I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor...

What was counter-culture is now over-the-counter culture.
Keep in mind that deviance is just another marketing tool. All forms of disconnection from society get sold back through shared notions of transgressive activity. A hidden community may quest for recognition of truth, but only in a rarefied, uncoded atmosphere can human truths be found. (Thank You, StockCap)

"We were different, just like all the other kids." - Greg Graffin

Can anyone pick up on a common theme between these two snippets? They both further their own points. There's no such thing as originality. There's no such thing as "normal" either...but it's practically impossible to be "Different". Take a look around you! Grassroots movements have turned into corporate entities, subcultures into the "In-Thing"...it's bloody ridiculous. The original "Punk" and "Goth" movements have been raped and defiled to the point where there are all kinds of store-chains that specialise in products dedicated to the respective "Scenes". The Punk movement especially is more of a mentality than anything. Sure, your majority of self-proclaimed punks dress with an anti-fashion style, with their studded wrist bands, ripped up jeans, band t-shirt...Wait, this sounds like most of the Caucasian population of my High-School. OH YEAH! I forgot...It's nothing more than a fashion style! You don't need to think on your own to wear a jacket with spikes and patches, or to wear a plaid. If a description such as the above fits you, you may now call yourself a Punk, right Vangie? I was lucky that my Middle School only had a few people who dressed as such, and almost all of them were true to the mentality. However, that's not the case with the rest of the world. In the opposite sense, look at my aquaintance, Greg Graffin. He's a 40-something year old single parent and has a phD on the end of his name, but he is more of a punk than half of North America will EVER be combined. He came on stage for Bad Religion's "The Empire Strikes First" tour in a purple dress shirt and black jeans...but every person who had a mohawk or a pair of combat boots on would bow down to him if he so asked them to.

But enough about Punk. The "Emo scene", was essentially just a thing that started in California...quiet people who felt they were more in touch with their feelings decided to make wimpy music (No offense...). Now it's become a huge phenomenon! Whether you wear jeans tight enough to force a man to tape his package to his leg, or if you're wearing a shirt that is small enough that it shows your nipple ring (there's seriously a guy with that style going on at M.E.L.)...or if you're on the opposite style of the spectrum, making fun of this so called "movement"...it's still affecting you in some form. It drives me to distraction (and rants worth Blogging)when I have someone point at my Coverse All-Stars and says "Man, those are so Scene! I think they're hott." WHAT THE HELL IS SCENE?! It's a NOUN! THE SCENE, A SCENE, ETC. ETC. It's not a phr34k1n' Adjective! Get it right, and stop calling me SCENE!! It's pronounced "SHAWN" (What an abominable spelling...)!

I'm joking about the last part, but the incident described above has occured...more than once. I'm not here to bash people, or say who can wear what...but really. The "In-Thing" is to be different. It just so happens that the people who want to be different have begun to outnumber those who don't, creating a brand new wave of "Normals". Wouldn't it just be nice if we could all just do what we wanted, wear what we wanted, listen to what we wanted...and not have to worry about being called Poseurs? I know I'm not one to talk, I used to think I was the best thing next to sliced bread and pockets on jeans. I was THE punk at Indian River...but only in my dress. I see now that I was being an idiot. I have no place to speak in a condescending manner of others...I'm guilty of the same crime as the next person. But I'd like to think that I've outgrown my stereotypes. In the infamous words of Greg Graffin: "Hooray for me, and Fuck you!"

The purpose of this post is...actually, I have no idea why I wrote it. Simply had an idea, and I wasn't able to express it as I would have liked to. Hopefully ya'll got the point. I have once again broken my formalities, I should get back to proper, clean posts...unless my readers prefer the more human and less perfectionistic rant. Tell me which.

(C) 2006 Sean Slater (Thanks StockCap and Greg) All Rights Reserved, All Wrongs Justified.