Glaring neon lights, glamorous billboards, internationally-known chain stores are the notions of “The Crossroad of the World” – Times Square. Name whatever fashion or makeup stores you want, they are all just around the corner. Artists and performers are standing right next to you. It is so true that no one would ever miss this spot while visiting New York. After our tour in Times Square, we found that Times Square is not only an ideal place for shopping malls and performances, but also a place contains varieties of American cultures, both positive and negative.
Doubtlessly, Times Square is a place represents consumerism and competition. Consumerism is not necessary referring to the downside. Moderate consumerism is essential for a country to search for perfection and improvement, which America always strives for. This is the tool to push them to succeed. Starting from 1980s, Times Squares gradually changes from a quiet street without a shop to one of the busiest districts nowadays.
When we walked along, multifarious neon lights and billboard were competing to catch our attention. The bigger, the more colorful and the more shining they are, the more successful they are. We know that this is the only way for them to stand out from the clustered stores. Moreover, with comparisons and competition, companies continuously evaluate their products and introduce innovative and customized products to the market so as to be more competitive. This helps boosting economic growth and keeps the nation in improving.
Consumerism also works as a stimulus to motivate general citizens to work harder for materialistic desire and improve their living standard. Unfortunately, parts of the Americans fail to hold the balance and treat consuming as the only way to pursue happiness. They progressively become materialistic and money-oriented, which many have criticized for a long time.
Apart from being a well-known place for shopping, Times Square is an area for artistic performances. Just a junction away, it is the gathering point of plays, musicals and shows – Broadway. This is also regarded as the worldwide leader in stage entertainment. Most of the prominent musicals, including The Lion King, Chicago and Mamma Mia are still there waiting for us. Before we actually watched The Lion King, we did question ourselves was that worth to pay nearly USD 100 for a musical.
But the answer is a definitely ‘Yes’ after went out of the theatre. The cast, the props, the music and stage production are all out of our expectation. Within Broadway, we understand how American valued this big-scale of arts. Both the producers and audiences are willing to pay and spend time on developing such an enormous production.
In addition to the large scale arts performance, Times Square is also a land of opportunity for street performers. Body-painted performers, guitar players, spray paint artists and dancers are desperate to entertain Times Square visitors. Ironically, grass-root or small scale art performances nowadays are always undervalued in the capitalistic world, which has a big contrast to the Broadway performances. Hardly could they find a platform to show their talent. This famous public area turns out to be a desirable stage for them. No fee, no restriction and no time limit, as long as they are willing to stay, they can share their performances. From our observation, surrounding pedestrians would stop a while to take pictures with them and appreciate their efforts and talents. This clearly shows it is a showbiz area for them to search for their American dream. They may sometimes later become rich and famous just like the Naked Cowboy and the spray paint artist, Samadov Mushfig.
Needless to say, Times Square represents modern and fashionable. Somehow it is too modern that we can barely find traces of the past when we walked by. From our brief interview, we found that most tourists and even locals do not know Times Square was once regarded as a dangerous neighborhood during The Great Depression. We deduced that many traits of historical events are hidden or even erased because of the fast-moving economic-focused development in the past few decades. However, there is one thing that has not changed over time – the over 100 years New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square. Since 1904, people started gathering there for the event. It has developed from an event only for America to the most famous way to usher in the New Year in the world. The significant ‘Ball Drop’ celebration has become the symbol of Times Square countdown and also the only one witness the change of this place.
To sum up, although Times Square is located in a dynamic city, people are trying their best to create collective memory by any means. We believed that part of the collective memories they created will not be faded out over time, and thus contribute to the culture and history of Times Square.
nycbostongirls 