What has happened to the counter culture youth?

[Michelle]

It seems like that the counter culture youth is dying. The only rock song that was a number 1 hit this year was "Hey Soul Sister." In the last half of the 20th century there was a cultural revolution whre kids wanted to do there own thing more. Now these kids are sitting around watching MTV, teasing there hair, and posting pictures on facebook. What has happened?

[Lynn]

Thank God it's dying. Now THAT's real cr*p and rock'n'roll sucks big time.

[Bryan]

A couple of things come to mind.

1. The times you are talking about included huge numbers of young people which is not the case now.

2 The Vietnam war was a galvanizing factor as it caused large numbers of young people to be drafted to fight it.


That is what happened, man. The yippies grew up got jobs, had kids and now are planning to roll on into retirement on those 401 K's. Never trust anyone under 55.

[PoohBearPenguin]

Isn't counter culture all about avoiding the mainstream? If a counter culture song hit #1, then they're doing something very very wrong.

Sure, in the 50s, just listening to rock&roll made you a bit of a "rebel" but now? Heck, you've got grandparents going to rock concerts because they WERE the rebel teenagers back in the day. Now they're just looking to relive some old memories.

Meanwhile, some things never change. Sure, the telephone gave way to IM/texting, and now Facebook, but the topics are exactly the same - clothing, boys, and who-likes-who.

Mainstream media isn't covering it - that would sort of defeat the purpose now wouldn't it?

Really, by the time the mainstream media picks up on something it calls a new trend or fad, it's most likely been around for years and years already in the counter culture. I remember when mainstream media started covering things like D&D, video games, and anime - calling each of them "new and alarming trends in today's youth" - which is exactly what they said about rock&roll and comic books, and just about everything else you can think of.

Heck by the time the mainstream media started talking about Magic The Gathering, the majority of my friends and I had long since sold off our cards and had moved on to other things...some of which the mainstream media STILL hasn't discovered yet.

Oh trust me, the counter culture is still there and doing well. You just have to know how to find it.