Why is the youth today so concerned with being hip, grunge, goth, country, ghetto, fashionable, liberal etc?

[Jason]

In this endless search to ultimately "fit in" yet tell yourself at the same time you are unique you are all only conforming more and more. Sure there is nothing wrong with conforming but what gets me is that everyone claims they aren't conforming when they really are. Just be yourself because getting more tattoos doesn't make you unique and wearing those skinny jeans doesn't either neither does sagging your pants, wearing the latest trend, getting piercings or being hipster by acting like your not hipster. So I guess the question is why can't someone listen to metal, dress like a cowboy, wear fashionable jeans, not have tattoos or piercings, vote republican and be a struggling rapper if that is who they actually are without the "unique mainstream" telling them they are fake just because they don't fit into the media's neat little clique? Wouldn't they be more unique then your everyday tattoo covered tight jean wearing emo kid or the vintage wearing hipster who is of course a progressive thinker who rejects mainstream even though they are the definition of mainstream? I'm trying to include all the cliques I can think of but I'm sure some of you will say I'm probably a "blank" and that's why I left it out. Aren't we all a product of our surroundings anyway even if we try to deny it? Unless you were the first to dress as one of these "styles" then aren't you just fitting in?

[BootsOnTheGround]

It's been like that forever it's not unique to this youthful generation. You don't recal hippies? Bell bottom jeans? The 50s? There has always been "neat little cliques". It's human nature, we are social creatures. As long as that holds true we are always going to have these fads you talk about. Maybe they won't be everlasting fads. Maybe 20 years from now emo is going to be a distance memory. Who knows what's next. I think it was the 90s people were wearing their jeans backwards.

[Mordent]

Because everyone, whether they are a country listening, church going Republican or a fixie riding, super-indie listening Liberal, thinks that THEY are the real people, the individuals - whereas the other side are mindless sheep. That way your side is easily justified and their side doesn't need to be humanised.