As usual Apple spend all their money on the advert and bypass the problems with the device (there are FAR better music players on the market.) But, you know, I think that Apple know that. In fact they are not actually selling MP3 players (something that sounds geeky to even write.) No, they are selling a Lifestyle.
“Listen, listen to the music”
You see, the people in these adverts have made it. Made what? Modern life. Everyone goes through the modern world wondering and in many ways hoping that someone out there, some cooler cat type guy who clubs and parties and still earns the bacon, is having it all. This is what Tyler was going on about in Fight Club, or Renton in Trainspotting. It is just a feeling, but it is an insidious one. Is it only a facet of the modern world? Nope, no way. Take Zaphod Beeblebrox, he was way cooler than anyone. He had made it, whatever ‘it’ was.
And that’s the rub, nobody has it worked out. Nobody. Of course people claim to have it worked out, take the Beckhams’ (no please take them.) Or Paris Hilton, or (and especially) low end types like Jordan and that ugly footballer’s girlfriend. Have you seen the new ASDA adverts with her in? They are basically portraying her shopping lifestyle to be ‘making it in the world.’
I wonder?
When having nothing special about you whatsoever, apart from cash you get from your boyfriend, is ‘making it’ there is understandably a bit of confusion about most people’s life; “If that is the winning ticket what fucked up scratch card have I been given?” Consequently we lust after this feeling this ideal of existence where ‘everything is cool’.
I was thinking today that the new ‘mid life crisis’ is now at 30. I look at all my friends and co-workers and I can see that we are getting married later, living in sin longer, and all wishing for something. Like a struggle. I put it to a friend today as:
Wanting to get home physically tired and not just mentally tired.
At 30 you have a choice. On one hand you have the rest of your life mapped out; marriage, house, kids, retirement, death. You can actually see the future in the sense that you know what road you are on. And where, irrevocably, it leads.
We do know where it leads; we have seen our parents and spent our entire childhoods judging their lives.
Tell me, did you ever say to yourself, “I am not going to be like my parents when I grow up?” Because if you did and if you reach 30 “as planned” you quickly realise that the road you are on is just that. But does it have to be? This is the question that is driving every one of my friends nuts:
“What to do with my life?”
On the one hand you have the fact that you may have made some progress by 30. You may have a career, a wife, a house, thinking of raising some kids. If this is so are you wondering “Is this it? This road is it? That is my life…sorted?”
Where is, to quote Jay, “…my fucking movie check?”
This is a like a pain in the back of your head. And like all pains, we have developed coping mechanisms. Such things as drink and drugs sure, but also more deep down things. We become obsessed with other people’s lives, especially ones that can be perceived to be ‘worse’ or ‘better’ than ours. This is the power of TV soaps like Eastenders (and why it is constantly depressing.) This is why Jordan is a star even though she has no discernable talents. This is why lifestyle magazines are bought, or shopping magazines, or catalog’s. Things that tell us how to become ‘with it’ and ‘sorted’.
I had a friend who always used to say, “Got to get myself sorted this week.”
He said it everyday for the three years I knew him. Everyday. I suspect he probably still says it now. I also suspect that he hasn’t done shit about it.
Like joining the gym, or going to that class you signed up for, “getting yourself sorted” is an aspiration without a goal. Everyone aspires to be thin and healthy but the modern world has another trick up its sleeve.
Instantaneousness.
What?
Everything you need is at your finger tips. It is empowering. You have so much choice. I have £20 in my pocket and I could spend it a million times on the way home. Everyone of those ‘opportunities’ is begging for my money. You get to the point very quickly that anything that requires effort like painting, writing, reading, believing, talking, and gym’ing becomes too much effort because “you are too tired.”
No wonder you are tired all that choice is dizzying!
“Put it in your head”
Moreover, If you ever want to know something the don’t worry, you can find out instantly on the Internet!
Sound good?
It’s not, you don’t have to remember anything anymore. Phone numbers only live in your phone, not your head. Web addresses? PAH! just Google everything. Need to add something up? Like your budget perhaps? Reach for Excel. Better yet simply Google for a pre-made spreadsheet to do it for you.
Respite comes in many forms that in fact only exacerbate the problem. Putting aside the harmful effects of drink or drugs, people like me collect gadgets. Gadgets that will sort out your life. But, of course, none of them do. They just make you want the next great gadget, that one, that one will sort out your life*
In such a world it becomes almost impossible to ‘be sorted’ and the only thing you can wish for is peace from it all.
Which is where Apple comes in.
They sell you your peace. They tell you “Strap this thing to your head and ignore the crap coming in every ear. Ignore the problems, ignore the pain,” and they tell you, they whisper in your ear, that “this peace we will give you, it is the thing that will also make you cool.”
After all, being cool is the ability to make something hard look very very easy. To have it sorted. That is why sunglasses are cool, because walking around in harsh sunlight is not easy, but I have my Police Sunglasses so I don’t have to squint!
What could be harder than modern life?
Apple say to you that their device will make you an individual. Your tunes means your rules…
… and your moves.
Coolness is a trip. Your trip. After all, it is your life.
Right?
I know what you’re saying, you are saying something like, “It is just a glow in the dark iPod, isn’t it?”
Is it?
Watch this advert and ask yourself, “How deep the rabbit hole goes?”
“We will control the lows”
Basho
*Believe me when I say that I am no better, eventually I got so annoyed of the gadgets’ failure to sort out my life, I went back to paper and pen. I went Low-tech and now use a Hipster PDA to manage my department.
Basho & Cesca are traveling with:
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