Paris and Critique of Commercialism

I finally got the chance to reunite with Europe over Spring Break. To be honest most of the time I was there I seemed to be in some sort of haze, while walking the streets I would often wake myself up while consciously repeating “You’re back.”

Inebriated, laughing while passing historic Arcs is so unbelievably nostalgic, the Paris skyline lite up with the white searchlight belonging to the iconic Eiffel Tower. One night us group of girls went out to a nice dinner, our table unevenly placed over the cobblestone we snapped pictures and drank wine. This was no ordinary group of women: most mixed languages and cultures, defying linguistic borders an adopted Vietnamese girl, a girl born in Africa only to be raised in France, English, southern French and a starry eyed American. 

            Many times in the trip I managed to pepper in comments about the idiocracy of American tourists, their faces disguises in maps and travel guides. I was lucky to be shown the hub of France, as the local youth know it. At one point in time my friend Lee replied to one of my cheeky anti-American comments with’ “Why do you hate America so much?”

On the plane ride home I started reading a novel based on the music atmosphere of the 70’s. Hung over from the free love of the 60’s, this was a bleak political and social time where music experimentation thrived. Will Hermes words seemed to paint my thoughts right there on the page for me. It was not the capitalistic drive of America that frustrated me or necessarily the common theme of over consumption but instead the lack of authenticity with current commercial society, most importantly with the medium of music. It has been the ongoing joke of my friends and I to count the times Adele is played in one hour (sorry I love you Adele, but you’re bringing me down)  or make fun of the vast depth to Pitbull lyrics. To illustrate my point I looked up the Bill board top 100 with week and found that “We Are Young” by fun was number 1, this youth ballad doesn’t really address my point as well as the #7 song “Wild Ones”by Flo Rida. When I come home from a day of attending my $30,000 a year school to soak my rich knowledge, I turn on the radio to almost always here lyrics such as these, “Hey I heard you were a wild one
/Oooh
If I took you home
It'd be a home run
/Show me how you'll do

/I want to shut down the club
with you.” I’ll let that graceful verse speak for itself and come back to my main point that I want to be surrounded in an atmosphere of creation, of newness, of discovery. If my life was a Robert Frost poem, I would be taking the battered road straight of commercial culture.  If this makes me anti-America, I’m sorry founding fathers and if my rejection makes me hipster, so be it. 

Dum Dum Girls, "Coming Down": A band I had the pleasure of seeing while in Paris and a song which fits into the theme of this post.