Quote:
Originally Posted by
Xericx 
I have my own theories and it relates to the personification of extreme wealth, gaudy jewelry and a lifestyle of jets, platinum rings from hiphop/rap artists. Couple that with the young urban market desiring and objectifying that ideal, so they try at all lengths to one-up each other (including fakes, huge labels/brand whoring, etc). Then when the rappers see that normal people are getting what they have, they have to one-up it to a more ridiculous level. They always have to be above the consumer. Who had the biggest house, the bigger car, the bigger wheels, the more diamonds in their watch. Started in the mid 90s with the "Mafioso" type of hiphop where all rappers were bragging about Versace. Corporate America jumped on this, coined the term "bling" and marketed it to america...only to attempt to get more and more ridiculous in order for the hordes of consumers to lust after artificially created markets. This bled more and more into american culture as time went on and rap became more mainstream. Add to that the sudden influx of Dot-Com wealth, then Real Estate wealth, who lusted after these lifestyles and material objects...then the huge McMansions of poorly constructed, uniform and compartmentalized lifestyles...you had a lot of Nuevo Riche who thought that buying "X" would buy them some class.
Didn't you mean "nouveau riche"?