We’ve all seen the documetaries and heard our teachers ramble on about counterculture groups challenging mainstream society. The beats, the hippies, the Black Panthers, the goths and punks were all groups that had important, revolutionary ideas – or at least some bitching fashion trends. But while we applaud their idealism and possibly even dream of being part of an anti-establishment movement ourselves, would that sort of thing really happen today? In a world of blogs, MySpace posts for all the world to see and companies like MTV and Hot Topic packaging and marketing cookie
cutter “edge” for consumers worldwide, can a true counterculture movement happen in modern day society?

I don’t think it’s possible for there to be a counterculture movement today because anything counterculture just becomes a trend, which then gets capitalized on. It’ll just be in Vice magazine next month.”
[Greta Weiss, 20]

“Yes and no. Something like the internet makes (a counterculture movement) seem like it might be possible. But at the same time, with the internet, we’re just overloaded with information. I don’t see how it could be possible to organize that information and actually get people inspired.”
[Sarah Rogers, 26]

“Counterculture is actually fashionable right now, which is the opposite of something going against the grain, something adventurous and almost rebellious. In today’s society, with this being a post-modern time, and with the strength of the media, everything is so reactionary. I’m very cynical about there being a counterculture; I just don’t see it.”
[Ramone Cartwright, 29]

“I think it would take slightly-odder forms. Just like rock n’ roll in the fifties. Elvis and all that was kind of a counterculture movement of black music, but then it turned into the Rolling Stones. Now the same thing’s happened to punk. It seems like there are other bands out there that are just weird enough that mainstream folks don’t like them.”
[Shadow Moyer, 32]

“I think there are still countercultures out there; they’re maybe just a little bit more subtle. Movements that were revolutionary back then are commercialized these days. Punk is still a counterculture, but it’s different than it was in the eighties. When something’s new its more underground, then, over time it gets grabbed by the mainstream.”
[Chad McClymonds, 20]