Kiss and Tell

POPULIST INNOVATION – LIFE BEYOND CULTURAL ELITISM 28 July 2008

Following on from our opening piece on Populist Innovation by journalist Kevin Braddock, Lauren Cochrane, a regular contributor to i-D, The Guardian Guide, The Observer and Ponystep.com extends the topic, looking at life beyond cultural elitism…

Trends used to be simple. A group of so-called taste makers invented a world – be it punk, mod or rave. They lived in it for a few years – developing a lifestyle, a look, a sound, a slang. Then the media came along, brought this world out into the bright lights of the real one and everyone else joined in. Cue the safety-pinned school girls after punk broke or the rash of smiley faces on children's lunch boxes post-rave.

But that was then. Rave, perhaps, was the last time this slow genesis of a subculture really happened. Fast-forward to 2008 and the formula no longer holds. Due to an eagle-eyed media and that beastly internet, the germ of a subculture gets on the six o'clock news before anyone has even given it a name – see New Rave, the last movement tentatively called a subculture, which was so new when it reached maximum exposure that no-one quite knew how to spell it – this band of neon warriors have been referred to as Neu, New and Nu Rave. Whatever it is, New Rave was quickly embraced by the multitudes – in the Klaxons winning the Mercury, the neon flats from Topshop, or the inexplicable popularity of Scooter.

Some will bemoan the state of easily modified pop culture but they aren't seeing the bigger picture. Literally. Rather than the minority holding the reins of what is cool when, where and how, everyone has a say now – we're all in the cool gang, if we want to be. We all decide what is a good idea, what we're going to make a nationwide trend, a hit record or a word so popular it gets in the dictionary (see skinny jeans, Sam Sparro's (left) ‘Black And Gold’ and ‘nang’).

We might not be such distinct groups now but maybe that’s a good thing – instead, we’re all part of one massive tribe. Cultural elitism is so 2007. We can make things happen by mob rule. When the powers that be aren’t too crazy about an idea, we can prove them wrong.

The humble text message is a good example. Originally seen by mobile companies as an extra on a cellphone, they became more popular purely by more and more people realising how gr8 they were 2 find out where yr m8s R. By 2006, 205m texts were sent on Christmas Day in the UK.

And just because this is about mass doesn’t mean our critical faculties aren’t working at full tilt – some of the biggest innovations around are also the most popular. See the success of producers like Pharrell Williams and Timbaland – both making sonically mind-bending records which just happen to get to the top of the charts. Or our nationwide love of American Apparel – colourful basics that give us all a retro edge of an ‘80s American aerobics coach. Then there’s our love of sites like Perez Hilton – a man who has made a living out of spite towards Li-Lo and the like. As a mass, we’re not dumbing down. In fact, we're pretty forward-thinking. Just look at Kiss – the perfect example of innovative mass on your dial right now. Turn on, tune in and get ready to join the biggest and best gang around.