Kevin McDonald- "The White Cord Subculture": The iPod and Generation X

Innovation in technology is the earmark of the present American generation. Just as the jazz and cars were to the 1920’s and the rock and roll revolution was to the “baby boomers,” technological superiority is to “Generation X.” With the young American population so reliant on computers and television, corporations have capitalized on the opportunity to exploit their desires for the most (literally) revolutionary products. Hip-ness is at an ultimate premium when it comes to modern technology; the search for the coolest and newest products is a never-ending and cyclical process within youth culture. The Apple, Inc. brand name has quickly moved to the forefront of the technological consumer culture. Its marketing strategies draw upon the “the tastes, the music, and the slang of young people” that Thomas Frank emphasized in Conquest of Cool (Frank 35). The iPod portable music player is the stronghold of Apple’s trendy appeal. iPod advertisements are some of the most recognizable ones within the past decade because of their colorful, hip, countercultural characteristics. Apple’s iPod and its marketing campaign have come to epitomize Generation X’s consumer culture; it is a youthful, perceivably “cool” product that appeals directly to America’s technology fetish.

The iPod burst onto the technology scene in 2002 and its introduction was recognized as the coming of a new age in musical technology (Merton 32). It quickly became a product that belonged to youth culture; CD and tape players became virtually obsolete and were discarded for older people to use. Music has a significant ability to transcend age, but changes in technology, such as seen with the iPod, do not, as Paul McFedries believes (McFedries 76). The product’s image was absorbed into the identity youth culture as quickly as it was sold. By the end of 2004, ten million iPods had been sold (Conhaim 25). Other companies, such as Microsoft, attempted to match the iPod’s success with similar products, but sales could not compare. Paul McFedries cites the rise of “gadget porn,” or “images and text that glorify high-end or high-tech devices” as the reason for the iPod’s instant success (McFedries 76). However, there is something much more elemental and simple that encompasses most explanations for the iPod obsession. Thomas Frank succinctly describes the phenomenon as “hip consumerism.” iPod advertisements appeal to the values of rebellion and “coolness” that youth culture constantly seeks. The product itself is now widely recognized as a symbol for “coolness,” and its sales support this notion. They have not lagged off since its inception, and the advertisements, for the most part, have not wavered. The iPod’s unflinching stranglehold on music listening devices and its appeal in modern culture is a testament to the human desire to be part of hip, countercultural ideals that are routinely exploited by corporations to sell products.

Apple’s successful advertising campaign was an important catalyst in the rise of the iPod because of its simple, yet suggestive nature. The most well known commercials feature black silhouettes dancing, with iPod in hand, to youthful, energetic music against brightly colored backgrounds. As Moren states, “the stark images of the iPod dancers have really burned themselves into your brain” (Moren 32). The recognizable nature of the ads comes not only from their simplicity, but also their exploitation of human desires. The characters are perceived as icons of youth culture because of their unique style, innovative dance moves, and technological prowess. The dancers are somewhat tributes to the “flapper” phenomenon, a youth movement in dance (and style) that defined youth culture in 1920’s. As Thomas Frank believes, youth is an essential value for consumers: “youth is an attractive consuming attitude, not an age” (Frank 118). This attitude extends into the realm of identifying with a large youth movement, which Apple targets within their ads. This marketing strategy can be related most closely with the “Pepsi Generation” campaign of the 1960’s.

Pepsi’s 1960’s campaign to make its cola “the drink of young America” is eerily similar to Apple’s campaign to make the iPod the gadget of the present. Just as Pepsi promoted the ideal of “nonconforming, daring, enthusiasm for the new” against Coca-Cola’s traditional image, Apple promotes the same progressive values in opposition to the technological stalwart that is Microsoft (Frank 172). Both campaigns support a vague “revolution” against popular culture, a culture which their respective corporations ironically propagate. The “Pepsi Generation” advertisements featured “full, vivid color,” much like the backgrounds of the iPod commercials (Frank 175). They also both “embrace action, vitality, and youthfulness” by featuring young, lively characters. Pepsi exploited the burgeoning counterculture of the 1960’s to sell its products, similar to Apple’s exploitation of McFedries’s American “technolust.” While the general promotion of subversive behavior and values is common in both of these campaigns, the marketing strategies are somewhat different in both. The iPod commercials are relatively text-less and word-less (save background music) compared to Pepsi’s explicit labeling of the “Pepsi Generation.” Pepsi directly stated that its product was for “those who think young” (Frank 171). Pepsi’s overt targeting of consumers differs from the implicit nature of the iPod commercials. The dancers simply show that the iPod is for lively, enthusiastic people by using the dancers; no direct statement is needed to explain that the product is meant for youthful people. The advertisement’s blackened silhouettes do not have an explicit race or creed, unlike Pepsi’s use of continuously white, handsome people. In some ways, the iPod marketing campaign reaches out to a more significant demographic than the “Pepsi Generation,” and is therefore more effective. The general premise of both campaigns remains the same, however; they both offer an escape from mainstream culture simply by consuming a product.

The iPod phenomenon can be attributed to human attraction to niches and subcultures that are considered hip or cool. The iPod sells mainstream, but still maintains the underground appeal by creating a perceived iPod sub-culture, what Paul McFedries refers to as “the white-cord subculture” (McFedries 76). It is strange that a product can represent a certain culture, but the iPod represents youth and youth culture. The “white cord-subculture” makes the members feel included in a larger movement. Inclusion in the group simply depends on whether or not one owns an iPod. Exploiting the human “fetish” for commodities, which Karl Marx introduced, is the reason why Apple is able to gain great profits. The iPod’s large following exemplifies consumer fetishism. The iPod has gone beyond material value and posesses cultural value. Thomas Frank expressed this cultural oriented belief when he stated that “mass produced culture is both a site of oppression and rebellion: even as it is calculated to exploit consumers, it unintentionally provides various groups and individuals with the implements of power” (Frank 17). The iPod culture is propagated by corporations for profit motives, but at the same time the consumers gain a feeling of superiority by using such an advanced product, the “implements of power” that Frank discusses. Consumers are meant to feel both individualistic, as seen by the individual dancers in the commercials, but also a part of the “technolust” movement that Paul McFedries describes (McFedries 76). The iPod has become more than a piece of useful technology; it symbolizes the youth, rebellion, and “coolness” that so many seek in order to be part of the in-group.

The iPod has significantly changed the cultural and technological landscapes, which have become almost one in the same for the present generation. It has become somewhat of a fountain of youth, except it is readily available to all consumers. Apple’s brilliant marketing strategy of promoting both individualism as well as inclusion within a “cool” subculture accounts for the product’s enormous success. The energy featured in the iPod advertisements mirrors the energy of the technological boom within the past cople of decades. Generation X was swept up with the popularization of the computer and has not looked back in terms of technology. A dependence on electronics has formed in the present generation. The iPod is a product that feeds the technological addiction of many, but also helps them form an identity within a larger group. Impressionable young people searching for identities have come to find it as consumers, a process exemplified in Pepsi’s “Pepsi Generation” campaign in the 1960’s. Apple has exploited our nation’s fetish for technology just as Pepsi did for America’s fetish for counterculture in the 1960’s. The iPod “nation” is a countercultural group, but it also represents all that composes the present, hip, generation. The 1920’s had the Model T, the baby boomers had the guitar, and belonging to the youth today, is the iPod.

Works Cited

Conhaim, Wallys W. "IPod Sprouts Successful Changes in Media Landscape." Information Today (2005): 25.

Frank, Thomas. Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago P, 1997.

McFedries, Paul. "The IPod People." IEEE Spectrum (2005): 76.

Moren, Dan. "Apple's Ad Game." Macworld 25 (2008): 32-33