I had an interesting conversation with a Gen Z person the other day. She confirmed what I have been reading for a while now – that younger people are starting to rediscover physical media and no longer relying on streaming services as much. For years, we have seen vinyl record sales growing, but that was always a niche. Physical books made a comeback in the last decade or so, thanks in part to Booktok. E-books, Kindles, etc are still a tool for travelers or minimalists, but I think most avid readers want a book in hand.
If it was only vinyl collectors and book lovers, the physical renaissance would be niche. But there is an underground of people, from Gen X nostalgists to curious Gen Zers, who are embracing DVDs, CD, tapes, records, books, and all other form of physical media. Not only that, but they are also embracing radio as well as in-person experiences. Perhaps it is the rejection of our algorithmic overlords or perhaps it is an embrace of what we lost during COVID, but I am seeing more younger people interested in the mediums and technology of previous generations.
An interesting Substack article dropped into my feed the other day. Written by Michelle Lhooq, a psychedelics and rave journalist, the article is about a rave in Los Angeles and how rave culture provides not only an escape, but a way of life, a continuation of the Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out mindset of the 1960s. I read a lot a Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, and Aldous Huxley in the late 90s and the late 60s always fascinated me. Lhooq carries these philosophies through rave culture, which has always had the trippy drug elements. The rave can be both escape and lifestyle, depending on how integrated one makes it.
The fact that I found this article in my email brings me back to my conversation with the Gen Zer. When we were talking about counterculture, we agreed that to be counterculture now means to be offline. I mentioned that if you Google “counterculture”, you find pictures of hippies and the 1960s. You don’t find pictures of people who are offline. It is logically impossible.
That is the true modern counterculture. It is not in your algorithm. It is not televised. It is not Google-able. It might not even be on the Dark Web.
(Is anyone still on the Dark Web besides hackers and blackmarket dealers? That’s a post for another day.)
I am not talking luddites either. I know people who don’t want to be on social media for privacy reasons or they believe the government is using it all to collect our data or turn us into mindless capitalist zombies mired in mediocre media slop.
In a way, that last part is true. In another recent article, music culture and historian Ted Gioia wrote that popular art really hasn’t progressed since the 1990s. Mega media platforms have flooded us with unoriginal, recycled slop, whether they be rehashed movies or straight up AI-produced garbage. By only greenlighting crap, only crap gets produced, consumers get used to the crap, and art gets numb. Add in the need to monetize everything, and risky art is not part of the business plan.
In his next article, Gioia writes about how through recycling, creativity is hurting. There are no new movements. No excitement. No experimentation.
He closes with the following:
“This limp, empty approach to culture is a dead-end. People will soon demand something more from the creative economy—something riskier, something more inspiring, something more disruptive. Above all, they will insist on something more human.
Or maybe they will even seek out something more timeless on a larger scale. This would be a kind of art-making that contributes to human flourishing and a deeper understanding of who we are and what we can do.
They are unlikely to get it from the large entertainment platforms. And I’m even more certain that they won’t get it from an AI chatbot. But sooner or later, people will find it somewhere.
I know that because I can feel the hunger for it everywhere. You tell me this in your comments and emails. I feel it myself.”
But ….
Let’s pick up the pieces we’ve scattered through this article. What if Ted Gioia isn’t talking to Gen Z folks who clamor for more than what they have been fed by their algorithms? Unfortunately, they don’t know where to look. In my conversation with the Gen Zer, I told her about local bookstores and local radio stations, places that I go for new media. But as a Gen Xer, I have to be careful. A conversation can’t be a lecture. I can’t rant about “back in my day …”. I have to leave a few breadcrumbs, a few links, a few addresses, or a few Reese’s Pieces and let the younger generation discover their own way and embrace their own creativeness. They might create something totally new and fresh.
Maybe they already have.
What if the creative economy is alive, but it lives underground? Some might say the underground has always been creative. That’s definitely true. But what if the counterculture is not weak, but strong and vibrant. But you, I, and Ted Gioia don’t know where to find it because we have been trained for so long to look online for our answers. Looking on the internet for answers has become instinct. Again, can something exist if it isn’t online?
We might be going back to a time of flyers and zines and handouts and word-of-mouth events. We might see flyers for cultural events with the caveats “don’t post this” and “no phones”. Maybe we even go back to a world where people exchange offline media to build buzz for an event or a band or writer or a performer. Once it goes online, even in an article, the mystery will be gone.
That is true counterculture. And it won’t be in your algorithm.
