If photosynthesis was the love park video and penal code was an EMB video then cherry is the Instagram video. Most of the skaters in this video received most of their hype from Instagram clips/photos. Almost all of them were no names outside of tyshawn who was getting toy machines flow. Usually you see loads of 'mag-centric' content 4 years before something like this 'comes out' but this videos an interesting study in buzz / a new way to hype a video up via 4 year cycles.
Usually if a tenured buzz human with an authentic personal brand posts something on Instagram for 'you and 18600 of your closest friends' there's 3 ways to look at it:
1. You're getting an honest opinion shared only with his closest friends....and the entire internet.
2. If the post doesn't align with your personal brand you either realign your beliefs or become 'a h8r'
3. It doesn't matter what gets posted, because you're forced to have an opinion on it.
Most skaters never get the opportunity to be liked or disliked. Forcing someone to choose via volume posting is an effective way to get your preferred content out there. Who is this little negro dancing around? Why does bill like him? Why is dill spending so much time with him without parental supervision? There must be something to it.
Using montages was a great idea. Not because it creates a mood and adds an identity to their skating but because it doesn't give you a chance to judge anyone. No one has names everyone does the same tricks. You can't judge one skater without judging the person next to him. 'Everything is embarrassing' or it has 'heavy metal heart' . In a neatly packaged part I get an opportunity to judge every aspect of his being from clothes, lifestyle, song selection, trick selection and tone but in the montage format each persons vibe rubs off on the other & your attention loses focus. Strobeck has curated a masterpiece: he's found a way to immunize himself and the people around him from criticism.
There was lots of amorphous buzz for the FA kids and Instagram was the go to way to ~guess~ how good someone is. You're only option is to build up the skater in your mind because these tenured guys adore him/her. When the video 'dropped' It didn't matter what ______ did, its better than the meager content you were getting before.
Do you guys remember clusterfuck ? The first video after mind field was over ? People say there was no hype cycle for a strobeck/supreme video but you can go far back and read interviews about him wanting to make a video. I'm pretty sure this is it. In the end he was smarter than his fan base, he was able to seed his content and create hype for a video without being upfront about it. It was a video five years in the making without being a video five years in the making. This is the new video hype model.
This format also leads you to the obvious question: what's the difference between a Trunk Boy? and an FA kid ?
Trunk Boyz? are interesting because they weren't seeded correctly like the FA kids were. They have as much tenured buzz support as the FA kids, both groups of kids were artificially grouped together by team managers(Sam Smyth)/older ppl(bill strobeck) and both groups of kids are 'just discovering alcohol for the first time' but the Trunk Boyz? are the only ones called artificial.
I think this speaks to the power of seeding ideas via Instagram. Crailtap didn't give ppl enough time to process their existence via web clips, crail couches, days in the lives, Instagram clips, thrasher burnouts over a multi year period, or a chance to be artfully edited by alt videographers allowing them to co-opt someone else's personal brand into authenticity. It might have been easier to get ppl to buy into #trunkboys if it was merely a hashtag and some mysterious Instagram photos for a couple months before it became a branded experience with trademarked boards and t-shirts. maybe they needed more interviews from mike Carroll. Maybe they needed another beauty and the beast tour. Maybe they needed more opportunities to get 'deep web' clips with the gonz or atiba for ppl to mine and present on also like a piece of gold. Imagine if they 'traded places' with the FA kids. who would u like? Who would u h8?
is co-branding yourself with someone else's authenticity 'cheating' ? you never have to stand on your own two feet that way or 'be your own person'. seems like a great way to exist. I wish i was born into it, Suckling on the buzz of Alex Olson's floppy teets, being nurtured with William strobecks camera wall. Getting @'ed by relevant ppl toward a higher plane of relevance. Getting lots of inteviews with blogs and free supreme swag and a lucrative shoe contract. I hope one day I get adopted by dill & ave foster home for relevance. I'm thinking of running away and getting some hair gel.
anyways look out for I <3 New York. ~Full~ parts from:
Jake Johnson
Brandon westgate
Dylan ryder
Alex Olstein
Tyshawn the creator
Kevin the sweatshirt
Nakel the afro
Jason the dill
Billy mcfeely
Brian wenning
Anthony pappalardo
Arne stein
And other ppl
Topic: "Cherry" a video by William Strobeck for Supreme (Read 239417 times)