So, I admit it. I only gave half the story in my previous article. (“Wake Up Neo: There Is No Counterculture, You Twit.”) It is true, the world is full of underground posers, sharpening their sticks for the coming revolution against an opposition that doesn't exist, artistes who haven't done a lick of real artistic work in a decade, who use their supposed underground artistic cred to get them in bed with whomever they can scam, would-be rock stars that think they are evolving music by turning it into a vapid fashion show, and old school DIY punks who haven't yet realized that their ideological stance, though noble in its way, simply limits them.
But there are also daring innovators and experimenters, willing to risk all to contribute their perspective to the ongoing narrative that is our collective heritage. So how can I say “there is no counterculture?”
I can say it, and mean it, because these people would ask you what you're smoking, if you asked what it's like, being a part of “The Counterculture.” There is no Grand Unified Scene.
These innovators I'm speaking of are the people who push their own boundaries, and the boundaries of the culture around them enough that they are simply classified as “counterculture” or “revolutionary” because the culture, and the media, doesn't really know what to make of them. (My hope is, you could very well be one yourself.)
This follow up article proposes some positive solutions and suggestions to the issues snarkily proposed there.
(JIVE magazine info.)
