’t take a person’s work really seriously when they are still limited to something as trivial as ‘mainstream’ or ‘sidestream’ or ‘indie’ or whatever it is. And hy do I say it’s trivial, because it is. Mainstream is basically just anything currently on the hype and get overly exposed by popular media because they’re basically milking off a great amount of money.

That? Yeah, in general sense it’s actually limited only on that. So what’s so scary about mainstream anyway? Actually, there’s a lot to be scared about for some people. Yet, when some get really scared at some certain level, it simply become really silly.

Let’s put a case-based scenario, just to make it simple. Most of the people hate mainstream because it ruins the genre it currently mainstreaming. Say… punk? We all probably already listened to SiD’s ‘Punk Hari Ini’ that criticize mainstream punk society that stress everything on the look and not the spirit. It’s pretty simple, no? Some people don’t like something they put their faith in become exposed and give birth to gazillion poser with half-assed mentality and understanding of the meaning of the genre itself. It’s okay, even though I don’t really like the idea itself but it’s understandable.

Yet, at certain level it become really silly. Like when SiD got badmouthed because they’re ‘selling out’ to the mainstream media. Exposing themselves to the world and let their video aired on MTv and other ‘mainstream media’ which against the punk’s DIY spirit. Are they wrong or right, it’s not me to judge, but I dare to say that the mentality is really silly. Because at the end, there’ll always be someone edgier than the others and then after claim after claim it’ll become just like a Grecian hell, an infinite loop.

And this mentality is not only exist in a punk society. It exist in almost every ‘non-mainstream’ society. Everytime a newbie show up, they won’t be edgy enough. Everytime someone become more successful and exposed by the media, they’re a sellout. I know not EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the society are like this, but cut me some slack and don’t say that I’m judging you. I’m just saying that this attitude exists and it took a pretty large portion of the society. And if after this you still think I’m a judgemental, shallow-minded person, in love with the popular culture, let me put it this way for you.

Fuck you.

Moving on, this mentality also a big disadvantage for the community itself. Because basically every community need a regeneration in order to survive, and to attract more people to the community, you need a good PR, and if a newbie show up and not getting a good support from their ‘senior’ to understand the idealism of community, they won’t stay. So do the math, if you would.

But it’s not the worst part, actually. What’s worse is actually people are thinking that being different from the ‘mainstream’ is cool.

Which. Is. Not.

Do they realize that by doing so they just making another stream? It’s like, anything BUT the mainstream, anything BUT the popular anti-pop is the new pop, huzzah!

I dunno, maybe again it’s just me but on my eyes they don’t look different from the wannabe-sellout or even ‘mainstream’ people that they despise. In fact, they’re just the same, if not worse.

Hey, at least some of those industrialists admit that they DO making money by selling something commercial.

 

— end of part une, I’m tired —

 

RustyrevolveR

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