Dear FRONTLINE,

As a 24 year old employee of a record company, not currently affliated with those corporate conglomerates referenced in the Frontline piece, I took immense interest in tonight's episode. While, I'll be the first to step up and villify the Time-Warners and Viacoms of the world, I have to wonder if you might not have slighted todays teens.

I'm not sure today's entertainment iron triangles are so much worse than the ones that sold me Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Married With Children, and the A-Team. Through meeting and talking to people, however, my eyes were opened to alterntives.

See, Frontline tried to delve into the teen counter-culture by examining ICP...but what about the other version of the music counter culture that can constructively articulate the middle finger culture of the likes of ICP. In my day it was Fugazi, Pavement, and Dead Kennedys that saved us, now it's Sleater-Kinney, God Speed You Black Emporer, and the Black Stars. Alternatives are out there and many kids seek them out.

If music isn't your vice, there's still the Salingers, August Wilsons, Kunderas, and Bust magazines to challenge the ideas the media dictates. Not to mention the freedom of expression present in the internet, opertunities created by community service, or the wealth of knowledge present in higher education, each of which will teach teens to question the media's reign.

We can all sit around and complain about the power and ifluence of mass-media, or we can work to help the teens realize all the options they have and trust them to chose wisely.

new york, new york

Dear FRONTLINE,

It is probably obvious to this readership: you

forgot to mention that this amorphous mass of young people, currently at the mercy of the transnational

corporations and their molding instruments, will

pretty soon grow up. While they are selling trash

culture and mindlessness to all our teens I tremble

when I try to guess what the resultant adults would be

willing to buy. The mook shall inherit the earth; what

a waste.

Peter Petropoulos
Newark, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

I thought the last line,"welcome to the machine", from the program was particularly poignant. I remember as a teen listening to Pink Floyd recite that line and now I understand its implications. I am also thinking of how I have been sold the same bag of goods, and I wonder if it is my own fear that motivates my activities as an adult. Are these marketers playing on these kids fears? Are they trying to break down

the normal community of children making them easier targets for their products? I cannot help but to see an insideous side to this whole thing. Thanks to the producers of this show for making me think again.

michael krasowitz
smithtown, ny

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think that the media has gone way too far, especially the music industry. MTV began a station to promote music and its appreciation. Now it has deviated from that and has turned to using teenagers to sell music that is offensive on the most part. It forces teenagers to give up thier individuality and fall prey to the allure of so called "glamour" and "cool." I think something has to be done before this nation turns into one big Jerry Springer show.

nina hamid
bayville, ny

Dear FRONTLINE,

Possibly the most disturbing subject of this topic occurs when you attempt to look forward from the current place that teen society is at. Where there is no room for a modicum of rebellion and individualism, where does one go to act out? Violence, drug use/abuse, promiscuity and hatred can only increase. It is doubtful that due to mainsteaming and spoonfeeding everyone will be fulfilled and content with their existence. Can "teen angst" afford to become more real? How do you help your kids, since "Survivor" has made raising them on a deserted island out of the question.

Ursula Berg
succasunna, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think that what you were trying to do in this show was worthwhile, yet ignored so much about the usual groups of teenagers that are commonly ignored by corporate and commercial America. I was a little perturbed at the fact that gay teens were not mentioned, even when shows such as "Dawson's Creek" had a character who came out on t.v., much to the opposition of the religious right and other groups. As a gay person who graduated only a year ago from high school I still remember feeling like a complete outsider to what was considered to be the norm teenage culture. I think that is, in the end what it is all about, these corporations sell an image, but what happens to the teens who fall through the cracks? Eminem's lyrics, for example attack gays, and wome.Gay men and women are constantly shown as degrading stereotypes on many television stations. Its not exactly plesant to live in a culture which trys to sell you a perfect idea of teenage heterosexuality and conformity. There are plenty of people who could be considered teenagers that don't even watch MTV, who don't understand how anyone could degrade themselves by recreating an image for themselves that they learned on television. I know because my friends and i certanily feel this way. Being a teenager, especilly a teenager who will grow up having to fight for their basic human rights i.e. gay men and women pay taxes and are subject to the draft yet do not by any means have equal protection under the law means rebellion. Its certanily hard to rebel when you are marketed an idea of how to be, act and feel and even fight against all this. Role models are given for "correct" gender and sexual roles constantly. It is not so much the media that i fear, but the conformity and uniformity it engenders.

New Canaan, CT

Dear FRONTLINE,

I watched this report with my parents at my mom's request and i was deeply offended by the content and extremity of the program. In many ways i felt like the producers of the report were trying to tell on all the teens and get their parents mad and suspicious. The program, in my opinion, unfairly represented the teen population by only exhibiting and analyzing the extreme cases of teenagers, and accusing the rest of the teen population of having similar interests and behaviors. The program did not let teens talk enough about marketing and it was more aimed at condemning teen culture. On the up side, we now know that PBS is not in the market for teens.

Louise Hedaya
Great Neck, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

Hello, I am 16 years old, and just watched "Frontline: The Merchants of Cool."

Let me first say that this show is utterly ridiculous. The last words of the show mentioned something about letting kids "find their own way" of standing out, etc. This makes it seem as if we're all robots, following examples of musicians and other "pop-culture" icons.

Whether or not this show show's the opinions of PBS [opinions that rock music, for example, Limp Bizkit, is bad for children] is besides the point. I find it horrible that your broadcast makes it seem that way.

I won't even begin to correct your countless errors about some of the subjects of your show [i.e. Limp Bizkit].

I'm sure you think I'm just another "brainwashed" kid who follows the mainstream, but let me assure you that I am not. I am merely sticking up for other kids like myself who may have viewed your show, and wanted to change the channel in disgust.

Please, do not broadcast these kinds of shows in the future. They give kids a bad reputation, clearing stating that we "follow what we're told by celebrities," and appear to be nothing more than brainwashed drones.

Thank You.

Dan Gluckman
Franklin Square, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think this whole thing is sick. Can't we have anything that's our own?? Not only that, but all these bands that are popular, why the hell are they popular? They have no talent! I would post the names of some bands that I think are tallented, but I'm afraid someone like AOL Time Warner will come along and offer them some huge sum of money to appear on MTV. I say, let the media create what it wants, but leave my subculture alone.

Southampton, New York

Dear FRONTLINE,

This episode should be required viewing for every student in high school. When you pit the cunning and market know-how of corporate giants up against teen confusion and desire to know who they are and what they want to be at such a fragile age, there is no contest.

Teens are being taken advantage of and manipulated to an astounding degree. Maybe if they saw the process of how things are presented to them to tell them what they want, they can make more informed choices about their lives.

Roberto Martinez
Central Islip, New York

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