Myspace Chic

[Leo]

One area which often seems to get neglected in these conversations, but which does actually set trends is skating.

 

[Leo]

 

[sus]

Someone's thirsty on main! 🤣🤣

 

[IdleRich]

Im not sure myspace chic (despite the name) is entirely nostalgia driven, or weve reached the detachment point and nostalgia has little to do with the form running of its own symbolic energy

Just so I understand, are you saying here that the term is in fairly general use? At first I thought that you had coined that term to describe an aesthetic that you've been noticing around a lot, but now I'm sort of thinking it's the opposite... ie the term is in vogue and you're getting a handle on what people mean when they say it and, what it means that it's around.

Either way, for me, the idea of a Myspace style suggests a kind of messiness, cos for me, that's the main thing I remmber from Myspace. It definitely wasn't the first thing with loads of different bits on the same page sort of competing to be seen, and even less was it the last, but maybe it was where that particular thing became very visible. Also, I suppose, it was the first thing where it was very easy for EVERYONE to have their own page so it was a huge growth in true democratisation of style. Internet had been around for long time but it wasn't like éveryone had a web-page, but everyone did have a Myspace. Maybe that's what caused that messy thing, everyone had a page, and it had several compartments to it and so it took quite a lot of skill to make each bit look good and add up to a harmonious whole - I'm sure plenty of people pulled it off, but as most people aren't designers or aesthetes or whatever the majority failed.

The situation was simply one in which everyone was trying to cram loads of information on to a page in lots of random places and - although what you could do was fairly constrained - people were all trying to make theirs look different and stand out. So it's hardly surprising that the main memory I have is of loads of ugly random bits crashed eye-wateringly together in a space that was too small.

 

[IdleRich]

do you think what you describe as myspace chic overlaps with the aesthetic of balenciaga? i wanted to do a thread on it but didn't know how to formulate, what i noticed is that this brand got really omnipresent. from putting out exclusive variants of crocs to having collaborations with the simpsons and releasing binman or blue-collar jackets for thousands of dollars. lots of rap songs about it as well.

That Ikea bag that costs thousands.

 

[IdleRich]

Who here had a MySpace? I was 14 just on the tail end I think, made an account but none of my peers were on it so never really used.

The first thing I did when I saw this thread was try and remember if I had a Myspace... I really don't know. Definitely I outourced my memory at some point and bits of it have been deleted but so have the bits that are supposed to tell me what I should have so only every now and again when I draw a total blank on something like this do I realise how much has gone.

 

[shakahislop]

i have no idea what any of you are on about in this thread, i don't understand it. I watched the first two videos. stylistically they remind me a lot of the super fast cut youtube video thing that the small number of 12 year olds I know seem to be into. like that addison rae show where all the tiktok sensations live in a house together in LA. or the one where some moderately funny girl fails to bake a load of cakes. if you know you know.

i think if you'd been watching that kind of thing for years, that style of music video would be exactly what you'd want to watch when you get old enough to be into music.

 

[shakahislop]

 

[shakahislop]

JPEGMAFIA reminds me of Myspace sometimes,

I went right off him after his record company (I assume) started spraypainting stencils of his name on the pavement in the cool bits of brooklyn. felt like i was being played.

his tunes also have that rapid cut thing, where it feels like someone has spliced a totally different tune in halfway though. its not that different to the youtuber chop chop chop thing.

 

[shakahislop]

are we talking about a music video aesthetic, a fashion thing, or a thing that's happening in art galleries?

 

[IdleRich]

the mania of the style resonates more with the now than the then

I said messiness but I think we are talking about the same thing. The style was most likely the result of loads of people who had never drawn anything using a computer before trying to express their personality with some crude tools in a constrained space - to a kid looking at it now who has no understanding of that context it looks like an aesthetic decision to create a crazy whacked out style.

 

[sus]

are we talking about a music video aesthetic, a fashion thing, or a thing that's happening in art galleries?

It's cross cultural. A geist.

 

[mvuent]

I watched the first two videos. stylistically they remind me a lot of the super fast cut youtube video thing that the small number of 12 year olds I know seem to be into.

agreed. and maybe fitting w/ this thread even that aesthetic goes back pretty far in time now...

has anyone acknowledged the influence of legendary youtuber Fred on this type of music?

 

[linebaugh]

Just so I understand, are you saying here that the term is in fairly general use? At first I thought that you had coined that term to describe an aesthetic that you've been noticing around a lot, but now I'm sort of thinking it's the opposite... ie the term is in vogue and you're getting a handle on what people mean when they say it and, what it means that it's around.

Either way, for me, the idea of a Myspace style suggests a kind of messiness, cos for me, that's the main thing I remmber from Myspace. It definitely wasn't the first thing with loads of different bits on the same page sort of competing to be seen, and even less was it the last, but maybe it was where that particular thing became very visible. Also, I suppose, it was the first thing where it was very easy for EVERYONE to have their own page so it was a huge growth in true democratisation of style. Internet had been around for long time but it wasn't like éveryone had a web-page, but everyone did have a Myspace. Maybe that's what caused that messy thing, everyone had a page, and it had several compartments to it and so it took quite a lot of skill to make each bit look good and add up to a harmonious whole - I'm sure plenty of people pulled it off, but as most people aren't designers or aesthetes or whatever the majority failed.

The situation was simply one in which everyone was trying to cram loads of information on to a page in lots of random places and - although what you could do was fairly constrained - people were all trying to make theirs look different and stand out. So it's hardly surprising that the main memory I have is of loads of ugly random bits crashed eye-wateringly together in a space that was too small.

No I coined the term, just something Im noticing. Youre a cool crust punk type guy like me rich, if you were my age and in america youd know exactly what Im talking about.

The messiness is definitely a key component. Its a pastiche of styles that were already themselves pastiche.

 

[linebaugh]

i have no idea what any of you are on about in this thread, i don't understand it. I watched the first two videos. stylistically they remind me a lot of the super fast cut youtube video thing that the small number of 12 year olds I know seem to be into. like that addison rae show where all the tiktok sensations live in a house together in LA. or the one where some moderately funny girl fails to bake a load of cakes. if you know you know.

i think if you'd been watching that kind of thing for years, that style of music video would be exactly what you'd want to watch when you get old enough to be into music.

Arent you in brooklyn? Suspended knows what Im talking about I assume because of his time in brooklyn

 

[IdleRich]

Our kids know that they should A) never ever represent England at anything even if that’s Lego building, B) never ever sing god save that hoarding cunt of Windsor and C) skateboard

Why you so keen for them to skateboard WYH? I would have never thought that you were into it, certainly not that it would be the one thing in the whole world that you insisted that your kids get into... I guess skating is cool and everythig and real skaters are some of the only genuine rebels around, a group dedicated to pursuing their art at all costs, ignoring the law and physical risks etc etc but there is something about it that really boils my piss. I just think - no doubt unfairly - that all skaters are cunts. Though I'm sure that your kids aren't gonna be particuarly bothered about some old bloke on the internet and what he thinks about their sport of choice.

 

[woops]

Just so I understand, are you saying here that the term is in fairly general use? At first I thought that you had coined that term to describe an aesthetic that you've been noticing around a lot, but now I'm sort of thinking it's the opposite... ie the term is in vogue and you're getting a handle on what people mean when they say it and, what it means that it's around.

Either way, for me, the idea of a Myspace style suggests a kind of messiness, cos for me, that's the main thing I remmber from Myspace. It definitely wasn't the first thing with loads of different bits on the same page sort of competing to be seen, and even less was it the last, but maybe it was where that particular thing became very visible. Also, I suppose, it was the first thing where it was very easy for EVERYONE to have their own page so it was a huge growth in true democratisation of style. Internet had been around for long time but it wasn't like éveryone had a web-page, but everyone did have a Myspace. Maybe that's what caused that messy thing, everyone had a page, and it had several compartments to it and so it took quite a lot of skill to make each bit look good and add up to a harmonious whole - I'm sure plenty of people pulled it off, but as most people aren't designers or aesthetes or whatever the majority failed.

The situation was simply one in which everyone was trying to cram loads of information on to a page in lots of random places and - although what you could do was fairly constrained - people were all trying to make theirs look different and stand out. So it's hardly surprising that the main memory I have is of loads of ugly random bits crashed eye-wateringly together in a space that was too small.

also the myspace code was remarkably easy to hack even for someone with extremely rudimentary coding skills such as myself. so that could add to the anarchy on the pages

 

[IdleRich]

No I coined the term, just something Im noticing. Youre a cool crust punk type guy like me rich, if you were my age and in america youd know exactly what Im talking about.

The messiness is definitely a key component. Its a pastiche of styles that were already themselves pastiche.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

 

[IdleRich]

Pretty sure I'm not a krust punk type guy though.

 

[wektor]

Also, I suppose, it was the first thing where it was very easy for EVERYONE to have their own page so it was a huge growth in true democratisation of style. Internet had been around for long time but it wasn't like éveryone had a web-page, but everyone did have a Myspace. Maybe that's what caused that messy thing, everyone had a page, and it had several compartments to it and so it took quite a lot of skill to make each bit look good and add up to a harmonious whole - I'm sure plenty of people pulled it off, but as most people aren't designers or aesthetes or whatever the majority failed.

The situation was simply one in which everyone was trying to cram loads of information on to a page in lots of random places and - although what you could do was fairly constrained - people were all trying to make theirs look different and stand out. So it's hardly surprising that the main memory I have is of loads of ugly random bits crashed eye-wateringly together in a space that was too small.

I guess you could say that creating your own small internet bubble it works similarly nowadays?
Even more so, on some layer, it does encourage shitposting/messy expression. Different thing that you are supposed to look like you're shitposting, while actually it's a very thought through aesthetic. It's this weird effect of everyone's curating themselves.
About the constrains, sure the platform only lets you do XYZ, but like the hipster fashion phase or the fuck it was, people realise that within that constrained space you can do whatever you want, hence they get confused. More so, you should try really hard to be expressive as that's what gets rewarded.