What distinguishes a counter culture from a subculture is an element of resistance, and I intend to explore how Generation X Americans may evaluate the media to promote ideologies that run counter to mainstream norms and values. I'll look at the process of "culture jamming" as used by such outlets as Adbusters to resist consumerism. What communication strategies are used, and are they effective? Similarly, I'll look at what makes "subtervizing" (employing the use of anti-advertisements) appealing to business and their audiences. Are such tactics useful because they encourage activism, or do they rely only on a misguided sense of exclusivity to promote further consumerism?
To parcel the two strategies apart, I'll follow what happens when exclusive motifs of counter culture groups become embedded into larger society. For example, what happened when the heroin chic model, a supposed antithesis to current standards of beauty, rose in popularity? To this end, I'll take an analytical approach, drilling down into the characteristics that define an "anti-establishment aesthetic" (Harold, 1999, p.66) and determining what these characteristics reveal about the counter cultural groups using them.
Ultimately, I hope to uncover what role, if any, counter cultures play in shaping current society. Do they provide a means of critically evaluating established norms, as the Women's or Civil Rights movements in the sixties? If not promoting large-scale activism, could counter cultures be linked to more individual, psychological developments of self? And, for those of us who categorize ourselves as mainstream, why should we care about counter cultures at all?
Reference:
Harold, C. (1999) Tracking heroin chic: The abject body reconfigures the rational argument. Argumentation and Advocacy. (36), 65-76.
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