I quite liked this article about subcultures and the modern internet:
The Internet Didn't Kill Subculture, You Just Won't Find It On Instagram.It comes to many of the same conclusions as you about the end of shock.
Spotted: A young man dressed like the 70s. Long hair, headband, fringed leather jacket, bell bottom jeans. Solid, worn clothes, not a flimsy frat boy costume of a hippy.
Stickers of the ancient cretan labyrinth motif, not sure what it means.
Car with rocker decals.
Reminder that the old subcultural channels of communication keep flowing, sometimes outside of the internet.
Personally my favorite subculture has been old-school goth rock. My new favorite subculture is 'whatever the kids at extinction rebellion are doing'. They have a philosophy, they recognize each other, they don't have a name, I'm not sure they even have a dress code yet. I'm sure soon people will stick a derogatory name and a set of stereotypes on it, start parodying the style and stop listening to the substance. For now it it growing powerfully, unnamed and unchecked.
Any candidate for my new favorite subculture will not be dramatic in costume, as fun as that was. Shock rock is dead. When extremeism is mainstream and anything that generates attention and controversy is stoked and harvested by facebook, it's hardly rebellious or countercultural to print offensive slogans on tshirts. It just doesn't work that way anymore. Some new approach has to be found. (I think some old punk and rock stars just can't turn their minds around to this new reality fast enough, and are succumbing to the sydrome of ending up on 'the wrong side' to their former ideals, because it feels right to them in style, en masse).
I quite liked this article about subcultures and the modern internet:
The Internet Didn't Kill Subculture, You Just Won't Find It On Instagram.It comes to many of the same conclusions as you about the end of shock.
I've slowly come to realize that "normies ruin everything" should be up there with gravity, entropy, death, and taxes.
It's been really sad to see so many punk rockers back blatant state/corporate propaganda. There was so much good bush-era anti-war sentiment[1] that suddenly disappeared once the next guy rose to the throne. I'm not convinced that it's the new reality any more than the old reality. It's just more visible to those willing to see it as we go through the fourth turning.
I went to see Prophets of Rage in 2016 and was expecting to see a ringing endorsement of the resident neocon war-hawk (but I repeat myself) like so many others that flew the encircled A in my youth. At least Tom Morello still has the decency to write "Nobody for President" on his guitar.
But I guess I'm the dick because I'm not going to change what I believe to fit the prevailing politicosocial winds of the time.
"And I don’t know where the lies end
And the truth begins
Don’t listen to anyone
Telling you anything is the truth:
It’s all relative"
[1] Https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafybeieb6ikabb3kxf6yepz4m5jboxsgw4pm3f7ipmsgbox7tzh2mssutq
Your post reminds me of this one from ~tskaalgard:
On the Embaddening of Geek CultureIn my opinion, that fact that a subculture degradates when it becomes mainstream is very common. I recently learned that it even happened to Francis of Assisi (the founder of the Franciscan orders): when he got older, he realized that the order he established was not aligned with his original intentions.
I'm inclined to think that this happens systematically.