9. Popular music has embraced the geekdom
Besides the sheer popularity of electronic music from RNB and Hip Hop to all the various forms of Electronic Dance Music, all of which are deeply rooted in their gadgety origins, the content of music is increasingly infused with references to technology, the internet, and various cultural idiosyncrancies within them.
An interesting example on the electronic dance music scene is Deadmau5. His artistic name resembles an internet nickname, and alludes to leetspeak (or l33tsp33k, if I got that right), a keenly geeky concept. His shows are filled with technological imagery and connotations, and he himself is a proud geek. The mouse mask with huge ears that he wears is in itself an iconic symbol of tinkered gadgetry, with the electronics inside that make it a flashy light show prop in its own right. And he wears this electronic thing on his head during most of his show.
Photo by Eli Watson.
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2PartsAnalog
I never thought that we would be cool. The world s changing!
Murray Snudge
Just because geeks are extremely useful does not make them cool – case not proved.
Karl
IT has such a conceit that they are THE tech and nerds. Sorry. There were tech nerds when punch cards were developed for looms. I am Technical Support for my company. The face that I am an Oracle DBA, programmer, and computer power user has nothing to do with the fact that my company makes high purity chemicals and that is what I am supporting. And it’s a whole lot easier to teach computers to a chemist than chemistry to a computer nerd.
Based on the history I know, the generation born in the late 80’s and 90’s is so isolated that, despite the “liberating” force of the internet, they are re-inventing everything around them. Comicon? There have been fan-run science fiction conventions since the ’40s, possibly earlier. Search for WorldCon. Cosplay? Those were hall costumes, part of the masquerade. Chemists and materials science nerds made the basic building blocks of that silicon you use as the foundation of your chips. Sorry, but you can’t claim the exclusive title of nerds.
SEAbeliever
The article isn’t saying that people are claiming to have started all of this. It is stating that the IT crowd has created the necessary spark to ignite the enormous popularity of the “tech and nerds”. It has all been said or done before, regardless of whether or not we are aware of it.