Styles Akira
akira [at] usc [dot] edu
Stylés Akira received his B.A. from Pace University, Manhattan in Applied Psychology & Human Relations. He earned his M.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Sociology from St. John’s University in May 2009. His Master's thesis was titled “Technological Advancement and the Artistic Decline of Popular Music”, wherein he examines the cultural ramifications of the widely available use of new-age digital recording techniques and their influence on the ability of the corporate bureaucracy of the recording industry to bypass artistic integrity in favor of visceral marketing appeals. Stylés worked in the recording industry in New York City for a decade prior to pursuing a degree in Communication. He is interested in strategic branding, advertising, mass media effects, cognitive mapping, behavioral economics, consumer culture, class distinction, and social power structures. His current focus includes evaluating the social dynamics of consumer-brand relationships. His most recent work titled 'The Contemporary Aesthetics Project' addresses the notion that the trends and concepts which have driven the evolution of consumer culture have in many ways been derivative of high cultural and intellectual movements predicated upon philosophical contestations for power, which are reconciled through the processes of cultural production and worldmaking.