The Forum: Selling Out and Joining the Mainstream

A sellout is anyone who willingly dumbs themselves down in the pursuit of profit. In the music industry this can be related to going mainstream and losing your core and original audience. The term has become a label of disrespect from the original fanbase in response to the new material being put out. Over the years, many artists and groups have succumbed to the term as their output quality decreases and their bank account figures increase.

The Forum: Pop Killed The Hip Hop Star

The year 2003 marked the first time the top 10 spots in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart were filled by urban artists. Almost half of those songs were by hip-hop artists. Fast forward to the year 2010, when anyone thinks of top hip-hop they think Jay-Z, T.I., Lil’ Wayne and Kanye. Since 2003, the mantra “hip-hop is dead” has spread and multiplied as the market becomes saturated by auto-tune, off-beat dances, and songs that make even the most liberal hip-hop heads squirm. The more popular and vast the urban/ hip-hop genre becomes, the more it is despised.

The Forum: Labels of Love

There is no publicity like free publicity. For a marketer, there is no publicity like having someone pay you to advertise your product. This set-up is mostly seen as a part of the fashion industry, where a high-profile label can put their logo on a shirt and sell it to the general public. The logo doesn’t even need to be tweaked or in a “special edition” format, just a copy-paste-screen-print job. Even before a label can develop brand loyalty with it’s customers, many will see a random name on a T-shirt and automatically buy it.

The Forum: Grown Man Low

Fashion is about stating an opinion with your clothing and accessories. Wearing a suit obviously shows people that you are both serious and well put together or just over-dressed for the occasion. Most fashion choices, from the GaGa-esque to the uppity, are usually given the “to each his or her own” answer by those skeptical of the fashion choice. This way of thinking is one I personally like to follow. The idea that everyone is an individual and has his or her own idea of fashion is one I can live with. Despite this, there is one fashion choice that bugs me: men’s pants.