Cost of Cool

According to market researchers, the most influential of all the young trendsetters is the disaffected minority teenager, particularly the urban black male. Drawing upon their street and prison experiences, they have created a raw and irreverent hip-hop culture that marketers describe as a “cultural triangle” of fashion, music, and sports. Marketing studies not that this urban youth culture has “a major impact on consumer preferences in the general market in the United States and worldwide in a wide range of industries, including apparel, footwear, soft-drinks, packaged foods, personal-care products, and all facets of the entertainment industry” (Packaged Facts, 2000 quoted in Teaching Youth Media, 2003 pg 27).