Being that New Keywords is a book encompassing words dealing with culture and society, I thought it would be fitting to discuss the word, “mainstream.” It has a transitional yet subtle difference between being used as a noun and adjective. Originally meaning the "principal current of a river," 1667, from main (adj.) + stream, hence, "prevailing direction in opinion, popular taste, etc.," a fig. use first attested in Carlyle (1831).” Also looking through already given Keywords I expected to see mainstream but came to no avail, but I did see the word “mass” which can be very closely related. Especially in this age of the ever growing popular culture, mainstream has become a term familiar in every which way to describe a certain aspect of what the mass of people do.
A combination of two words “main” and “stream.” This can literally be taken as the most important flow of something. And that’s exactly what it has become. It has since then changed and used more symbolically to mean “the common current of thought of the majority.” As an adjective it’s used to describe the “belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc.”
A common term that goes along with this word is mainstream media. We are so affected by the media in a collective sense that one can fall into the category of subconsciously associating things with mainstream media. When we discuss things with our friends, teachers, parents, etc. we usually can relate through things seen or heard in the mainstream media. “Did you hear that band on the radio?” or “Did you see that show last night?” Comments of this nature usually can be answered with a yes and can be related to.
But can we really define mainstream to one particular group belonging to music, art, sports, etc.? It’s something that is used so specifically yet one can question its ambiguity. Much related to this is what the word mass describes. Taken from New Keywords, “…not with the entire population but with ‘the popular or lower orders.” And can’t be taken as a synonym for mainstream per se, because mainstream embodies and connotes more than just the masses, but more the ideals, thoughts and feelings of a group. It can maybe be taken as a more updated term of the word mass by being related in every which way to “popular” culture, whether it is through music, art or anything that can be thought belonging to a large group. It is said that it is “the loss of individuality,” which in a sense can be true with being mainstream by being apart of something thought of as unauthentic by the masses.
References:
An interesting blog about mainstream I found, while searching for sources, can be viewed here: http://jenasblog9817.logme.nl/2008/07/22/myth-of-the-mainstream-3/ I didn’t read it myself yet because I didn’t want my post to have similar ideas.
"Mainstream." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainstream. 2008 ed. 2008.
"Mainstream." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 July 2004, 10:55 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Aug. 2004. <>.
Morley;, David. New Keywords : a Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. 2005.
1 comment:
I think you mean "inauthentic" rather than "unauthentic" in your last sentence. This point raises a paradox, though: to be 'authentic' would seem to mean to be 'yourself'; but if authenticity is gauged by the masses, then the only way to be authentic is to be mainstream, likely at the expense of oneself. Do you see what I mean? You mention the original meaning of this word, but I am curious about how it is a naturalizing term: it interprets a group activity as a 'stream', as a current in the fluid sense: it just flows. This would seem to be a problem when we have certain 'mainstream' tendencies that we want to claim need to be changed; then, we are building a diversion dam in front of the mainstream? It is a complicated figure of speech, isn't it? What, finally, is at stake with this term, and why is it worth considering *now*? Is "mainstream media" on the ebb or on the flow? How would we know? These are some questions that trickled out of your post and into my mind.
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