Written by: gfesadmin on March 7, 2013

In the book The Rebel Sell, Joseph Heath and Robert Putnam say the counterculture is driven by a desire to rebel against the present culture. In the 60s there was a cultural conflict between the counterculture and the established culture. But Heath and Putnam state that their values were the same. Both were entrenched in the consumer culture of capitalism. Those who want to change the system of conformity by some radical and rebellious actions are actually driving the system. For consumerism is driven by the counterculture. The drive to resist status quo becomes the status quo. There is no threat; the rebellious impulses are simply absorbed into the consumer system.

The fear is that institutions demand conformity and repress people within society. Rebellion or “jamming the system” seems the best way forward to those who feel powerless against this supposed repression. This is seen in youth culture today. The current climate is observed in Matt Mason’s book The Pirates Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism. He applauds efforts by those in the youth culture to subvert conventional boundaries. He sees their efforts to subvert the boundaries of what is acceptable as examples of positive change in capitalism. The capitalist system is not fair in its distribution of wealth. Current efforts by the youth pop culture to be innovative make capitalism more assessable and fair. One example he gives is hip-hop music. Hip-hop artists are becoming some of the most entrepreneurial capitalists today. While Mason’s assumptions about what is the good life has weaknesses, his assessment of the youth culture is revealing. Today’s consumer culture demands that you not only listen to the youth, you must let their culture drive it. Consumer advertising not only appeals to desires to rebel against the system, it must let the pop culture speak for itself. Youth culture has taken over the consumer culture. It not only is affected by it, it drives consumerism. Hip-hop music is an example that ingeniously does both simultaneously. It appeals to the real frustrations of those caught in poverty, isolation or powerlessness, while idealizing violence and sexual deviance. The countercultural message here is a romanticized valuation of ghetto life and gang culture. (Heath p.17) The rebellion in MTV videos speaks against the system that holds them down, while flaunting the excess of material and sensual desire. They sell both the rebellion to the system and embrace its values at the same time.

As Heath and Putman point out you cannot co-opt the system of a consumer driven society. The mistake of the countercultural hip-hop movement is the same as previous generations. Trying to jam the system by acts of rebellion sells. The political power of hip-hop is gaining according to Mason. It has been a complicit advocate of consumerism and speaks out against present institutions that are corrupt. Heath and Putnam offer Kurt Cobain as an example of the false idea of the counterculture. When his music became too popular, he realized that his alternative music was becoming mainstream. He was part of the “sell-out” to pop culture. The authors point out that hip-hop music is repeating the same cycle. They are not a threat to the system; they are part of the system

What remains to be seen is what real change will be made by the rebel causes. What are they rebelling against? Poverty and violence? It seems to provide more rational for violence. Will those with this newfound power level the inequities they are rebelling against or will those in power use it for they own self-aggrandizement?

Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, The Rebel Sell:How the Counterculture Became the Consumer Culture, West Sussex, England: Capstone Publishing ,2006.

Matt Mason, The Pirates Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, New York: Free Press, 2008.

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