BW Media Spotlight

Everytime I think about the “cool kids” that song’s chorus enters my head.

Even in a small high school like the one I went to you had your cliques. Ours got along mostly well…not counting the bullies and my people of course…but every school has their “cool kids”, the ones everyone wishes they were. Ours actually were cool and were nice to everyone, including myself, but we didn’t exactly have a large class compared to the cities. Of course we usually grow out of such things. The “nerds”, “jocks”, “artists”, “geeks”, “partiers” and what have you just become people with certain hobbies, interests, and lifestyles.

And then there’s Hollywood.

Hollywood-types still want to be the ones everyone loves and to have their inflated egos stroked, and that mentality has infected other media types, especially as corporate Hollywood has taken over so many geek culture sources. Despite how important geeks and nerds have become to our culture and way of life (for example, look at what you’re reading this on and convince me geeks weren’t somehow involved in it’s creation besides the dope writing this article you’re reading) the Hollywood mentality still wants to toss them aside. The science fiction fans, the animation lovers, and fantasy enthusiasts has been dumped on as a genre for years outside of books and games. Fantasy has never really been given a seat at the table with Westerns, rom-coms, dramas, horror, and to a lesser extent sci-fi. Superheroes, which would be part of the hybrid genre “science fantasy”, are the latest targets of the “cool kids”. I’ve mentioned them before but unlike the “everything for meeeeeeeeee” crowd, self-important backsides who insist everything popular must cater to their tastes, preferences, and worldviews, I’ve never really identified what the term “cool kids” as I use it in these articles means.

During Monday’s “Morning Nonsense” stream over at Literature Devil’s YouTube channel, I mentioned the fact that writers, editors, and producers are playing to the “cool kids” and he identified one group of what that term entails. The thing is different kinds of creators target their own “cool kids”, aka the ones that they want to most get the love and praise (and money) from. So let’s go over the various types of “cool kids”, who is targeting them, and why in some cases they’re making a mistake by targeting the wrong audience. I’m not putting down any of these groups, mind you. Everybody has a right to be entertained. It’s just that they aren’t the only ones.

Continue reading →