[082349872349872]

So how, instead of with clothing, do subcultures express themselves now? By choice of memes? Which fanfic they read? Do people wear boring clothes but pick subculture-signifying avatars?

EDIT: Looks like goths are still a thing? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zjg1P_2IPOQ

[colechristensen]

What happened is all of the counterculture/subcultures/whatever got so popular and kind of mellowed out and melted together into a bunch of samey stuff.

Like how music went through this phase where "not mainstream" music started getting really cool but now all of those sounds are just what everything sounds like now, you can't rebel against mainstream music right now.

[shadowerm]

This had always happened. Metallica is a great example of music that was once underground becoming huge and popular.

What changed is there is no new "underground" culture to take the place of what had become popular and mainstream.

Witch house in 2009 or so I think was the last gasp of the underground before shortly running out of air.

Now young people just doomscroll tiktok instead.

[082349872349872]

That may be true, but I'd be willing to bet that in 2038 we'll be able to go on whatever the successor to YouTube might be, and find someone commenting, somewhere, that a particular clip "was the last of the real ${ADJ} ${NOUN} genre" and that the young people don't realise that what they call music can't hold a candle to 2031.

Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQxq_-dWYsc (in the fine tradition of pastiches combining video with unrelated audio)

[harimau777]

The way that I've heard it described is that capitalism now appropriates any subcultures that arise. That both serves as an avenue for profit and has the added benefit of suppressing anything that might inspire people rebel against the status quo.

[colechristensen]

This is just a weird attempt at being edgy about capitalism.

A new subculture either grows or dies, if it grows people start making money off of it and it gets diluted by the popularity into something more beige and palatable. It isn't about capitalism it's just when you add more people, they take it less seriously and hardcore becomes bland.