Conclusion

The marketing of counter-culture may seem harmless, or at most just another dog-eat-dog strategy of companies looking for an easy profit. But the truth is that this practice has worse and longer lasting effects. This practice desensitizes the general public, and especially the younger generations, to revolutionary messages. The focal point of the movement changes. Instead of action, or an active and aggressive form of seeking change, the masses have come to think that by buying clothing and learning the slang, they are in some way promoting change. Of course, once a movement stops aggressively seeking change, it dies. This type of mentality is dangerously complacent and self-centered. If no one stops to think who is selling us our ideas, and more importantly, why do we as a society resort to buying our personalities, then we’re asking for regression. Fear creates a need in people to remain silent and go along with the status quo. It is important that we look for ourselves within ourselves, within others, within history…not within t-shirts.

P icture http://sgthrottle.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/che-guevara-shirt.jpeg

Annotated Bibliography

"Counter Culture." British Library. The British Library Board. 14 Nov 2008 .

An encyclopedia entry about the term “counter-culture”. It defines and gives examples of what counter-culture is and different ways that it is expressed.

Haddow, Douglas. "Hipster: The Dead end of Western Civilization." Adbusters 7929 Jul 2008 13 Nov 2008 .

The author talks about his experience with “hipsters” – youth that dress alike and reject “popular culture”. He talks about their so-called rebellion and the fact that it isn’t rebellion at all, just another form of consumerism. The author concludes that hipsters are the result of a detached materialistic western civilization.

Hoover, Michael. "Starbucks: Selling out the Counter-Culture?." MRZine 27 Jul 2005 5 Nov 2008 .

The author talks about what tactics the Starbucks company has used in the present and in the past to sell its product and image. He shows how the “counter-culture” image that Starbucks has is not a coincidence, but the result of deliberate marketing tactics to create an image that would appeal to young consumers.

Mishra, Guarav. "Hipsters: Counter-Culture or Consumer Group?." [Weblog Guaravonomics Blog] 1 Aug 2008. 5 Nov 2008 .

The article identifies hipsters as a consumer group rather than a trend. The author compiles various quotes and articles that have to do with this idea. He calls them “ironic hipsters” because although they claim to hate the “mainstream”, hipsters are essentially just that.

Sherman. Lauren. "The New Counterculture's Buying Power," 10 Jan 2008. Forbes. 16 Nov 2008 http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/01/hipster-buying-power-forbeslife-cx_ls_1001style.html

The author talks about the buying power of “hipsters” and how some companies are targeting this generation of consumers especially. The new generation of consumers is one of the biggest yet, with an estimated 2 trillion dollars of buying power. However, the author says that this group has not yet really come into their full buying power since they don’t yet have access to “real money”.

Introduction

Every generation has its counter-culture - a group that rejects and opposes the accepted values of mainstream culture. ("Counter Culture") These are the people that are unsatisfied with the way things are, that disagree with the society that they were born into. One of the most famous examples of counter-culture is the hippy movement in the United States in the mid-60s and 70s. It was one of the largest and most outspoken movements ever witnessed in the US that went against “accepted society”. Counter-culture movements are almost always a reaction against the practices and values of the bourgeois.

However, these movements are not made to have long lifespans. They are either not strong enough to survive, or (as it happens most of the time) are accepted and adopted by society. Of course, the versions of these movements that society accepts are watered-down and most often stripped of their original purpose. As soon as popular culture takes any movement and turns it into a stereotype (usually by making it seem ridiculous, or changing it completely to better fit their needs) they make it so that it is easy to digest for the general public. As soon as the general public accepts it, then they can start dealing with it in the terms that society most understands – money.

The marketing of counter-culture is not a new idea. It is a tried and true marketing technique that is highly successful. Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic – these are all businesses that have made themselves wealthy by basing themselves in this marketing technique. Even companies that seemingly have nothing to do with counter-culture use it in their advertisements to try to get the youth market into buying their products. One of the largest growing group of consumers is what is known as the "hipster"(Mishra). This is the growing trend of self-centered youth that's only use for counter-culture is in terms of fashion. As Haddow puts it in his article, "We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. So while hipsterdom is the end product of all prior countercultures, it’s been stripped of its subversion and originality."

Right now, it is trendy to look like a revolutionary and wear a shirt with Guevara emblazoned across it, although it is not necessarily important to believe in the values of what wearing a shirt like this would seem to imply. It is interesting to note that this is a cycle. Once something becomes accessible and accepted by society, it is no longer “counter-culture” and a new counter-culture will emerge in response. It is important that people become aware of the techniques used by big business to silence us into complacency with the status quo, because it is the only way that we can break these cycles and hopefully avoid having future progressive movements turned into cash profit.

Stream of Conciousness

Buy and by we can sell the whole world to a mob of starving consumers looking to own themselves there’s nothing sadder than a blank screen so I will fill it with an image that is easily recognizable and even if I don’t know what or who it is I know that’s what I want I want to bury it all in my closet in terms I can understand like free flowing thought turned into cold hard cash that flows just the same into someone’s hands whos? I don’t really care as long as it’s there guiding me to oblivion of consumerism which is the only answer to chaos the only answer is to speak in your language because my working language doesn’t seem to translate dollars and euros pesos y libras is all the same word like self-imprisonment keep going towards the future keep it for yourself discard it when you use it a big rotting heap of ideas and voices calling from somewhere it could be you or your past but it doesn’t seem like you recognize it. So what? So where is the big after-party (after the show, after the blow and the ecstasy of finding yourself after having been kidnapped by that freak show) Now you question whether or not the price is even worth it, you weigh it against not knowing where you’re going and that never feels good so you take it even though it’s a stained hand me down that smiles when it should frown give me the mona lisa so I can eat her while I wear Buddha on my sleeve and a certified real soldiers bag that came from some fight for something or maybe this face that they told me was once someone is really no one anymore or maybe it has always been no one and belonged to the masses and that I can understand because the same thing happens to my reflection

Hardcore Hipster

This consumer trend has its origins in the underground music genres of metal and punk rock. Once the preferred forms of expression of a generation frustrated with and rebelling from society, now more commonly associated with the trivial preoccupations of the young bourgeois. They roam together in large groups photographically documenting their every movement and express their unending dissatisfaction with life and the world through online communities. This hipster can be typically spotted with any combination of body piercings, strange hair cuts, black themed clothing, heavy eye-makeup, and a dour expression. Look for the Hot Topic tags invariably hanging from one of their 20 articles of clothing to identify them.

Earthy Hipster

This hipster looks to disguise their consumer preoccupations with more earth-friendly trends. Their watered-down views can be traced back to the original mindset of what was once a counter-culture by listening to the music of Bob Marley, who at one time was the voice of this revolutionary sect. Although their clothing style was originally the mark of creative lower-class seamstresses and tailors who eschewed the more common, more expensive popular brands, it is now the mark of “refined taste” as it now has its very own designer name (Valija Gitana) with price tags that only the privileged can match. What was once the every-day clothing of a people who shared ideals rooted in peace, closeness with nature and solidarity of man, has become the party-clothes of the fashion divas.

The Revolutionary

Evolving from a bloody history of revolutions in South and Central America, Cuba and Chine, this hipster is possibly the most acute personification of irony in present times. Typified by the untrimmed beards and long hair hailing back to those of militant revolutionaries in the 60s and 70s, liberal use of red arm bands and five pointed stars, heavy combat jackets, and shirts emblazoned with the face of the dead Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. If ever there was a prostitution of a set of ideals, this certainly is it. Although it seems painfully ludicrous, these young bourgeois remain ignorant to the point that they don’t even realize that they contradict themselves. Instead of adhering to the communist anti-upper class anti-consumerism ideals that el Che has come to symbolize, they remain blind to the fact that they are the people who these movements aim to educate and that the owners of the factories that churn out identical shirts every minute are the people who these movements aim to destroy. A perfect example of what was once a counter-culture being mutated into another corporate venture.

Short poem

My money is my mouth

My kingdom for a personality

Sell it to me so I can buy my reality

It’s on my shirt but not on my mind, that’s fine

Now my brain is free to predict the next fashion craze

It’s not a maze; it’s a jungle out there

A revolutionary movement to decide what to wear

Recipe

Counter – Culture Soup

Ingredients

The main ingredients to this recipe are entirely up to the chef’s discretion. They should be elements taken from counter-culture movements a little past their prime, since counter-cultures in their prime are much too bitter for most. To make these flavors agreeable to popular society, take only the most easily digested elements such as music or clothing (here is where the tastes of the chef come into play). Discard the ideals and beliefs; leaving the barest hint is fine, but too much will certainly ruin the soup.

Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded dollar bills

Procedure

- Boil a large pot of water

- When water is boiling, add counter-culture elements

- Maintaining water level, continue cooking all elements until they are soft enough to dissolve into one homogenized mixture.

- Let simmer until the flavor is agreeable

- Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with the shredded dollar bills to give it capitalist flavor

Serving suggestions

Serve with a large Starbucks coffee for those cold winter nights, or with a cold mocha latte for a refreshing power lunch.

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