Kmrie Fashion: Shock Culture Losing Its Edge?
In the wake of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry, it seems as if everyone is trying to shock and be different these days. Seeing brightly colored hair and makeup has become both the norm in both celebrity culture and around town. Items of clothing that were once intended to be edgy and shocking…
A little off topic, but when I saw this post I had to respond as it has been something I have also been thinking about recently. There is always a purpose to “shock”. Their primary purposeof the people listed by the author is to grab attention to translate into sales, reselling their followers’ desire to be edgy back to them. I think however there are other reasons besides capitalistic motives, one of them being to speak truth to power. Shock works when it goes against the status quo, when it, in some capacity, questions what we believe to be true, normal, or right. If we look at the function of shock in this way, and considering the times in which we live, there will always be room for shock, and aesthetically, it always seems to emerge when we least expect it. I for one am looking for to what is next, as I believe it probably won’t be coming from pop culture.
