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Street Trends
How Today's Alternative Youth Cultures Are Creating Tomorrow's Mainstream Markets

by Janine Lopiano-Misdom & Joanne De Luca
August 5, 1998
HarperBusiness
A Division of HarperCollins Publishers

Excerpt from Chapter 1, The Fringe Connection VIDEOTAPING THE VIDEO WATCHERS pages 12-14

But who deems someone a "trendsetter"? Their peers do, and it's their peers who are Sputnik correspondents. They are friends of friends; have the same interests, frequent the same places, shop the same stores. The power of finding the trendsetters is to be "in" with them. All of our correspondents at Sputnik are themselves of the age and mind-set of the people they interview- essentially "one of them" - like Claire, twenty-eight of Austin, Texas, an independent film producer, writer and Sputnik correspondent who lives and works within Austin's tight independent scene. Or Victor, twenty-five, a designer, patented inventor, and skateboarder residing in New York City.

Anyone can enter a "scene," but it's the respect and understanding you have that makes the connection real. Hitting the clubs, the basements, the coffee shops, the schools, the galleries- anyplace that is a haven of street culture- isn't the easy way in. You have to know them. Sputnik gets in through our correspondents who have intimate conversations with progressive individuals and uncover on videotape insights that are deeper than what any magazine or TV show can offer. Often, a correspondent's assignment involves speaking to young individuals to uncover specific concerns for a company, and they have the same interests as the people they need to track. What happens here is magic- the casual, comfortable and honest conversations that reveal a lot of what may never be visible to the naked eye.

Picture this. Vic is at Pacific Drive in San Diego, hanging out with a group of skaters. He takes a turn off a curb and grabs the video camera. A sixteen-year-old kid named Rob sporting a pair of Etnies and a Charles Manson t-shirt does an ollie off the staircase. His friend TJ, who looks no older than twelve, is just sitting on the curb reading the latest Transworld. Kate, who hates the tag "Betty" (which refers to any female skater), waits patiently at the rail. Vic asks Kate what she thought of Larry Clark's movie Kids. They both know Harold and Yakira from the cast, and start talking about the media's lack of respect for the flick. When he asks about West Coast versus East Coast styles of skating, the others pipe in. Answering genuinely, it is as if they were merely asked for the time. They open up about everything: from rad tricks and the ozone layer to the mass suicide of the cult group Heaven's Gate. And, while puffing away on smokes- legal and illegal- they speak directly into the camera and explain the benefits of ginseng-charged drinks and high-protein vegetables.

Related Links
Sputnik
Buy the Book
Sputnik Mindtrends Reports
Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism