Party Like a Rockstar

Put the words “spring break” and “college students” in a sentence and a number of sensationalized images will come to thought. Why is that? Well, the media has accomplished at portraying spring break as the most lascivious and notoriously celebrated holiday of the year. The documentary, “Merchants of Cool” successfully portrayed the existence of “mass culture” through the example of college kids and spring break. As previously noted, popular culture critic, Macdonald, described three components of mass culture: something that’s imposed from above (a powerful figurehead), something that’s fabricated, and the general public being passive consumers. The first two concepts correlate with each other. T.V. mongers, such as Viacom, are constantly looking to sell the “new trend.” In fact, the documentary exposes the lengths these companies will go through: from creating a panel of “cool” experts to observing a teenager’s life. Secondly, the notion of spring break being a week long orgy is a total fabrication in itself. It’s hard to believe that every college student has a spring break vacation that ended with a threesome or lap dances from girls wearing nothing but whip cream. Lastly, TV shows like MTV’s Spring Break, have sold a misconstrued image of the typical college student. Is it hard to believe that maybe some college students have normal, maybe even boring spring breaks? Overall, the most powerful message from the documentary aligns with Macdonald’s last point. What has resulted from the public being surrounded by mass culture is that the public has become the product of mass culture, imitating media life as if it is real life.