Here’s the thing with regards to relative coolness: It’s good to be cool and it’s hip to be square. No one likes to party with losers and if you’d like to have a say, it’s important to stay on top of trends. Being cool is different than being “popular,” the guide to which Gloria Winters gifted young girlkind in print form in 1964 with Penny’s Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity, which Nada Surf heroically and sarcastically dismantled in 1996 with their popular song “Popular.” It was just the guide itself, which except for the chorus of the song, is blankly spoken by Nada Surf’s frontman Matthew Caws, making the song’s popularity itself kind of remarkable given its sonic uniqueness.Uniqueness is tangentially related to coolness, which is ultimately governed by what Malcolm Gladwell would call “information specialists,” or “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” You know, mavens. And, oh shit, there’s an app for that.Read the rest over at Motherboard.
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