I am reminded of this quote given by John Waters, counterculture filmmaker, to the Wall Street Journal in an interview: "When I was young there were beatniks. Hippies. Punks. Gangsters. Now you're a hacktivist. Which I would probably be if I was 20. Shuttin' down MasterCard. But there's no look to that lifestyle! Besides just wearing a bad outfit with bad posture. Has WikiLeaks caused a look? No! I'm mad about that. If your kid comes out of the bedroom and says he just shut down the government, it seems to me he should at least have an outfit for that." (source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304636404577298132546958436 )
I do find myself wondering about whether we are seeing the death of subcultures in contemporary times. It seems that what were once radical and anti-establishment groups have now been generally accepted into everyday culture. "Punk", "goth", "hipster" and "bohemian" are now words you might encounter describing someone's "OOTD" (outfit of the day) rather than cultures around which people center their identities. Perhaps one of the reasons subcultures seem to be dying out is that consumerism generally makes it much easier to co opt aesthetics that once had to be carefully constructed by older generations. With websites like Amazon, AliBaba and TaoBao, one can easily get a Lolita outfit, Goth overcoat, thigh-high boots and all the pins and patches you can fit on a backpack with minimal fuss. Anger and defiance seemed to have turned into fashion statements and people have to work a lot harder to shock society now. It's not a pleasant thought, but sadly I wonder if the closest we might have to a subculture right now (if you look for the same traits as traditional subcultures) could arguably be the MAGA hat-wearing right-wing Americans as they have - an easily identifiable visual indicator linking them to their group (Red MAGA hats) - a want to defy/overthrow the government and reject mainstream thinking
- a propensity to use dress code and accessories to make the general public uncomfortable (open carry firearms, t-shirts and bumper stickers with aggressive slogans etc.)
I don't really have a conclusion here, I might come back to this after giving it more thought.
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