Prrrroof of Postmodernism

don't stop believin' - fake prom 2009 from untold city on Vimeo.

So, it's a fake prom, with attendees ranging in ages from early 20's to 30's? And everybody seems to get it, and totally get in to it. The prommers are living out this idea of the prom based on John Hughes movies and modern day music videos. This isn't a "prom", but an ironic pose of a prom based wholly in popular culture references instead of actual lived nostalgia (the "Prom").

Don't Stop Believin' was released in 1981, and popular in the very early '80s. Someone who's prom was in 1982, which would have likely featured Don't Stop Believin' would be well into their 40's in the latter part of this New Millenium. So, what are these people reliving? As Jean Baudrillard would say, a Simulacrum, or as I would say, bullshit. Let's go with Baudrillard's theory though. They are participating in a mirage of something that we all collectively hold to be true, but it based in the popular unconscious and cultural fabrications rather than our own historical experience. Where do they know this song from? Is it from angst-ridden teenage years lusting after the rockers in Iroc-Zs or that girl with the skin tight jeans and feather earrings? No. It's Glee. Or the Sopranos. Or The Wedding Singer or any other of the more recent pieces of pop culture where Don't Stop Believin' has been featured.

So what I am left with, is the sense that people attend the Fake Prom to mock the ideas of proms without mocking their own complicity in them. Just five to ten years ago, many of the Fake Prom attendees were most likely losing their shit at the most important social event of their lives with the real prom, but it is only when Prom is removed from their own individual experience and placed in an ironic, mocking stance that they can trash the outfits, music, anticipation and excitement (with gleeful joy).

Would it be as funny for the Grad 2003 girls, who cried over their prom dresses and lost virginity just five years ago, to revisit this night with Nickelback and Fifty Cent as the soundtrack? Could they make fun of the ridiculous amount of time that went into choosing their outfits and dates and Livestrong bracelets the same way they can when they have the safe distance to pillage the absurdity of '80s fashions and trends? Can the boys immerse themselves with the same ironic joy when fitting themselves into a $65 a night tuxedo from Black and Lee and scenting themselves down with some CKOne like they did in 2001, or will they again need to borrow from the fictional past when everyone had embarrassing haircuts and wore powder blue tuxes. EVERYONE did.

I'm not hating on the Fake Prom - it looks fun. I'm just sceptical of people who are "really into it" without having the appropriate pedigree to get really into it. Shit dude, I practically invented ironic hair metal worship in the mid-to-late nineties. I learned about Iron Maiden. I had a Warrant t-shirt. I ironically listened to The Final Countdown over and over and over and over again in the eleventh grade. Fuck you. I guess my point is, we are all embarrassing and have a past that is less than awesome. We don't need to jock someone else's embarrassment because it is comfortably distant from our own.