Week 7: Into the Cloud

I really liked this week’s lecture. I particularly like this idea of a ‘mainstream of niches’ that the internet is bringing around. I would consider myself a bit of an ‘indie kid’ or at least someone belonging to the ‘non-mainstream-whatever’s-in-fashion’ social group. I find we ‘indies’ pride ourselves on liking unusual teas and hard-to-find vinyls. And we do dress in furs so we look like Penny Lane. It’s a lifestyle. I would say that I’ve always found that hard to fit in to the ‘we dress in polished black leather shoes and tights’ crowd who listen to artists like Tiesto and who read Cosmo. I would define the ‘Cosmo readers’ as the mainstream. I’ve noticed, though, since the advent of films like Twilight, which promote a more ‘alternative culture’ scope on dress and music sense, ‘indie’ has exploded all over the web and this has spread across into offline reality as well. It seems like it’s fashionable now to ‘mix-and-match’ clothes and buying vinyls is a common sport (people have started buying all the good ones before I get there----STTTTTTAAAAYYYYY AAAWWWAAAYYYY). It’s common now to see Bon Iver songs shared all over Facebook and promoted in prominent magazines and newspapers. Sia, my original indie girl, just did a duet with David Guetta, who I would say is one of the most prominent pop DJs of the decade. ‘Indie’ or ‘niche’ culture is in. I think the idea that we are a mainstream of “millions of niches” is one which pretty accurately matches what’s happening in internet culture and therefore offline reality right now.