JJ McCullough Doesn't Like or Understand Frutiger Aero
Oh man, JJ, you dun f'ed up this time. I did not think that this would be my first post of April, but here we are. I hope I can at least post some of my old reviews this month since I still have a bunch of the photos I used in those reviews saved on my laptop ๐ป, and I want to get rid of them since they're just taking up space. I've already posted my Armageddon ☄️ review on here, but I still a bunch of other reviews I haven't posted on here.
Like, the reviews I wrote for the Michael Bay Transformers movies (not the first one, just the sequels) and the 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla film. I hope I can post them all on this blog by the end of the year. At least, post the review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen by the end of this month. But, I still got my Tenchi Muyo! and Komi Can't Communicate reviews to go before I get to that. Plus, I intend to review Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire and Monkey Man ๐ฎ๐ณ๐ if I can see them in the near future.
Anyway, onto the main topic at hand, for those that don't know, JJ McCullough is Canadian YouTuber ๐จ๐ฆ who specializes in talking about politics and culture. He used to write for the Washington Post, in their opinion section, so he is a certified journalist and political pundit. He claims to be a conservative, but coming from a place like Canada ๐จ๐ฆ, that really doesn't mean a whole lot.
Canadian conservatives ๐จ๐ฆ would be considered liberals here in the United States ๐บ๐ธ. Of course, there are Canadian conservatives ๐จ๐ฆ who do lean further to the right, but JJ is one of those conservatives that's on the more moderate end. In fact, he's so moderate that you wouldn't even know that he was a conservative if he didn't constantly say that he was. He's also gay ๐ณ️๐, but that's not really that important to this discussion, but his nationality is, especially when it comes to his hypocrisy on this particular topic.
Recently, he's been on a bit of a nostalgia binge, talking nostalgic trends amongst different people. Like, one video he did recently that was about Japanese nostalgia ๐ฏ๐ต called Shลwa nostalgia, which is a type of nostalgia that older Japanese people ๐ฏ๐ต have for the reign of Emperor Shลwa, better known in the West as Emperor Hirohito, and the Shลwa era as a whole. Okay, not the entire Shลwa era, just the part after World War II, when Japan ๐ฏ๐ต westernized and experienced tremendous economic growth and prosperity.
This was all in context of him talking about his return back to Japan ๐ฏ๐ต. You see, he used to live in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต because he had a job there. He was an English teacher if you're wondering. And he hated living there, meaning that he wasn't one of these people that pretend that Japan ๐ฏ๐ต is a perfect and infallible utopia that is way better than the West; even though as I said, Japan ๐ฏ๐ต is a very westernized country. You know, it's the exact opposite of someone like Emily of Emirichu, who's an American ๐บ๐ธ who moved to Japan ๐ฏ๐ต a couple of years ago, and constantly makes videos now talking about how wonderful it is. But, JJ's whole point in the video was that he enjoyed returning in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต as a tourist, and not as an expat.
So, he decided to turn his attention to talking about Gen Z nostalgia, specifically Frutiger Aero. Frutiger Aero is basically a nostalgic aesthetic in the vein of something like Vaporwave, which JJ does mention in the video, and claims to be a fan of. Just like Vaporwave is this very exaggerated aesthetic created by Millennials based on the things they were exposed to growing up, Frutiger Aero is as well, but by Gen Z. Whether it's Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 wallpapers, visual styles, icons, and sounds (part of the name, Frutiger Aero comes from Windows Aero, the design language used on Windows Vista and Windows 7), the iMac G3, the iMac G4, those clear hand soap bottles with fishes ๐ on them, lamps, shower curtains, and even toilets ๐ฝ with fish and reef designs on them ๐ ๐ชธ, stock photos with nature ๐ฑ, water ๐ฆ, and bubbles ๐ซง on them, the iDog toy, the Wii menu and music, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, UB Funkeys, the list goes on.
These all these things people of my generation would be pretty familiar with, especially from when we were really young kids. The Frutiger Aero aesthetic is very much based on a very optimistic ecofuturism. When people describe Frutiger Aero, they often say that it's "the future we were promised, but never got." The colors typically associated with Frutiger Aero are blue, green, and white. There are other 2000s or Gen Z aesthetics such as Y2K, McBling, Cybercore, Dark Aero, Weirdcore, Dreamcore, and Frutiger Metro, and they all kind of bleed into each other, but JJ mostly just focuses on Frutiger Aero, and it seems to be the one that he has the biggest bone to pick with.
(These are more examples of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic.)
He is firmly within the Millennial generation, and he makes a point of saying that constantly at the beginning of this video as well as in other videos. He's a proud Millennial, perhaps a bit too proud of his Millennial identity. So, he's approaching this topic as a Millennial who doesn't fully understand the Gen Z generation, or the things they're nostalgic about. And it didn't go so well to say the least. He immediately got backlash in the comment section for what he used about Frutiger Aero and about Gen Z nostalgia.
One comment in the comment section that this will be one of his most controversial videos since this video on Wikipedia (which was awful BTW), and that's definitely true. And it's not to see why. He completely misses the point of Frutiger Aero, while also being very dismissive towards Gen Z and Gen Z. As a Gen Z myself, I can say that JJ doesn't really get us, and it doesn't really seem like he put any effort into understanding us.
Watching this video, it felt as if he was talking down to Gen Z, and telling them what they don't know anything, that they can't do nostalgia properly, and that only Millennials, his generations, can be nostalgic of stuff, and create nostalgic aesthetics. He sounds like an old man who thinks knows better than the young people when he says things like that. I'm sure that wasn't his intention, but that is how it ultimately came across.
Even when it came to talking about Frutiger Aero specifically, it felt like he didn't really do that much research on it. Like, it just felt like he watched the first few seconds of those videos he used clips for in his video, and didn't watch those videos in their entirety to gain a better understanding of the aesthetic, and why Gen Z has embraced it. I mean, I did the same thing with his video, but in this case, he deserved it. If you're going to do that to the videos about Frutiger Aero, then I'm going to do that your video. The video just has this very condescending tone to it, that makes it off-putting. If you watch it, you'll understand what I mean.
I didn't watch the whole video, but I saw the first half of it, and I stopped watching it, and gave it a dislike once I realized where JJ was going with this, and what his take and whole thesis would be. But, the biggest issue with this video, and why JJ's whole take falls apart is his sheer hypocrisy. Earlier on in the video, he talks on and on about how Millennials have all this nostalgic media to enjoy, how Hollywood is pandering to their nostalgia by remaking or rebooting all of these old TV shows from the 90s, and how Millennials have nostalgic aesthetics like Vaporwave and Mallsoft, and how great it is that they exist.
But, when he starts talking about Frutiger Aero, he says that Frutiger Aero isn't real and isn't valid because it's exaggerated, and that Gen Z doesn't know how to do nostalgia. Well, let me tell you, JJ, Frutiger Aero is about as real as Vaporwave and Mallsoft, which are both aesthetics that are based on exaggerations and false memories. They are not true representations of what life was like in the 80s and 90s. I mean, I'm Gen Z, I've been to malls, and I've never heard any music that in any way resembled what people call Mallsoft. If I heard any music, it was just the present day hits at the time. If Frutiger Aero isn't real, then Vaporwave and Mallsoft aren't real either. EmperorTigerstar left a comment on the video, and he basically laid the point that I'm trying to make perfectly. I'm so glad that EmperorTigerstar is on our side in this case.
And again, I am glad that JJ's getting push back on this, and people can't just taking what he's saying as fact or as gospel, and just blindly agreeing with him. Just because you're subscribed to somebody on YouTube, just because you like a certain YouTuber doesn't mean you have to agree on everything they say. I do still generally like JJ, even if he does have weird or bad takes every once in a while, and this is one of his bad takes. He came across as a hypocrite and as a gatekeeper, a gatekeeper of nostalgia, and that's the worst kind.
You can't gate keep nostalgia because people are nostalgic about different things, every generation is nostalgic for different things, and given that this is the Internet, and people can express themselves anyway they want, and that includes talking about the things they're nostalgic for, and creating aesthetics based on those. JJ talks about how he loves nostalgia, and respects other people's nostalgia, and yet constantly disrespects Gen Z's nostalgia and talks down to them as if they don't know any better.
I love nostalgia too. I mean, I think people take it too far sometimes. Being too nostalgic, and looking back at the past too much, can lead to people being close-minded, and not giving anything new a chance. But, I do think a health amount of nostalgia is good for anyone. But, JJ just seems like one of those people who has a specific idea of what nostalgia is, and what it should be, and is trying to impose that onto the younger generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
I mean, we shouldn't be surprised that JJ has weird takes sometimes, and has a weird take on this topic as well. I mean, this is the same guy who desperately wants to be American ๐บ๐ธ, and insists that Canadian culture ๐จ๐ฆ doesn't actually exist, and Canada ๐จ๐ฆ doesn't have its own unique culture. It's just American culture ๐บ๐ธ, and that Americans ๐บ๐ธ and Canadians ๐จ๐ฆ have a shared identity. Canadians ๐จ๐ฆ just need to get over themselves and stop hating on America ๐บ๐ธ (he claims that so-called "Canadian nationalists ๐จ๐ฆ" hate America ๐บ๐ธ), and get with the program, and stop insisting that Canada ๐จ๐ฆ has a unique cultural identity to the United States ๐บ๐ธ, and that Canada ๐จ๐ฆ is in anyway separate from the US ๐บ๐ธ. I'm sure he'd have no problem if the US ๐บ๐ธ decided to annex Canada ๐จ๐ฆ, and turn the 10 provinces into American states ๐บ๐ธ. That's how much Yankophilic ๐บ๐ธ he is, and how much he wants to be an American ๐บ๐ธ. He also hates flags, but he still makes videos about them from time-to-time. If you hate flags so much, and don't think they're representative of a country or a country's culture, then why the hell do you keep making videos about them?
.svg.png)
.svg.png)
Are we really that surprised that guy has weird or bad takes sometimes? I would never tell a Millennial or a Boomer that their nostalgia and their aesthetics are invalid, or that they aren't real, and don't know to properly express their nostalgia. I'd never do that. I'll never do that to Gen Alpha. Us Gen Z have a duty, an obligation to make sure we don't make the same mistakes as some Millennials and Boomers do. We cannot treat Gen Alpha or talk down to them like JJ just did to us.
I will link JJ's video for you to see for yourself, but just a heads up, it's pretty bad, and I wouldn't be showing it on here if otherwise. I just want it there for the sake of transparency and integrity. There are a few videos you watch that explain the Frutiger Aero aesthetic in-depth, and I will link a couple. The one I like the most is the one by the YouTuber, ExtraMint called "2000s Aesthetics Were Weird…", he goes into a lot of detail about Frutiger Aero and some of the other Gen Z/2000's aesthetics that are out there, and explains them quite well that anyone unfamiliar with them would understand.
—
JJ's video ๐:
—
ExtraMint's video:
—
Izzzyzz's video:
—
kylie boggly's video:
Comments
Post a Comment