Counter Culture (Exercise 10 Part 3)

Counter Culture as you'd have it is a term used to describe any sub-culture who's values go against mainstream culture. A Counter Cultural movement manifests itself through a dissatisfaction with the status quo, and leads to a group of people coming out with a new perspective, they believe in anything that goes against mainstream culture. If I had to define it using the present day I would be at a loss. The reason for this is simply because there is no longer one kind of mainstream culture, sure you have America with all the glamour, materialism, reality television and pop starts, and that hasn't changed significantly in the larger scheme of things over the last 40 years or so. I don't want to say that A Counter Cultural movement like the American Hardcore Punks of the 1970's are irrelevant now, all the values they hold still stick today, the only problem is that movements like punk are now much more universally accepted, especially the look and maybe not so much the attitude. As former member of Pennywise, Jim Lindberg says "You can be the most hard core crusty gutter punk, but in this day and age if you don't want to have anything to do with corporations you'll pretty much never go outside". Corporations have been a major driving force behind the popularity of not only Punk Rock but all kinds of music. As far as Counter Culture goes, all movements start out underground, and slowly attract a following, and if the movement has enough depth to it then it will inevitably be embraced by the masses. Corporations eventually help spread the word by sponsoring tours, gigs and showings. Vans, a multi-million dollar enterprise began sponsoring the 'Warped Tour', a Punk Rock oriented show in the early mid 1990's and there has been multiple views on whether it was a good thing or not for the values and beliefs of the performers involved. Some said that it went completely agains what the believed which was Punk Rock was never meant to be cool, it never meant to be mainstream, while others embraced the Corporations saying that It's the most punk thing you can do to take their money, and thanks to the corporations the music is still out there. Inge Johansson from the International(Noise) Conspiracy says "It's easier for us to use the tools and the channels that the capitalist industry is offering us for free than try to do it ourselves, and not reach as many people as those greedy bastards". I'll go into more detail about Punk when I finally write about it in the final part of this exercise. For now, here are some pictures of what could be considered counter-culture:

Hippie Movement:

Psychedelic Posters

Punk Rock