In the context of music’s cultural influence, the explosive power of Beck’s 1994 hit song, “Loser,” is difficult to overstate.
The dramatic popularity of “Loser” was something like – but not nearly as monumental – the earth-shaking, global phenomenon of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” dropped just two years earlier.
Interestingly, many people, including some longtime Beck fans, still have a false understanding of the song’s meaning thanks to an origin story that was completely manufactured and sold by the corporate media.
And yet no matter the circumstances, “Loser” was wholly adopted as an anti-hero ‘slacker’ anthem by the mass media.
They claimed the song reflected a larger discontent and disillusionment of the youth culture of the time.
However, because of the song’s huge popularity, and no doubt its intriguing title, it all added up to powerful fodder, and increased ad revenues, for the corporate media’s cynical and contrived war on youth.
The success of “Loser” made Beck a symbol for the angst and rebellion felt by millions of young people, and as such, became a perfect opportunity for Hollywood corporate moguls to feed their profit-making machine – selling newspapers and magazines with purposefully sensational stories, and more substantially, pumping up the larger, inter-dependent ecosystem of record sales, licensing deals, TV and movies, sold-out concerts and extensive tours by any and all means necessary.
It didn’t matter if the mass media completely and utterly mischaracterized and defamed an entire generation of youth via Beck in the process – there was big money to be made.
The newly-labeled slacker-Generation X media and industry became a cultural sensation that took off with Nirvana’s rocket-shot to fame with the monumental hit single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The media loved the novelty of the song and it’s anti-establishment message, but not as a celebration of artistry but as a threat to conformity and cultural norms that the machine depends on. Thus began the mass media’s obsession with, and manipulation of, of an entire generation by manufacturing the whole ‘Gen X’ loser/slacker narrative.
With the untimely death of their biggest money-maker rock star symbol ever – Kurt Cobain – corporate media/music/TV conglomerates needed a fresh new body to fill the vacant role.
The persona of Beck, paired with his ‘slacker anthem’ hit song, was their answer. The perfect new symbol of ‘Generation X.’
The question now is – who got the last laugh?
Beck strikes back against a false media narratives
While there is no doubt that musicians like Beck benefited from media coverage, it didn’t hold him back from railing against its abuses and shortcomings – especially when the media was deliberately misrepresenting his music, his character and his generation.
He realized that as a talented and popular young rock star of his time, the media and the broader machine, were going to capitalize on his fame anyway they could.
Much like Kurt Cobain, and also for good reasons, Beck was openly hostile towards the mass media and their many purposefully tawdry assumptions along with their well-documented tactics of manufacturing scandals for profit regardless of the truth or who gets hurt in the process.
“Slacker my ass. I mean, I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive.” – Beck in Rolling Stone 1994
Beck’s rebellious spirit, and a deep commitment to be true to himself, meant he wasn’t about to let the mass media machine appoint him in absentia as their shiny new boy-toy just because of a hit song and the passing of Cobain.
In fact, in an April 1994 Rolling Stone interview – at the apex of his fast new fame – the then 24-year-old Beck lashed out at the media’s collaring and tagging him as a spokesman of a ‘Gen X’ generation that never existed except in the playbooks of the mass media conglomerates.
“Slacker my ass. I mean, I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive,” Beck professed.
During an interview a few months later with Spin magazine, he added: “[‘Loser’ is] not some anguished transcendental ‘cry of a generation.’ It’s just sitting in someone’s living room eating pizza and Doritos.”
Beck explained that while working with rap beats in the studio, he became frustrated with his rapping skills, blurting out, “I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me.”
That’s the 411 of the song’s origin right from the artist’s own mouth in real-time 1994.
It didn’t matter. The calculating mass media operatives – from record labels and news outlets to merchandisers and advertisers – had already made their decision; the paint had dried.
Like it or not, Beck was now their new ‘Gen X’ poster-boy punching bag.
Conflict and stereotyping: Corporate media’s crack
For the media to do a complete reversal and reveal the otherwise mundane truth about a culturally significant song after they mixed and distributed the potion would mean lost profits and an indirect admission that they purposefully misrepresent the truth to manufacture stories and narratives with ‘sex appeal.’
And so, back then (and since to this day) the mass media intentionally ignored the truth to propagate a filthy lie and desecrate an entire generation in the name of more dirty money. That’s what it all comes down to.
This full-throttle campaign (in the open for everyone to see – even before the Internet was widely available) included dozens of major magazines, hundreds of newspapers, radio programs, the major alphabet news broadcast conglomerates, Hollywood movie studios and so on. All of it based on fake news.
Certainly, the so-called ‘Generation X’ youth of the time didn’t really believe Beck was literally calling himself, and especially not them, ‘losers’.
But the corporate media’s operatives were not going to give up their golden labels. Those were their precious.
The media’s public ass-kicking of the so-called ‘Gen Xers’ ticked all the boxes that corporate media and advertisers love – drama, stereotyping, conflict, engagement, resentment, and increased sales. Afterall, it worked with exploiting Kurt Cobain and his fans.
For years prior to the ‘Gen X/slacker’ roll-out, many young people had already been giving the mass media and corporate monopolies that darkened the landscape of America for the worst (Jerry Springer-type shows; celebrity obsession; murder-romance sagas, etc.). And then they go about highlighting these ills of society and blaming society itself; never, ever themselves.
That fact in and of itself meant that more and more young people were thinking for themselves – something the mind-control economy fears intensely.
Monopolistic corporations purposefully targeted denegrating youth of the time because they were increasingly and openly criticizing corporations and the media.
As more young people, many influenced by the anti-establishment messages of the popular grunge revolution, opposed an overtly consumer-crazed society, the machine’s hammer had to become bigger and more active.
The corporate media’s mind-control cabal needed to paint these outspoken youth – who thought for themselves – as the biggest losers America has ever known.
The plan was that this relentless campaign against ‘slackers’ would force many other young people to look down on their ‘alternative’ peers as the ultimate losers while simultaneously causing them not to do or think anything like them. In time, the truth-seeking, non-materialistic young folks would be isolated and mocked.
The underlying message was clear: “Hey kids, you don’t want to be a loser like those slacker grunge kids smoking pot in a van down by the river.
“What you really need to do is work more low-pay, soul-crushing jobs where you’re treated like a nobody so that you can go shopping more, apply for more high-interest credit cards, go on more expensive trips you can’t afford and buy, buy, buy more stuff, stuff, stuff.”
“Those are the keys to happiness and the American Dream! You don’t want to become a loser, right?”
The corporate media and advertising execs that manufacture these dark and obscenely-manipulative revenue schemes are straight-up sociopaths.
“Generation X, in particular, has been labeled as ‘slackers,’ a term that oversimplifies and misrepresents the diverse experiences and contributions of this generation.” – Author Lisa Chamberlain, Slackonomics
The actual origins of the ‘Generation X’ and ‘slacer’ labels
By the time Beck popped onto the cultural scene in such a big way, and became a fixture on MTV, the ‘Generation X’ label had already been in circulation in the U.S., and was widely paired with the ‘slacker’ term (popularized by the 1991 film of the same name), for a few years.
A 1990 Time magazine article also fueled a larger media fascination with disparaging and labeling the youth of the time as a ‘lost generation’.
The Time article referred to a ‘lost generation’ growing up in the 1990s as “twentysomethings” and questioned whether they were “laid back, late blooming or just lost,” encapsulating what would become a relentless, decades-long narrative.
And yet the ‘Generation X’ label did not even originate in the United States, and it was not first coined in the 1990s. To highlight another one of it’s malignancies, the media has a long history of taking credit for things it had nothing to do with.
The term was first coined by British author and photographer Robert Capa in the early 1950s to describe the generation (that he called ‘Generation X’) growing up after World War II, who he thought were uninspired and directionless.
Then, in 1965, authors Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson released Generation X, a book based on a survey of British young people’s attitudes at the time.
A quarter of a century later, the term – which obviously had ‘media sex appeal’ – was co-oped once again, this time by Canadian author Douglas Coupland for his 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture.
The book’s theme seeped further into the cultural soup of the times as it gradually gained more sales and media coverage.
Coupland, however, did not relate the origin of the ‘Generation X’ label to the aforementioned British authors. He explained that his book was inspired by Paul Fussell’s 1983 book, Class.
In it, Fussell used the term “category X” to describe young people who desired to drop out of conventional social hierarchies.
Coupland also mentioned that his use of the ‘Generation X’ label was further influenced by the punk band Generation X.
In a 1991 interview with the Boston Globe, Coupland said, “I just want to show society what people born after 1960 think about things… We’re sick of stupid labels, we’re sick of being marginalized in lousy jobs, and we’re tired of hearing about ourselves from others.”
Not surprisingly, the mass media, especially in the United States, helped publicize the book as a way of adding ammunition to their war chest of combative generational narratives.
The term ‘slacker’ actually gained popularity more than a century ago during World War I. It was a common label given to draft dodgers. It did not originate with the 1991 DIY film of the same name. Another misconception that still has currency.
In either case, the mass media, which includes news outlets, advertisers, record labels, television, cable and now digital channels, concert promoters and merchandisers, increasingly consolidates and conglomerates these interdependent industries to ensure corporate profits survive no matter where people go for news, information and entertainment.
By the mid-2010s, six major conglomerates—Comcast, Disney, AT&T, CBS, Viacom, and Sony—controlled approximately 90% of all media platforms in the United States.
The media consolidation has led to fewer independent voices, a reduction in local news coverage and profitability by any and all means necessary.
Mass media spins lies for ratings and profits
The media specifically analyzes audience reactions to stories about generational conflict, reinforced negative stereotypes, and even petty, ridiculous side stories. Then they structure ‘news’ narratives and coverage towards those ends.
By weaponizing sensationalism, generational conflict, confirmation bias and stereotypes, the corporate mass media generates higher engagement and increased ad revenues.
In 2018, the Harvard Business Review published a study that found by exploiting stereotypes and generational conflict, the media intentionally creates emotional content targeted at certain groups to increase ratings and lure advertisers.
Another study by Psychology Today in 2016 concluded that the media actively promotes ‘fear-mongering’ and ‘conflict-driven narratives’ to keep audiences hooked, drive engagement and boost revenues.
Furthermore, a 2019 study published by the Pew Research Center details that the news media is responsible for approximately 70% of advertising revenues across the economy.
The media’s dependency on advertising drives sensational and polarizing content to attract viewers and increase engagement via generational stereotypes narratives and coverage.
In a November 2017 New York Times article, The Myth of the Lazy Millennial, writer Malcom Harris explores how terms like ‘slacker’ for ‘Generation X’ and ‘lazy’ for ‘Millennials’ (Gen Z) are perpetuated by media to create controversial and engaging content and on-going narratives to drive ad revenues.
A study from Thomas Frank (The Conquest of Cool) and Lisa Chamberlain (Slackonomics) demonstrate how media narratives drive traffic and create profitable advertising opportunities.
In her book, Chamberlain concluded: “Mainstream media loves to paint entire generations with broad strokes, reducing complex groups to simple, often negative stereotypes.”
“Generation X, in particular, has been labeled as ‘slackers,’ a term that oversimplifies and misrepresents the diverse experiences and contributions of this generation.”
“This portrayal was not accidental,” Chamberlain adds, “but a deliberate strategy to create engaging, sensational content that would drive higher ratings and increase ad revenue.”
The evidence of the mass media’s deliberate disparaging of young people for the sake of engagment and ad revenue is overwhelming.
But now, all of you who have been targeted and maligned by the mass media over the years, sweet revenge is yours. (And you didn’t have to hurt anyone.)
Mass media outlets these days are pretty much totally distrusted by the majority of Americans.
Their old channels, 90% consolidated into just six conglomerates, continue to lose out to the folks it calls the ‘Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z’ podcasters and social media influencers.
Free from corporate board rooms and orthodoxy, hundreds, if not thousands, of independent opinion makers regularly pull in 10, 20, even 50 or more (i.e., Joe Rogan and Theo Von) times as many viewers than the incredibly shrinking audiences of corporate news media.
Over the past decade, brilliant, talented folks of a new generation learned how to attract and retain viewers/subscribers the old fashion way – through honesty, representation and integrity.
Nowadays, the corporate mass media needs their false narratives of generational stereotypes, along with political and cultural sideshows, to rile up emotions of viewers to make money.
So, there it is – what an actual loser looks, and smells, like.