100 Counter-Cultural Signifiers That Are So Ubiquotous/Played-Out/Subsumed By The Mainstream That They've Lost Their Resonance

93. blue/green/purple/etc. hair coloring.

Would you say The Bird counts or does this still piss people off?

what counter-culture

How about my friend's Jimi Hendrix T-shirt that plays a MIDI of Purple Haze when you press this button on it?

I mean there IS no counter-culture now - everything is just fragmented into their own little circles, there isn't even really a clearly defined mainstream culture to be AGAINST anymore

The t-shirts with no MIDI culture. Fuck that non-noize!

hahaha

http://www.catbirdseat.org/catbirdseat/bingo.jpg

list threads

remember when we could stick it to the man by listing our favorite bands?

http://m.assetbar.com/achewood/autaux?b=M%5ea11f09b8576e606bcb5038dfdb92fb821&u=http%3A%2F%2Fachewood.com%2Fcomic.php%3Fdate%3D09182003

1. Long Hair (just to get that one out of the way)

95. Black Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars

Dude, that's like saying blue jeans have lost their resonance. Chucks will be around after we're not only old and uncool, but probably after we're dead.

I'm also not sure Motorhead t-shirts belong there. Not as a counter-cultural signifier, just as a bad-ass logo for a fucking awesome band.

xx. any song older than cellphones that has been made into a ringtone

But Wham's "Careless Whisper" was my ringtone!

Do you know what is so PUNK ROCK and DANGEROUS and RADICAND BADASS about Chuck Taylors? They fucking ruined my feet, that's what. Beware of foot tendinitis!

92. Circumcision
91. "Thinspiration"/anorexia bbs
90. Magic
89. Andy Warhol
88. Boob job
87. Shaved head (now RX for all balding mang)
86. Penny stocks
85. Organic food

84. Dropping out of high school
83. Hating the John Birch society

82. Withnail & I

81. Macs

80. Virginity promise rallies
79. Wanting to see buttsecks on film

78. threads about who you would fuck

some of these are not counter-culturally significant

not like handjobs to 'more than this'

77. animated gifs

76. Crass and/or Misfits tees. (Minor Threat is getting there. Op Ivy is past there.)

the following words:

75. "ass"
74. "bitch"
73. "damn"

72. motorcycles

I would distinguish between things that have merely lost their status as counter-cultural, and things that have no reason to exist now that they are no longer counter-cultural.

i'm surprised you're not holding forth on boob jobs

No, a motorcycle will not make you Rob Halford, if it ever would have, but it's still not a shameful thing to have. Nor is organic food, or a Mac.

if we go back really far:

71. t-shirts
70. baseball caps
69. jeans

i'm surprised you're not holding forth on boob jobs

that one confuses me. Boobs jobs were never a statement against The Man. Bralessness, maybe. Mayyyybe.

They were once not as socially acceptable.

I see where you're coming from.

But I think Alex in his ire was trying to get at things that should go away because DUDE, that is not making you look cool.

68-1. Every "counter-cultural signifier" either belongs on this list or will eventually.

Boob jobs count there too, IMO!

xp

Right, but they were never counter-cultural. They were/are pandering to the patriarchy, if anything.

Boobs.

you said it, sister.

67. williamsburg. shit, ANYWHERE in manhattan.

66. being into "edgy" socialites & their vanity projects.

65. Dads

baseball caps on backwards
(my mom still thinks I'm trying to start something when I wear a cap backwards)

like a frat?

63. earrings on dudes

williamsburg is in manhattan now?

62. Cussing/cursing/using profanity

52. Flaunting your heterosexuality.

51. Dryhumping in protest.

50. Machismo and true grit.

slow day, nick? :)

49. Wondering how Ronald Reagan felt about Jelly Bellys.

48. Exposing the canards of the Brazilian space system.

47. Hiding your Easter eggs two months in advance.

46. Frittering.

45. Creating the perfect recipe for toad cracklings.

thinly-veiled roman a clefs

is that redundant?

44. Living in a hut spun out of marzipan.

43. Toadying up to your inferiors.

42. Arranging your chess pieces by weight.

41. Crossing the rhumba with a bossanova beat.

40. Teaching your aunt how to wakeboard.

39. Using nonsequiters as a substitute for actual humor.

38. Publicly self-deprecating while privately knowing you are awesome.

37. - 2. Cheating to get ahead.

1. Starting threads about how great you are because you are so over "played-out" countercultural signifiers.

36. black leather jacket

Oh son, you are a bad-ass. (xpost)

lock thread, plz

97. Ramones/Motorhead/CBGB t-shirts (rock t-shirts in general?)

It'll be fun the day Alex's kid comes home with blue hair and throws him into a rage. "Played out cultural signifiers? Not under my roof, young lady!" "Fuck you, dad!"

lols

35. Burning Man

# 100 Counter-Cultural Signifiers That Are So Ubiquotous/Played-Out/Subsumed By The Mainstream That They've Lost Their Resonance [Started by Alex in NYC, last updated 35 seconds ago] 130 new answers
# New Apple Lust Objects [Started by Ed (dali), last updated 41 seconds ago] 48 new answers

apple hasn't been counter culture in, like, a decade or something.

This one is serious:

34. Joking about how Alex in NYC is going to react to his children's whims as they enter the rebellious teenage years.

Jot that one down somewhere. It's SERIOUS.

Nine times out of ten, sported by someone who couldn't hum a few bars of "We Are the Road Crew" if you put a loaded .44 in their mouth.

-- Alex in NYC, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 8:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Please post .wav of Charlotte humming Motorhead, plz.

jaymc.xls gettin' jiggy with the OLE imbeds!

not 33 at all. shade tippin'

hahaha did jaymc just recommend that alex put a gun in his daughter's mouth?

32. Ice Cube

TRIBAL ARM BAND TATTOOS

Definitely not Confederate flags!

except yes actually

:/

let's name one that hasn't lost its resonance, eh? assless chaps?

Has anyone EVER seen chaps that HAVE an ass? I'd wager not.

you, my friend, have not lived.

31. Buggery

where's the part where alex says how great he is? I mean I see the part where n/a is a buttmunch, but i missed that part.

perhaps he should've instead started a thread about how he's so great because he doesn't want to move to NYC like everyone else.

This is a fun thread, but some of these posts just sound like people starting to get old:

62. Cussing/cursing/using profanity

I wish having your boxer-clad butt hanging out of the top of your saggy pants would lose its resonance. I've stopped saying anything about it to my older son, because each protest from me will only prolong the butt-display phase another YEAR. Christ, is it stoooopid lookin'. <-- sounds JUST like something my dad would say.

Not that there's anything wrong with it! It's just different from the mainstream/counter-culture topic.

30. UFOPORNOO!

1990 / Time For The Souffle

29?. not really countercultural but pepperoni cupping on pizza as signifier for quality seems like an empty gesture when pepperoni didn't even have a substantial artisanal moment yet, or maybe I missed the few months when everyone went all ham on pepperoni.

the cup keeps the yummy grease in