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14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture
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14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture

A sad story told entirely in tweets

Ted Gioia
May 28, 2022
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14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture
tedgioia.substack.com

I’ve occasionally mentioned, in interviews and other settings, that we are living in a society without a counterculture. People ask me what I mean by this.

That’s a a reasonable question, but the new normal defies simple explanation. At some point, I hope to write in-depth on this subject. But today I will simply offer a quick definition, and then share 14 tweets.

These capture the flavor of what I’m trying to express better than any long-winded analysis.

First, here’s a quick definition. These are the key indicators that you might be living in a society without a counterculture:

  • A sense of sameness pervades the creative world

  • The dominant themes feel static and repetitive, not dynamic and impactful

  • Imitation of the conventional is rewarded

  • Movies, music, and other creative pursuits are increasingly evaluated on financial and corporate metrics, with all other considerations having little influence

  • Alternative voices exist—in fact, they are everywhere—but are rarely heard, and their cultural impact is negligible

  • Every year the same stories are retold, and this sameness is considered a plus

  • Creative work is increasingly embedded in genres that feel rigid, not flexible

  • Even avant-garde work often feels like a rehash of 50-60 years ago

  • Etc. etc. etc.

This is a deep matter, and I won’t try to unlock all the nuances here. I will now simply share 14 tweets that capture the stale taste of life without a counterculture. Some of these tweets are my own, others from total strangers—but they all paint the same overall picture.


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You might be living in a society without a counterculture if. . . .

(A story told in 14 tweets)


1. Every screen shows the same movie.

Twitter avatar for @tedgioia
Ted Gioia @tedgioia
Shared without comment.
Image
Image
8:57 PM ∙ May 5, 2022
73Likes12Retweets

2. Alt Weeklies disappear in every city—along with everything else that’s alternative or outside the norm.

Twitter avatar for @realtofupuppy
andy @realtofupuppy
Alone in a room with neatly stacked newspapers. It feels like a vigil for the alt weeklies that are gone, whether bought out by big media & whittled into husks or ended altogether. Everything from The Village Voice to my community paper, gone. I hope the sound they made echoes.
Image
4:16 PM ∙ Mar 15, 2021

3. The most popular song doesn’t change for three years in a row.

Twitter avatar for @rps_pr
Rock Paper Scissors PR @rps_pr
Are we stuck in a loop? bit.ly/39awdlp via: @tedgioia
Image
1:05 PM ∙ Apr 28, 2022

4. The banal word ‘content’ is used to describe every type of creative work, implying that artistry is generic and interchangeable.

Twitter avatar for @DiscussingFilm
DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm
Martin Scorsese says “the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator” due to the naming of films as “content.” (via: bit.ly/3qvlXYI)
Image
7:28 PM ∙ Feb 16, 2021
31,328Likes4,221Retweets

5. There are lots of journalists, but they all seem to be working for the same corporations.

Twitter avatar for @NewspaperWorld
WAN-IFRA @NewspaperWorld
Consolidation of US news publishers is hitting record levels with many newspapers owned by only a few companies, says Justin Eisenband, a Managing Director in FTI Consulting’s Publishing + Digital Media practice at #WNMC21
Image
10:16 AM ∙ Nov 29, 2021
2Likes3Retweets

6. The dominant company in the creative culture views everything as a brand extension.

Twitter avatar for @PNPDisNews
Pirates & Princesses @PNPDisNews
Disney CFO Forgets the Name of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Hotel in Walt Disney World
piratesandprincesses.netDisney CFO Forgets the Name of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Hotel in Walt Disney WorldThe Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser luxury hotel is so vital to Walt Disney World, that Disney CFO Christine McCarthy can’t even remember what it’s called. During a recent event at Walt Disney World, McCarthy fumbled around with the name of the Galactic Starcruiser, first calling it the “Starship,”…
5:47 PM ∙ May 19, 2022
53Likes8Retweets

7. Indie music and alt music are marginalized.

Twitter avatar for @tedgioia
Ted Gioia @tedgioia
"A Spotify playlist study has found that the Big Three labels (UMG, Warner, Sony) benefit most from curated playlists. In many cases, they practically control them."
digitalmusicnews.comStudy Confirms That Major Labels Control Spotify PlaylistsA Spotify playlist study has found that major labels (UMG, Warner, Sony) account for most new songs added to curated playlists.
2:48 PM ∙ May 6, 2022
15Likes10Retweets

8. Telling jokes becomes a dangerous profession.

Twitter avatar for @PageSix
Page Six @PageSix
Comedy clubs up security after Will Smith slap: Guards, metal detectors trib.al/BJ5U7kl
Image
10:41 PM ∙ Mar 30, 2022
470Likes66Retweets

9. The experts who ‘explain’ the culture to us all seem to be insiders with identical backgrounds.

Twitter avatar for @tedgioia
Ted Gioia @tedgioia
Here’s the second installment of Daniel Stone’s analysis of the clique-ish world of the New York Review of Books—which Russell Jacoby once claimed “withdraws from the cultural bank without making any investments.” danielstone.substack.com/p/new-york-rev…
Image
3:02 AM ∙ May 26, 2022
20Likes2Retweets

10. This year’s movies look a lot like last year’s movies.

Twitter avatar for @RPK_NEWS1
RPK @RPK_NEWS1
Biggest films/shows of 2022. What are you looking forward to the most?
Image
5:21 PM ∙ Dec 5, 2021
19,981Likes3,234Retweets

11. Even elite awards for creativity are dominated by reboots and remakes.

Twitter avatar for @nytimes
The New York Times @nytimes
Four of the Best Picture Oscar nominees this year are remakes or reboots of earlier films. Academy history can offer clues about how “Nightmare Alley,” “West Side Story,” “CODA” and “Dune” might fare on Sunday.
nyti.msFour Best Picture Contenders Are Remakes. Does That Matter to Oscar Voters?Academy history offers clues about how “Nightmare Alley,” “West Side Story,” “CODA” and “Dune” might fare on Sunday.
5:00 AM ∙ Mar 26, 2022
193Likes43Retweets

12. Five companies have almost complete control over the book business—where, in an earlier day, dozens of indie publishers thrived.

Twitter avatar for @WilliamHogeland
William Hogeland @WilliamHogeland
Industry consolidation in US commercial book publishing has come down to a "Big Five" (soon to be a "Big Four") commonly listed as Penguin/Random, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. Each of those companies, though, is of course owned by a bigger company.
4:05 PM ∙ Jun 29, 2021
29Likes3Retweets

13. Everybody is encouraged to watch the same TV shows and movies—with niche options gradually removed from the dominant platforms.

Twitter avatar for @loudmouthjulia
julia alexander @loudmouthjulia
This is a great deep dive into Netflix's film library, including how the quantity of titles has leveled out since a big drop in 2015 and a breakdown of how many films from each decade are available to US subscribers. Via the always brilliant @kasey__moore. whats-on-netflix.com/news/netflixs-…
Image
Image
2:35 PM ∙ May 6, 2022
53Likes21Retweets

14. All those nasty, rebellious songs that defy authorities are now owned by hedge funds.

Twitter avatar for @MotherJones
Mother Jones @MotherJones
Your favorite song is probably part of a private equity portfolio
bit.lyYour favorite song is probably part of a private equity portfolioA peak inside the music industry machine.
1:40 PM ∙ May 18, 2022
6Likes6Retweets

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14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture
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202 Comments
Dan Leemon
May 28, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia

Interesting that you write this the same week the George Carlin documentary arrived. If you want to know what counterculture used to be, he even ranted against "Save the Planet" when that became too much of a mainstream, toothless movement for him. (As a side note, it's scary and sad how relevant even his 80s/90s material still is.)

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Amiri Barksdale
May 28, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia

Please, please, please give us a long-winded, in-depth analysis!

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