The Media's Influence On Style

2 Pages 525 Words

MTV, a popular cable network, has been telling kids what is cool for years. The station and its producers give the teenagers music to listen to, celebrities to worship, the style and fashion, the way to talk, and just about every regulation for being popular in today’s society. Teenagers strive to be individuals and are emerging into the world as young adults, and yet the simplest decisions they have to make are being made by the ever-evolving media. MTV is one of many entities that compose the mosaic of style in America. Television, magazines, radio stations, malls, and advertisements contribute to the style that is today’s adolescence. Coincidentally, high powered executive adults are in charge all of these sources and therefore, adults are telling kids what is cool, which is the contrary of what all teens are desire.
Kids rush to the mall to purchase the latest “trends” only to be oblivious to the truth behind the styles. Most likely, a group of about 20 business people who run the merchandising world are sitting atop a high skyscraper in New York deciding , “This year, its going to be khakis. ” While executives at MTV and recording studios seek out talent to become the next biggest Rap superstar, kids flock to high-priced concerts to hear the artist that their mothers do not “approve” of, without recognizing that Nike’s and Fubu’s ad representatives paid for the artist’s vulgar apparel and a group of lyricists collaborated with the artist to produce “offensive” lyrics to ensure that mothers everywhere are adequately perturbed. Advertisements on television and in magazines convey to teens that the newest hair-straightener is “all the rage”, if they chew “Trident” that cute boy that they like will come up and kiss them, wearing outrageously expensive basketball shoes will transform buyers into Michael Jordan, and using Neutrogena make-up will make you as gorgeous as Jennifer Love Hewitt or Mandy M...