It's interesting to see how more recent generations focus on pop culture of the past, isn't it?
Yes, right off the bat, the image is most likely made in AI from what I can see. However, since a real photo of this would be a bit problematic I think, it works fine, and gave me the idea for the caption.
Back a few years ago, I remember my daughter's friends .. this was when she was in high school .. being interested in retro pop culture, and it made me realize that there are fleeting moments of retro coolness, and those that will continue to be around, because they are timeless. One of her friends was massively into Audrey Hepburn, with posters on her walls, and went to one of the school dances in one of the outfits she was known for. Another of her friends was a big David Bowie fan, and wore the Alladin Sane makeup for Halloween .. which I wasn't even technically alive when he did that tour. My daughter LOVES Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton, who were huge when I was younger that she was at the time. Even now, one of my best friend's son is HUGE into the 50's and 60's music scene, and barely registers with the pop music of today.
And this appreciation was much more than just throwing on bell bottoms and saying catchphrases like "Groovy" and "Freedom rock man!" and giggling. Which is more of what I was doing as a kid. They had really made a connection with the artifice around those icons.
So anyway, all that ties into the caption itself, just putting a person like me around a girl like my daughter's friends, and using that juxtaposition to generate a TG caption that plays with the clash of "authentic self".
Seems wild I know that all that backstory to make a simple quickie caption, but it's my thought process, even though it all came together in about 10 minutes tops. When I'm creating it, I just get the inspiration, craft it into a hopefully coherent piece, and then later on, write up a blog post that shows everyone else the background of how it came to be. I'm glad that most of you find that interesting!
I was NOT a fan of Bowie when I was growing up. He was doing the mid 80's crap and I was not down for it. Later on I appreciated him a lot more through getting a "best of" compilation and him working with Trent Reznor .. I was very big into NIN .. and it's how I came to really enjoy people like Bowie, Adam Ant and Gary Numan beyond their known songs.
Fun cap Dee! I'm not sure if the image is AI or not, but it certainly follows the AI stylebook. The only telling thing, and it could have been a mistake made by a human hand just as easily, is the earing looking different in the mirror. Other than that, there's no obvious AI 7th finger or anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree that younger generations seem to look back and appreciate previous generations more than our generation did. We liked the 50s and 60s, but only in terms like Happy Days.
As for David Bowie in particular, I came at him from a different direction. I didn't particularly like his music but I started hearing it when I was into band and playing music myself. I recognized the talent he had and had an appreciation for that. Like you, I started to really like him when he worked with Trent Reznor. "I'm Afraid of Americans" is just great!
Yeah, the AI looks pretty good. My thought was that the right hand fingers were bent sort of odd, and that was how I knew it was AI, but as you said, it's pretty good for that.
DeleteI hadn't really looked at the previous generations pop culture as being pretty good though, other than an appreciation for Fonzie's "cool" which even that faded quickly when he couldn't even admit that he was, "w-wr-wr-wrong".
I mean, I did like the late 60's-70's hard rock that my dad brought me up on, but wasn't a fan of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Neil Young, or Bowie. I gravitated to the Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly and Zeppelin albums in my dad's collection. Even the Beatles and Stones were hit and miss for me at the time.
David Bowie was in a "band" in the late 80's called Tin Machine, which was a bit more loud and raucous than his China Girl and Dance Magic Dance stuff from the early to mid 80's, so I had heard a bit of that, and yes, I'm Afraid of Americans is a great track!