Interesting article about how teens + 20 somethings use art / pop culture to express themselves and shape their persona. Some of the comments are pretty telling as well…

via Thought Catalog

Last night I was watching Iron Man with a friend of mine and he mentioned something about an interesting shot. Off-handedly, I mentioned something to the effect of how Superhero films were a bit like crack to me and also that, “Transformers was actually also very good.”

“You know, Transformers always comes up whenever someone is talking about a ‘guilty pleasure’ film,” he said.

“I don’t feel guilty about it at all. I think it’s great action.”

It was a fantastic example of how the information economy has affected our view of aesthetics. The foundation of hipster-ism (particularly in music) was to have access to enough information to procure more unique memes (obscure bands) thus raising the value of one’s personal brand (I am a special snowflake). In my tween years, I was prey to this, eschewing big name boy bands for Britpop bands, believing it made me more sophisticated. Fortunately, my interest in non-mainstream music, which was kick-started by an interest in increasing social capital, matured into an actual interest in musical structures as I grew up. By the time Post-rock became the buzz genre, I was already knee deep in Modern Classical. My journey into ‘eclectic’ obscurity was accelerated. By contrast, my journey into the mainstream, which only truly started when I met my Britney-obsessed best friend at 15, was slow, painful and fraught with personal battles….