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How Counterculture Is Still Relevant Today

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Recommended: The counterculture movement introduction

Counterculture is a term which suggests a resistance to the norm and it has brought about many different types of countercultural movements that strive to bring about social change, alternative views, values and lifestyles. New movements are taking place in todays society where protests on things such as government policy and anti war campaigns show a resistance to the norm and views of the past. As a result of the new digital age these movements can find their voice and influence society through social media using sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter as a few examples. Countercultural groups and movements have existed throughout many eras including the 1960's and 70's. A number of examples of these groups include the flower power …show more content…

Counterculture through music was expressed especially through the lyrics of bands like The Who, The Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd who all had their own identity and views on society. I intend to look at a few examples of song lyrics and interviews by these bands to show how counterculture existed during the 1960's and 70's and I will also look at some more modern ways in which counterculture is relevant today through social media and the …show more content…

He had a plan to go against the mainstream of society to become successful and to stand out from the mainstream he created a new movement through the dissatisfied youth. Through a meeting with a young group of stylish boys he helped to form the countercultural band The Sex Pistols. the main punk statements were made through music and it was seen as a challenge to commercial music and to record label bosses who were getting rich off the mainstream songs of the era. The punks started to form bands, write their own songs and setup their own shows, they went against the grain doing things their way and rejected the conventional ways of the music industry. It was seen that the singing voice was to be the focus for punk music such as the Sex Pistols anthem song ‘Anarchy in the UK.’ An example of the lyrics of a verse from The Sex Pistols 'Anarchy in the UK' protest song can be seen here Anarchy for the

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Landau aims to discuss how American society used Pollock, Brando and Dean as a counter culture to their already growing bureaucratic and deeply homogenised society, praising them as “rebel heroes” who spoke through action rather than words, redefining the meaning of an “American Hero” and also leading to Abstract Expressionism becoming an artistic manifestation to an emerging subculture called the “Beat Generation”. Landau is

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In this extremely controversial work, Glenn C. Altschuler takes aim on the government’s accusations, the prejudice from the police, and the affect that rock ’n’ roll made in America through the late forties and fifties. Glenn makes many accusations of his own through the way he shifts the momentum of the story from time to time. Through the years back then and now, music has caused many racial and gender controversies. In this book, Glenn explains all these problems and what rock did to start or get of them.

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The first half of the book, Dr. Glenn Altschuler, largely focused on how rock ‘n’ roll and those who wrote and produced it stirred up topics such as race and sexuality. As with any new social or cultural shift, rock ‘n’ roll faced an almost immediate resistance from both religious and fundamentalist extremists. In most cases, it was the same types of people that opposed rock ‘n’ roll also opposed other major social reforms such as racial integration.

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Altschuler discusses media commentator Jeff Greenfield’s opinion about the influences of Rock and Roll on American youth. Greenfield states, “Nothing we see in the counterculture [of the 1960’s], not the clothes, the hair, the sexuality, the drugs, the rejection of the reason, the resort to symbols and magic – none of it is separable from the coming to power in the 1950s of rock and roll music.” He continues with “Brewed in the hidden corners of black American cities, its [Rock-n-Roll] rhythms infected white Americans, seducing them out of the kind of temperate bobby-sox passions out of which Andy Hardy films are spun. Rock and Roll was elemental, savage, dripping with sex; it was just as our parents feared.” (Altschuler, 8) Rock and Roll stood as a powerful alternative to the conformist ideals Americans had valued.

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He, although the punk in-group was against conformity, conformed to the punk standards of unloving sex and natural equality between the sexes. The in-group of punk conformed to its own standards but refused to conform to most of society’s standards. Graffin also explains that punk comes in many different subcultures as he says: “A sixteen year old girl from an affluent religious family who shows up to church with her green Mohawk and FUCK JESUS shirt is punk. But so is a forty-two-year-old biology professor who claims that Charles Darwin’s ideas were wrong.”(20).

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According to Jeffery S. Nevid PhD through the utilization of the humanistic perspective “the 1960’s and 1970’s was a time when many people searched inward to find direction and meaning in their lives”(431). Further more, the humanistic view provides clues as to why people gravitated towards Janis Joplin, and what she represent to them. In uniquely form, there was a definite relationship between the counterculture and the emotions that were elicited from it.

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Look wise, this really set them apart from everyone else during this time. By wearing this style of clothing, they really felt like they fit in, in the punk

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Others just “dropped out” and separated themselves from the mainstream culture through their appearance and lifestyle. Women began to protest about the traditional roles of housewife roles that society had put on them and viewpoints toward sexuality appeared to loosen as they protested. Members of the counterculture were usually known as hippies, shared some beliefs about materialism, technology, and war with the New Left Movement. Hippies would protest against wars such as the Vietnamese War, or they would choose to protest against society by completely leaving it. Many would drop out of school or college to create their idealistic community of peace, love, and harmony.

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Third, the actions of the police historically have been a topic of concern for punk bands. Bands have a different way of expressing their beliefs, but the Subhumans have never been shy about their views. In their song “No” they state, “No, I don’t believe in the police force, police brutality isn’t a dream.” These lyrics were key on the 1980’s as punk shows were always broken up by the police which would result in arrests and members of the punk community in the hospital. This brutality by the police is more present today than ever.

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Next, there is behavior. Punk was created by young people viewing of themselves as “bored working-class youths looking for entertainment, rather than viewing themselves as artists” (Bailey 17). There were changes in behaviors of society such as rebellion, race, drug use, and was seen as an expression of insubordination towards adults (Bailey 17).

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This specific group of people believed in love, peace, and freedom. “Displaying frank new attitudes about drugs and sex, communal lifestyles, and innovations in food, fashion, and music, the counterculture youth of America broke profoundly with almost all values their parents held dear”(FLOWER POWER). For example, hippies experimented in several sexual partners, including those of the same sex. They also did not hold their sexual relations to one specific number, but rather a surplus of a diverse

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In “Subculture: the Unnatural Break” (the sixth chapter from his book Subculture: the Meaning of Style), Dick Hebdige claims that subcultures represent a rupture between the processes that lead from reality to media representation, challenging therefore the codes of language and discourse and losing their disruptive power once they get assimilated. The reaction to the punk subculture in Great Britain in the seventies is used to prove Hebdige’s thesis. The idea of social order is identified with language and discourse. The codes that shape language are often violated by members of subcultures such as punk.

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Without Rock and Roll, many genres of music would never have emerged, such as: garage rock, pop rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock. Although rock no longer rules popular music, the styles of the 1960’s still appeal to the ears of those born long after. The utopian frenzy of rock defined the music of that era, and to this day continues to structure the music we call Rock and Roll

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Over the last few decades, the world has witnessed the evolution of many different aspects of popular cultures, such as movies, technology, music, and fashion. Although the medium of Pop Culture has a lot to do with whether or not it actually causes change or if it just reflects on what has taken place. The general trend is that Pop Culture is utilized to reflect changes in people’s attitudes and beliefs, and only in rare instances does it actually cause significant changes. Movies in the 1970s and 80s are prime examples of how popular culture reflects on what is going on in society at the time, however, technological advancements in the 1990s is an anomalous example of when popular culture has caused changes in society.

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