My first encounter with the High School Musical franchise was with my sister at home on a hot summer day. Funnily enough, we watched the second film before watching the first and third films - if you ask me to sing and perform all the songs from High School Musical 2, I probably can. Needless to say, the franchise was a huge part of my childhood - one that I cherish deeply for the memories it gave me. However, I now also wonder why this franchise made such a huge impact on my childhood. It was certainly “not normal” back then to dream of summertime with school friends at work. On my side of the globe, summer was a time to do extra homework. It was a time away from your schoolmates but not away from school/education. Naturally, we aspire to have that freedom that comes with American teenage summers. Everyone I knew from school loved the franchise.

So… “How did we get from the top of the world to the bottom of the heap?”

High School Musical 2 is a piece of fabulous trash. It is a product of corporate media that conveniently markets childhood and/or teenage fever as the epitome of life. When summertime comes, life becomes “bigger and better and best” because we are no longer confined to a school timetable - the luxury of having time to and for yourself. Sharpay and Ryan Evans, the children of Lava Springs Country Club, perfectly embody that luxury as they retreat to their family’s “fabulous” business. In their world, the perfect summer includes golfing, lounging by the pool, a trip to the spa, enjoying imported food and beverages etc. In other words, a perfect summer is not perfect without the lavish consumption of services and material goods. Interestingly, their ideal summer activities are not too dissimilar from the rest of their classmates. But since most of the East High student body do not benefit enormously from their parents’ wealth, their consumption power is significantly weaker than the Evans’s. Here, a logic surfaces: to achieve your dream summer, you must increase your consumption power by working.

The mentioned contrast between the Evans siblings and the East High student body creates a surprisingly cohesive narrative that encourages its viewers to have material aspirations. With songs like “Work it” in the mix, perhaps the film is a prime demonstrator of how youth should utilise the interim period to increase their consumption power in order to purchase a ticket to the dream summer. Giroux and Pollock state that the “youth now inhabit a cultural landscape in which they can increasingly recognise themselves only in terms preferred by the market.” (79) A sad but true reality. In my hometown, those who could afford to watch Disney dreamed of being a Disney child. With screen media becoming more and more accessible, naturally Disney’s capitalist discourse infiltrates the minds of youngsters. And so it seems that Disney’s global distribution model facilitates the universalisation of American childhood ideals.

Growing up is realising that the teenage summer fever is part of a manifestation of America’s cultural imperialism. It is realising that a harmless, fun summer film is equally a cultural political tool for media conglomerates to assert their position as the world’s best. The Lotus Springs Resort is no longer a vibrant fantasyland where people reset. It is a place that gives the impression of relaxation but requires the consumer to possess a certain financial caliber to access the experience. The High School Musical franchise is a teaching machine that actively promotes corporate pedagogy in which children develop a sense of self through material consumption. It is a process of repetition and moulding a mindset/logic which is executed in a story precisely about the learning curves teenagers go through. Imagine the habits, taste, and personalities one develops from repeatedly watching the film(s). It even holds the power that influences the hipster and indie fashion trends in the 2010s, just a few years after the release of High School Musical 2, which I will refrain from further discussion as it is a whole other topic in itself.

“Disney is a teaching machine that not only exerts influence over young people in the United States but also wages an aggressive campaign to peddle its political and cultural influence overseas.” (77) To this day, I still consume corporate media, specifically that of Disney's since its global expansion has made it inevitable to come across. Its cultural political influence has now become an apparent yet tainted reality of the coming-of-age experience. Fortunately, Disney culture was not my bible to navigate childhood/teenage life, and in extension lessons learnt from Disney’s screenworks have not seeped into my adulthood too much (emphasis on “too much”). But, no matter how much I reflect critically on the viewing experience, there will always be a part of me that yearns for the nostalgic wonders of the American teenage summer.