What is 'counterculture' in 2013?

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Zebra

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I was thinking about cultural movements in the latter half of the 20th century earlier today and wanted to hear what you folks had to say about where counterculture stands presently, in relation to what it once was.

Is 'counterculture' even a thing at this point in American society? What qualities does it possess now, if you think it does?

Is there any music or fashion styles that can be attached to it, or has the internet diversified things so much that we cannot point to any continuous set of styles as being counterculture? Or have we simply gotten past those sorts of superficial forms of cultural rebellion and are sticking with rebellious thoughts and politics only?

Millennials are clearly very distant from their elders as far as politics go, yet we've largely adapted the same fashion styles as they had. Is this progress, or are we losing the chance to form an era-defining, cultural visual identity?

I would love to hear your thoughts.
 
Culture has become too fragmented (and really has been for about two decades now, at least) for one distinct counterculture to arise. We have dozens now, in response to dozens of "cultures", and then you have all the remixes and remixes of those remixes
 
Culture has become too fragmented (and really has been for about two decades now, at least) for one distinct counterculture to arise. We have dozens now, in response to dozens of "cultures", and then you have all the remixes and remixes of those remixes

I think you're right.

I have to wonder if something is lost because of this, though. Like, how valuable was the communal experience of well-defined counterculture movements? Are we missing out on something by not having a generational bond, or did past generations miss out by not having as many options as we do? With culture being more fragmented, is that a net loss or net gain for us when all aspects of it are weighed against each other?
 
Culture has become too fragmented (and really has been for about two decades now, at least) for one distinct counterculture to arise.

Since when has there ever been a single distinct counterculture?

Hippies, punks, bikers, skinheads, train kids, etc all still exist to an extent. Yeah, you're not going to find a lot of beatniks still bopping about, but nothing lasts forever.
 
I was a loner with only a few friends growing up. That was counter culture enough for me back then. We didn't do what everybody else did, wear the same clothes, whatever. Just whatever felt comfortable to us.

I think that's what counter culture is in an era of a thousand different cultures - not really giving a fuck about any of them.
 
I think Hipsters is the clear answer. They even have that counter-culture hallmark of being the default label people slap on behaviors they do not understand.
 
Nothing. The counterculture of the late 60s was a critique of the mainstream culture of the time. There is nothing similar that is as large and noticeable as that was.

Also, I don't think this is really true:

Millennials are clearly very distant from their elders as far as politics go, yet we've largely adapted the same fashion styles as they had. Is this progress, or are we losing the chance to form an era-defining, cultural visual identity?
 
Wait, what? I've never heard of this one.

Dirty, migrant youths who travel the countryside on freight trains or in shitty VW bus. Usually come in packs of 6-8, often accompanied by a couple mangy dogs. Also known as travellers or travelin' kids. Sort of what happens when you cross a hippie with a hobo.

3972330270_bddc583295.jpg
 

I think Hipsters is the clear answer. They even have that counter-culture hallmark of being the default label people slap on behaviors they do not understand.

But that identity seems less about countering the past and more about embracing it. It's a movement that seems more content with adapting what came before them rather than trying to shed it from themselves entirely to create something new.

Also, I don't think this is really true:

No? I might just be viewing that from my own bubble.
 
But that identity seems less about countering the past and more about embracing it. It's a movement that seems more content with adapting what came before them rather than trying to shed it from themselves entirely to create something new.

They are rejecting the obsession with technological modernism which has been a defining force in the broader culture since the mass adoption of the Internet began - i.e. the Information Revolution.

It's similar to the rise of Romanticism in opposition to the Industrial Revolution. Both movements included a veneration of the past and a value system that equated simplicity with good. Interestingly, hipsterism does not seem to include the same emphasis on sensitivity and emotional expression valued in Romanticism; I suspect that this is because this was the focus of the previous dominant youth counter-culture movement, Emo.
 
Dirty, migrant youths who travel the countryside on freight trains or in shitty VW bus. Usually come in packs of 6-8, often accompanied by a couple mangy dogs. Also known as travellers or travelin' kids. Sort of what happens when you cross a hippie with a hobo.

3972330270_bddc583295.jpg
I can never tell if people sitting on the side of the road are legit homeless or are like these guys.
 
Nothing. The counterculture of the late 60s was a critique of the mainstream culture of the time. There is nothing similar that is as large and noticeable as that was.

Even true counterculture in the 60s lasted for all of five seconds before everyone had bell bottoms and a minibus. Anything "cool" in America is immediately adopted and commodified by the larger culture and no longer seen as subversive.
 
Dirty, migrant youths who travel the countryside on freight trains or in shitty VW bus. Usually come in packs of 6-8, often accompanied by a couple mangy dogs. Also known as travellers or travelin' kids. Sort of what happens when you cross a hippie with a hobo.

3972330270_bddc583295.jpg

For some reason I read your entire description in Cartman's voice.
 
There are so many strange microcosms of subculture that exist now, a unified counterculture movement is something that cant happen on such a scale again.
 
The defining issue for this generation might be privacy: how much we are willing to trade for convenience (Google/Facebook/Twitter, the phone and internet providers), and safety (the NSA, anti-terrorism programs).

Anyone resisting that, or rejecting it entirely, would be pretty contra-cyclical in my opinion.
 
There are so many strange microcosms of subculture that exist now, a unified counterculture movement is something that cant happen on such a scale again.

There never was a unified counterculture movement in the first place. Just wildly divergent subcultures.
 
Living off the grid or simply being unplugged. Sustainable urban agriculture in one's yard, as opposed to a shitload of useless grass.

Counter culture as an abstract concept is so bizarre right now. You could say someone without Facebook is counter culture.
 
With the advent of the Tea Party these two things have never been more mainstream.

The tea party isn't mainstream, though. It is the counterculture, by rebelling against the more successful moderate liberal culture that elected Obama and has begun the process of bringing gay marriage, recreational marijuana, and trans-awareness into the American legal system.

I'm guessing many Tea Partiers were counterculturalists back in the '60s and 70s.
 
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