The more vintage media I consume the more I feel completely lost in today’s society, because I feel like there’s not this drive to create and rebel and pioneer now that there once was? There’s nothing left really to be the first of? There were the mods, the glam rock kids, the punks,goths,80s metal, riot grrl who all were the first to push the boundaries and make a scene for themselves, a community for the outcasts and the ones not accepted but now that’s not really a drive to do that anymore.
Social media, and specifically “aesthetics” have meant that people kind of adopt these images without really much thought on what it actually means or how to make it their own. It’s not really about finding your own way it’s about becoming the perceived pinnacle of one’s chosen sub-culture. I find increasingly a lack of knowledge on these groups and just a lack of passion about them.
I also feel that because of this alternative spaces are dying because nobody is creating new environments for people to thrive. The easy access to an entire world of content means that people aren’t paving their own path and finding their tribe and creating their own community and instead deciding what they want to be from online because it’s all they know. I also find marketing and fast fashion becoming a major factor in this because it’s so easy now to find “alternative clothes” and it becomes as I said an image not a personal style.
It’s the worst in online alternative spaces (especially TikTok) because there’s so much infighting and people saying “oh I think blah and blah” and someone else saying “no blah and blah isn’t alt/goth/puck blah blah blah” and it gets to a point where being alternative has lost all its meaning. Everyone’s meant to be different that’s the point! We can’t thrive as a community if everyone has the exact same personality!!! this access to all of the information ever is actually rotting the community that we have!!!! And it frustrates me so much because there’s still much to be angry about!! So many people that need a gay bar near them that’ll have a drag queen mentor, a music venue that’ll let a shit garage punk band play!! A community centre that’ll let you use it as an art studio!!!
