Whoever said we needed to be clear and simple was lying.

Taking my usual morning jog I tend to set my IPOD to a new artist I’ve never heard before. It has become my way of discovering music. Today, the artists label is Lemon Jelly, some loungy deep house band. Lemon Jelly got me thinking about the phenomenon of giving quirky nonsensical names to all sorts of things…From bands like The good the bad and the queen, Radiohead, Blind Melon, Babylon Zoo, browse through your artist lists and you’ll find many more. Corporations and products, Strawberry Frog, Google, Bebo, Zune, . Movies: James Bond Octopussy, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork orange, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind etc. Wherever we look we are surrounded by random quirky names that at first glance are quite misleading and at second glance make little sense.
The names then got me thinking about movies that make no sense, to me at least, Mulholland Drive, Magnolia, Clockwork orange, Delicatessen etc…. A bulk of movies are being pumped out with complex enough plotlines to leave the DOP and post production house confused as shit. But despite the trials and tribulations that come with confusion, dismay and feeling stupid, they all have one thing in common, they are all considered ‘cool’.
Understood (both allegedly and genuinely) or misunderstood, either way, ask anyone what they think of these movies and I’m willing to bet my left nut ‘they’ll tell you it’s cool’. Same goes for musicians, artists whose lyrics tend to confuse the shit out of you also tend to carry the ‘cool’ factor, just have a look through the lyrics of any Radiohead track, House of Cards? Stunning song, but admittedly I went through every word, dwelled on every sentence and hadn’t the slightest clue that song was about adultery. Even odd countries are cool, everyone wants to visit Japan cause it’s weird and people don’t get it, they eat sushi off naked bodies, they are technophiles, they’re phones aren’t phones, there cinema is strange and Hello Kitty is a disturbed little pussy. We also love our confusing ads, Cadbury won the grand prix didn’t it and still many ask why. BBH’s Mr Oizo kicked up a storm in the UK and had semiologists scratching their heads, Benson and Hedges. It is important to note that I am not questioning the quality or the content I am simply questioning our response and reactions to them.

We approve of things we don’t understand…misunderstood means cool. It’s almost a sought after image it creates the illusion of a knowledge asymmetry between things and people. If you’re of the few who get it your cool, if not then you sit in awe of those who do with the rest of the clan of fools. So we pretend to get it and in one gigantic leap of pluralistic ignorance ‘Mulholland Drive’ becomes a popular movie to have on our shelves. I’ll be dammed if anyone would watch the think on their own. Another point to make, is that these scripts tend to be open ended, they are left to interpretation, every individual forms their own version of the narrative, their own version of what the story or lyrics mean and in most cases knowing there is never going to be a right or wrong answer, our version tends to be ‘righter’ than anyone elses.

I haven’t a doubt in my mind that directors, musicians, CEO’s and anyone who’s at the forefront of selling cool know that one way to earn your cool stripes and maintain it, is to create stuff that nobody understands, sometimes not even you.