12/02/2008

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.

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