Hippie to Hipster: Tour of Commercialized Countercultures
A girl’s journey from disinterested misfit to student
As a millennial I believe in instant gratification; do I want to have to read the short blurb that is plastered on the museum’s white walls to truly appreciate the oeuvre or do I just want to ponder over the contents, make an instant connection and move on to the next item-I often choose the latter. So how did this seemingly past-faced mentality lead to any knowledgeable insight; well it all started with a museum exhibit and a question — what does it mean to be a hipster? How can a person who follows the latest trends and fashion- the definition of mainstream — be regarded as a rebel against the cultural mainstream; this is the paradoxical nature of commercialized counterculture.
The Satirical Recollection
The following is a recollection of my internal narrative of the Berkeley Hippie Modernism-A Struggle for Utopia exhibit having ignored the individual titles of each piece and having forgotten certain artworks entirely (which does happen). Read everything that follows with a grain of salt:
As soon as you enter the exhibit in the main corridor sits a collection of what I can only describe as colorful record cover art with simplistic styles, intentional color schemes featuring a matte finish but hidden within white rectangular frames. Organized in an OCD artistic manner against the wall, the placement of the frames starkly contrasts the content within that clearly display a free and spiritual sentiment that is contained in the confines of the common culture that framed them.
I then proceeded to walk through the exhibit in what I now believe to be the wrong direction. To my left was what I considered an example of anti-art, because it looked like a computer and keyboard that was easily accessible to type on, but was apparently not supposed to be touched; something I quickly realized once one of my friends proceeded to touch it. To the adjacent wall there was a group of images of what Greg Castillo described as Hippie postmodernism artwork due to the overlay of stereotypical hippie culture over post-modern architecture. I was quickly bored with this portion of the exhibit and made my way to the next subsection.
While I am not into “high fashion” I was instantly drawn to the vibrant knit dresses, more so because I questioned whether they could be seen at a Paris Fashion show- I quickly realized it was plausible. I paused for a while in front of the drawings across from this sculpture not because I was searching for deeper meaning but because I wanted to guess the medium and stare at this one laughing face that could have been a hidden meme within the set.
However, what literally drew me in was the geodesic dome, which obstructed the view between the yarn outfit and the meme drawings. I always wanted to go into one of these but was surprised to find what I described as a “vertical wheel of fortune gone wrong”. The clicks of the device only made me want to create music with the various beats while simultaneously trying to decipher what the wheel actually contained. I took a quick video of this for Snapchat to share because I had nothing to lose and I liked the idea of being a cultured student who spent her Saturday night at an art museum (with friends of course).
I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a way to comfortably sit on a set of two red chairs across from the dome because they were the only things I was actively allowed to touch without fear of persecution. I then wandered over to the image of what seemed like a genderless human wearing what appeared to be a decent attempt of a Halloween costume of an insect. This was located next to a larger helmet that I wished to sit in for a break, but clearly said “don’t sit here”. Then for some strange reason I had a Frank Sinatra song stuck in my head, which for some reason felt out of place in comparison to the name of the exhibit, I was standing within.
I was prompted to enter this giant white box the size of a prison cell and watch as what felt like a thousand pictures change against the inside of the walls as a mixture of Frank and historic moments played in the back. Because no one could watch me I danced within the cell and tried to make shadows over the images before wondering how this related to the rest of the exhibit. When I exited I felt the eye of Big Brother watching as this Giant eye looked directly at me, I made a joke to my friend about how I thought my eyes were big and went to the last room which felt the most like a normal museum because it had a bench with two elder individuals discussing the painting in front of them.
I then went downstairs to see the rest of the exhibit where I spent most of my time jumping into beanbags and watching what looked like psychedelic screen savers of a laptop projected onto three walls to the sound of music. I felt a deep personal connection with the image of ,who I presume was, a woman in face paint in a circus mirror with a face that mimicked one I would wear after a rough night of sleep. This was followed by a small exhibition of civil rights posters next to a collection of what looked like some of the first street fashion pictures.
Selling the Story: Commercialized Counterculture
So how does this “inaccurate” and “flawed” recollection of this seemingly insignificant exhibit relate to anything at all. Well it displays the larger cultural shift that cultural disinterest encourages- commercialization of countercultures.
During the time of Jay Defeo, the hippies, and the Rat Bastards, counterculture consisted of rebelling against the public philosophy while being characterized as a pariah by conventional culture; however, now, while the artist may attempt to portray himself or herself as nonconformist, they often fall prey to the capitalistic pursuits of commercialization.
As a result of changing modes of communication the freedom of expression to resist common convention is being monetized and disseminated in ways that loses its inherent purpose; even by visiting the hippie modernism exhibit I was buying into the dissemination of a specific facet of hippie culture available to the public. My disinterest in looking at the individual intent of each piece only worsened the story I was creating in my head. I was being sold an incomplete story. This suggests that by fostering a more “inclusive” artistic world, we have compromised distinct genres to mass propagation that only serve to satisfy the materialistic wishes of society; meanwhile other subcultures experience demise due to lack of funds. By being both unorthodox and accepted within the core culture, commercialized counterculture has received a larger market audience, suggesting increasing capitalistic returns for those willing to bet on the venture. The commodification of countercultural memorabilia has led to a loss of distinction between the expressive nature and inherent purpose they once inhabited.
Students of Mass Media
So if you still feel like this article doesn’t have any relevance to you or your life and feel that the time reading this article could have been spent binge watching the Crown on Netflix or, for the more studious, getting some work done, let me frame this in a way that may have some relevance to my fellow compatriots: millennials.
Dear Disinterested Misfit,
As students of mass media we are oblivious to how impressionable we are to popular opinion of what is “cool”. Most of the popular things we own now are children of what was originally considered counter cultural. By comparing artistic commercialization to the freedom of thought that we believe we have as individual we begin to realize that our ability to decide by ourselves was actually shaped by the generations before us.
Clothing is often considered as a way of expressing oneself visually to others without ever having to speak. However in the case of being hipster, trying to display your style has become commodified to the point that there is an archetype of hipster glasses and stores that sell hipster clothing. By following trends that have resurfaced from the past, we are recycling what the generations before us believed by increasing the price of worn out denim jeans and decreasing the value of what the jeans represented culturally. Being nonconformist and unique in what we wear only results in patterns of commonality that create the next mainstream. “Being hipster” used to be about independent thinking and progressive politics in addition to a distinct fashion sense, however now being hipster is no longer about rejecting culturally ignorant mainstream consumers but participating in this consumerism by living within the racks of Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. Suddenly slapping hipster in front of a pre-existent scarf, increases the cultural value, even though it was the same one from a year ago with a new label and a higher price.
Our choices reflect this sentiment of commercialization of counterculture even in the technology and terminology we use. iPhones were initially part of the subculture, until they became heavily popularized and converted into mainstream culture with increased prices and decreased innovation. Carrying a Samsung or a Blackberry something regarded as mainstream prior suddenly became taboo and “countercultural”. Support groups were formed for the Samsung owners to vent out their frustration against Apple-ites that believe in the superiority of their product. In years to come I predict that Samsung users, the current popularized counterculture, will once again become the mainstream following the trend of cyclical commercialization.
While in the past being countercultural was about being different from the mainstream now there is a shift that the counterculture is the way to achieve mainstream. Basically if you want to invest in countercultural commodification, hold onto your old iPhone and invest in the countercultural style, because when current popular cultures become antiquated and outdated, you will become rich on profits, but if you want to protect the integrity of what these cultures stand for revisit that hippie modernism exhibit and find meaning in the money.
So, the next time you comment on someone’s hipster Club master Ray-Bans or attend the Summer of Love to be more “culturally aware”, ask yourself are you demonstrating freedom of thought or just buying into the commercialization and dissemination of the newfound cultural mainstream. How has your portrayal of yourself led to the capitalistic pursuits of commercialization? But I’m just a student so what the hell do I know.
- The Student
