As many Waterloo locals are probably aware, the beloved independent video store Generation-X has recently announced plans to close in late February, and that they will be selling off their stock of titles until then. I happened to make my way into the store on their first day of selling DVDs, and was (somewhat unpleasantly) shocked to see the store filled to the brim with customers ravenously grabbing huge stacks of DVDs from the shelves to purchase.
I found this somewhat overwhelming, but stopped to think: was this huge mass of people there simply to snap up rare DVDs? Or were they there for the nostalgic association of the discs, to be able to literally ‘take home a piece of Gen-X’ to help commemorate the store?
Here’s a particularly insightful first hand account of the DVD buying spree.
I felt the latter attitude to perfectly represent the idea of remixing identity and ownership of physical products. Remix is something generally understood to, by definition, defy notions of possession and ownership, often playfully pilfering from past works to create a new incarnation of them. In this case, the DVDs purchased would be recognized as not only being ‘from Gen-X’, but also, for the consumer, ‘theirs’ – a new, hybrid form of identity and ascribed possession.
To further complicate things, one of the major reasons for Gen-X’s closing is the impending financial threat to video rental stores of movie piracy and illegal downloading – which, of course, further defies traditional notions of possession and ownership. So, with this in mind, the fact that people still scrambled to buy DVDs shows that even with the possibility to have movies fully accessible for free (albeit without any sense of personal ownership) they still jump at the chance to have some kind of tangible ownership over products like that, especially, it would seem, if it incorporates some kind of remixed identity and emotional association like this.
This blog post very much intrigued me.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I was very disappointed when Dr. Gates informed me of this news.
Not just because it's a piece of Waterloo history, but also because I believe that Generation X has almost become a part of my identity here at school, and being in film studies. Therefore I would definitely agree with your ending point, by allowing us to buy out all of his works, we are in turn remixing pieces of the culture that we formed with his store. He is giving us a piece of what was once novelty collections, and encouraging us to keep the legacy alive.
Do you think that if you purchase a DVD (or other depending things) from Generation X, that you can most definitely find somewhere else actually makes them so different/more important? It's interesting that if you put two copies of the same movie side-by-side (one from Gen X and one from Blockbuster) there would be absolutely no difference, except the relationship with the owner.
I think this truly goes along with the lack of originality in our culture; but, I agree with you... why were there so many DVD-grabbing-fans there?!
In my opinion, I believe it had a lot to do with status of owning such a possibly rare object. Perhaps we jump at the opportunity to remix with someone else's material because it is quite hard to be unique and possess original thought. However, I do believe that this causes problems with illegal downloading, because with everything so accessible (this includes music as well) cultural artifacts, and creations stand to lose a lot of respect and importance.
My question to you is:
- If you weren't in film studies, and/or your profs didn't recommend Generation X to you, do you think you would have heard of it, or that you would have had such a strong connection with it? Perhaps we are reacting so strongly because of our associations with it, and it's novelty representation.
Hi - good question! I actually grew up in Waterloo and had been going to Gen-X for years before I even started my undergrad, so I had a nostalgic association built up quite a while before my involvement in film studies. I think the key thing is that since it is an independent business, people can formulate more affective relationships with Gen-X then they might with, say, their local Blockbuster, which would likely (but not necessarily) feel a lot more distant and impersonal, thus ascribing more of a 'remixed meaning' into cultural products which, you're absolutely right, you could obtain identical copies of elsewhere. I find it interesting to note that everyone I saw in the store was keeping the little velcro squares the 'rental tags' of the DVDs stuck to intact after purchasing the cases, as if they wanted a physical reminder of exactly where their purchases came from.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, you also addressed the issue of downloading which I brought up, and I do find it to be a perplexing point. People seem to still want physical, tangible products they can claim ownership to, but at the same time readily embrace having access to the same films in a format which renders notions of ownership fundamentally void. In a way, internet downloading functions as the ultimate remix practice: the meaning and format of the original product, the film, has become encoded and re-translated so differently that in many ways the initial intended 'point' has become completely changed.
So, I guess, people want the remixed ownership that comes with having tangible products but also the remix of the product itself, by way of downloading - pretty much having their cake and eating it too. And when you think about it, that's really not so surprising.