5 ms·

What a strange feeling to see street corners you know so well, from a much more wild youth when they were just a little bit more grimy but admittedly not as gri

What a strange feeling to see street corners you know so well, from a much more wild youth when they were just a little bit more grimy but admittedly not as grimy as the generations before me who can grumble even further- what a strange feeling to see them turn into branded vehicles for the wealthy to pat themselves on the back and feel like they are contributing to culture.

toyg 4y ago
Strategically coopting countercultures is how consumer-based capitalism has become unassailable. Humans will pay any price to feel like they belong.
- batch12 4y ago
  It is also how culture moves on. Nobody counterculture wants to be part of the mainstream 'underground'. The new, interesting stuff will move somewhere else and this area will be a vanilla shadow of what it once was. Especially cringeworthy to me were the pictures of mural-graffiti overlayed with a repeating hashtag.
- Spivak 4y ago
  > Strategically coopting countercultures Unless you actually think there's literal evil mustache-twirling going on there's a much simpler explanation -- the people who were a part of that counterculture are now the establishment and, like everyone else, romanticize when they were angsty in their teens and twenties. It's why Guns N' Roses is suburban backyard BBQ pasta salad music now. You're right that people will pay money to belong but this isn't a example of it, this is people paying money for nostalgia. All counterculture has an expiration date since you can't pass it down to your kids. If you could it would defeat the whole point.
  - toyg 4y ago
    It has little or nothing to do with age, "selling out" begins as soon as culture is packaged as consumable goods. You write a book, it sells well, you're now wealthy and invested in maintaining the system you railed against a minute ago. Meanwhile, others will want to be like you, so will start packaging and selling their output; and consumers will continue to pay for the feeling of belonging to your cultural sphere. Same for music and songs, video and film, and so on. Very few people really ever opt out of these mechanisms. At a macro level, consumer society will automatically fagocitate any cultural output - because to experience culture is to consume it, and guess what the system is specialised in? Producing, selling, and refining at infinitum, anything that can be consumed. Everything else is just the natural outcome of this phenomenon.
AndyMcConachie 4y ago
> For £456 a night and upwards, you can stay like a rock star in ‘session rooms’ pre-vandalised with curated graffiti At some point the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail through the window of these places.
- z9znz 4y ago
  > the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail through the window of these places I strongly disagree. That just gives them an excuse for why their stupid venture failed. They blame some other group. It's much better to see it fail entirely on its own. The real musicians and audience will just find a new home. Times change, people migrate, etc.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  The burnt out rooms will be available for extra £ or used as an art installation for visitors to ogle at.
- paganel 4y ago
  Not condoning violence by any means, but truth be told that would be very situationist, i.e. quite artsy.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  > At some point the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail they are desparate for attention and cultural significance, something like that would put them on the map
- Karellen 4y ago
  It does feel very "15 million merits" - finding something actually raw and authentic, and then coopting the surface aesthetic of it to sell bland corporate shit. Note to anyone in corporate management - if you watch that Black Mirror episode and think that it's one of the few with a happy ending, you are the baddies. Also, from the article - "grassroots". I'd have LOL'd if I hadn't just died inside.
- rasz 4y ago
thriftwy 4y ago
Well, haven't you explicitly agreed to replace everything you love with a sterile copy of it bearing a hefty price tag when you have adopted pre-distressed jeans en masse?

toyg 4y ago

Strategically coopting countercultures is how consumer-based capitalism has become unassailable. Humans will pay any price to feel like they belong.

batch12 4y ago
It is also how culture moves on. Nobody counterculture wants to be part of the mainstream 'underground'. The new, interesting stuff will move somewhere else and this area will be a vanilla shadow of what it once was. Especially cringeworthy to me were the pictures of mural-graffiti overlayed with a repeating hashtag.
Spivak 4y ago
> Strategically coopting countercultures Unless you actually think there's literal evil mustache-twirling going on there's a much simpler explanation -- the people who were a part of that counterculture are now the establishment and, like everyone else, romanticize when they were angsty in their teens and twenties. It's why Guns N' Roses is suburban backyard BBQ pasta salad music now. You're right that people will pay money to belong but this isn't a example of it, this is people paying money for nostalgia. All counterculture has an expiration date since you can't pass it down to your kids. If you could it would defeat the whole point.
- toyg 4y ago
  It has little or nothing to do with age, "selling out" begins as soon as culture is packaged as consumable goods. You write a book, it sells well, you're now wealthy and invested in maintaining the system you railed against a minute ago. Meanwhile, others will want to be like you, so will start packaging and selling their output; and consumers will continue to pay for the feeling of belonging to your cultural sphere. Same for music and songs, video and film, and so on. Very few people really ever opt out of these mechanisms. At a macro level, consumer society will automatically fagocitate any cultural output - because to experience culture is to consume it, and guess what the system is specialised in? Producing, selling, and refining at infinitum, anything that can be consumed. Everything else is just the natural outcome of this phenomenon.

AndyMcConachie 4y ago

> For £456 a night and upwards, you can stay like a rock star in ‘session rooms’ pre-vandalised with curated graffiti At some point the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail through the window of these places.

z9znz 4y ago
> the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail through the window of these places I strongly disagree. That just gives them an excuse for why their stupid venture failed. They blame some other group. It's much better to see it fail entirely on its own. The real musicians and audience will just find a new home. Times change, people migrate, etc.
bigDinosaur 4y ago
The burnt out rooms will be available for extra £ or used as an art installation for visitors to ogle at.
paganel 4y ago
Not condoning violence by any means, but truth be told that would be very situationist, i.e. quite artsy.
ClumsyPilot 4y ago
> At some point the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail they are desparate for attention and cultural significance, something like that would put them on the map
Karellen 4y ago
It does feel very "15 million merits" - finding something actually raw and authentic, and then coopting the surface aesthetic of it to sell bland corporate shit. Note to anyone in corporate management - if you watch that Black Mirror episode and think that it's one of the few with a happy ending, you are the baddies. Also, from the article - "grassroots". I'd have LOL'd if I hadn't just died inside.
rasz 4y ago

thriftwy 4y ago

Well, haven't you explicitly agreed to replace everything you love with a sterile copy of it bearing a hefty price tag when you have adopted pre-distressed jeans en masse?