View source for Counterculture

{{short description|Subculture whose values and norms of behavior deviate from those of mainstream society}}
{{Distinguish|Anti-social behaviour|Anti-cult movement{{!}}Countercult}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2016}}
[[File:Punk on the Vienna U-Bahn.jpg|thumb|A member of the [[punk subculture]] riding the [[Vienna U-Bahn]]]]
A '''counterculture''' is a [[culture]] whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of [[Mainstream culture|mainstream society]], sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural [[mores]].<ref name=MWebster/><ref name="Eric Donald Hirsch 1993 p 419">Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-395-65597-8}}. (1993) p. 419. "Members of a cultural protest that began in the U.S. In the 1960s and Europe before fading in the 1970s... fundamentally a cultural rather than a [[Protest|political protest]]."</ref>  A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach [[Critical mass (sociodynamics)|critical mass]], countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes.  Countercultures differ from [[subcultures]].

Prominent examples of countercultures in the [[Western world]] include the [[Levellers]] (1645–1650),<ref name="DictSocial08">{{cite book |editor-first=William |editor-last=Outhwaite |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought |date=2008 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons]] |location=Malden |isbn=9780470999011 |url=https://www.wiley.com/en-aw/The+Blackwell+Dictionary+of+Modern+Social+Thought,+2nd+Edition-p-9781405134569|access-date=10 November 2020|entry=Counterculture |page=120 |edition=2nd}}</ref> [[Bohemianism]] (1850–1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the [[Beat Generation]] (1944–1964), and the globalized [[counterculture of the 1960s]] which in the [[United States of America|United States]] consisted primarily of [[Hippies]] and [[Flower Children]] (ca. 1965–1975, peaking in 1967). Regarding  this last  group, when referring to themselves, counterculture will usually be capitalized and is often hyphenated as: Counter-Culture or Counter-culture.<ref name="HarvardTR" />

==Definition and characteristics==
[[John Milton Yinger]] originated the term "contraculture" in his 1960 article in ''[[American Sociological Review]]''. Yinger suggested the use of the term contraculture "wherever the normative system of a group contains, as a primary element, a theme of conflict with the values of the total society, where personality variables are directly involved in the development and maintenance of the group's values, and wherever its norms can be understood only by reference to the relationships of the group to a surrounding dominant culture."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yinger |first=J. Milton |date=1960 |title=Contraculture and Subculture |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2090136 |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=625–635 |doi=10.2307/2090136 |issn=0003-1224}}</ref>

Some scholars have attributed the ''counterculture'' to [[Theodore Roszak (scholar)|Theodore Roszak]],<ref name=HarvardTR/><ref>{{cite web | title = Social critic Theodore Roszak *58 explores intolerance in new novel about gay Jewish writer | first = Andrea| last = Gollin | url = http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW02-03/14-0423/books.html | publisher = PAW Online | date = April 23, 2003 | access-date = June 21, 2008}}</ref><ref name=TRbook/> author of ''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]''.<ref>His conception of the counterculture is discussed in Whiteley, 2012 & 2014 and Bennett, 2012.</ref>  It became prominent in the news media amid the [[social revolution]] that swept the [[Americas]], [[Western Europe]], [[Japan]], [[Australia]], and [[New Zealand]] during the 1960s.<ref name="MWebster">"counterculture", ''Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary'', 2008, [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/counterculture MWCCul].</ref><ref name="HarvardTR">{{Cite journal |last=Shea |first=F. X. |date=1973 |title=Reason and the Religion of the Counter-Culture |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1509351 |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=95–111 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000003047 |jstor=1509351 |s2cid=162591828 |issn=0017-8160}}
</ref><ref name="TRbook">[[Theodore Roszak (scholar)|Roszak, Theodore]], ''The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition'', 1968/1969, Doubleday, New York, {{ISBN|978-0-385-07329-5}}.</ref>

Scholars differ in the characteristics and specificity they attribute to "counterculture". "Mainstream" culture is of course also difficult to define, and in some ways becomes identified and understood through contrast with counterculture. Counterculture might oppose mass culture (or "media culture"),<ref>Gelder, ''Subcultures'' (2007) p. 4. "...to the banalities of mass cultural forms".</ref> or middle-class culture and values.<ref>Hodkinson and Deicke, ''Youth Cultures'' (2007), p. 205. "...opposition to, the middle-class establishment of adults."</ref> Counterculture is sometimes conceptualized in terms of generational conflict and rejection of older or adult values.<ref>Hebdige, ''Subculture'' (1979), p. 127. "defining themselves against the parent culture."</ref>

Counterculture may or may not be explicitly political. It typically involves criticism or rejection of currently powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society.<ref>Hall & Jefferson, ''Resistance Through Rituals'' (1991), p. 61. "They make articulate their opposition to dominant values and institutions—even when, as frequently occurred, this does not take the form of an overtly political response."</ref> It does not look favorably on party politics or [[authoritarianism]].<ref>Hazlehurst & Hazlehurst, ''[https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2017-0-51089-9&isbn=9781351290630&format=googlePreviewPdf Gangs and Youth Subcultures]'' (1998), p. 59. "There does seem to be some general commitment towards antiauthoritarianism, a rejection of the traditional party political system which is considered irrelevant."</ref>

Cultural development can also be affected by way of counterculture. Scholars such as Joanne Martin and Caren Siehl, deem counterculture and cultural development as "a balancing act, [that] some core values of a counterculture should present a direct challenge to the core values of a dominant culture". Therefore, a prevalent culture and a counterculture should coexist in an uneasy symbiosis, holding opposite positions on valuable issues that are essentially important to each of them. According to this theory, a counterculture can contribute a plethora of useful functions for the prevalent culture, such as "articulating the foundations between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and providing a safe haven for the development of innovative ideas".<ref>''Organizational Culture and Counterculture: An Uneasy Symbiosis'' (1983), p. 52.</ref>

During the late 1960s, hippies became the largest and most visible countercultural group in the United States.<ref name="Yablonsky, Lewis 1968 pp 21-37">Yablonsky, Lewis (1968), The Hippie Trip, New York: Western Publishing, Inc., {{ISBN|978-0595001163}}, pp. 21–37.</ref>
 
According to Sheila Whiteley, "recent developments in sociological theory complicate and problematize theories developed in the 1960s, with digital technology, for example, providing an impetus for new understandings of counterculture".<ref>Cf. Whiteley, 2012 & 2014.</ref> Andy Bennett writes that "despite the theoretical arguments that can be raised against the sociological value of counterculture as a meaningful term for categorising social action, like [[subculture]], the term lives on as a concept in social and [[cultural theory]]… [to] become part of a received, mediated memory". However, "this involved not simply the utopian but also the dystopian and that while festivals such as those held at [[Monterey]] and [[Woodstock]] might appear to embrace the former, the deaths of such iconic figures as [[Brian Jones]], [[Jimi Hendrix]], [[Jim Morrison]] and [[Janis Joplin]], the nihilistic mayhem at [[Altamont Free Concert|Altamont]], and the shadowy figure of [[Charles Manson]] cast a darker light on its underlying agenda, one that reminds us that 'pathological issues [are] still very much at large in today's world".<ref>Cf. Andy Bennett, 2012.</ref>

== Literature ==
The counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s generated its own unique brand of notable literature, including comics and cartoons, and sometimes referred to as the [[underground press]]. In the United States, this includes the work of [[Robert Crumb]] and [[Gilbert Shelton]], and includes [[Mr. Natural (comics)|Mr. Natural]]; [[Keep on Truckin' (comics)|Keep on Truckin']]; ''[[Fritz the Cat]]''; [[Fat Freddy's Cat]]; [[Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers]]; the album cover art for ''[[Cheap Thrills (Big Brother and the Holding Company album)|Cheap Thrills]]''; and in several countries contributions to ''[[International Times]]'', ''[[The Village Voice]]'', and [[Oz (magazine)|''Oz'' magazine]]. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, these comics and magazines were available for purchase in [[head shop]]s along with items like beads, incense, cigarette papers, tie-dye clothing, [[Blacklight paint|Day-Glo]] posters, books, etc.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of these shops selling hippie items also became cafés where hippies could hang out, chat, smoke [[cannabis]], read books, etc., e.g. [[Gandalf's Garden]] in the [[King's Road]], London, which also published a magazine of the same name.<ref>[http://www.sunrise-press.co.uk/Sunrise_Press/A_psychedelic_trip_around_London_page_1.html ''London a Map of the Underground''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825021903/http://www.sunrise-press.co.uk/Sunrise_Press/A_psychedelic_trip_around_London_page_1.html |date=August 25, 2012 }}</ref> Another such hippie/anarchist bookshop was [[psychedelic mushroom|Mushroom]] Books, tucked away in the [[Lace Market]] area of [[Nottingham]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:keith-leonard-1948-2009&catid=2:blog&Itemid=11|title=The Sparrows' Nest Library and Archive - The Sparrows' Nest Library and Archive|website=www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk|access-date=June 20, 2010|archive-date=January 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107161016/http://www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:keith-leonard-1948-2009&catid=2:blog&Itemid=11|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Founder-radical-bookshop-dies/story-12181832-detail/story.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120527014115/http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Founder-radical-bookshop-dies/story-12181832-detail/story.html|url-status=dead|title=Keith Leonard, who co-founded Mushroom Bookshop, has died &#124; This is Nottingham|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=May 27, 2012}}</ref>

== Media ==
{{Main|Beat Generation|Culture jamming}}
{{Further|Anarchism and the arts|Anti-art|Postmodernism|Transgressive fiction}}

Some genres tend to challenge societies with their content that is meant to outright question the norms within cultures and even create change usually towards a more modern way of thought. More often than not, sources of these controversies can be found in art such as [[Marcel Duchamp]] whose piece ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'' was meant to be "a calculated attack on the most basic conventions of art"<ref>{{Cite web|title = Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp|url = http://www.understandingduchamp.com/|website = www.understandingduchamp.com|access-date = November 13, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110409211825/http://www.understandingduchamp.com/|archive-date = April 9, 2011|url-status = dead}}</ref> in 1917. Contentious artists like [[Banksy]] base most of their works off of mainstream media and culture to bring pieces that usually shock viewers into thinking about their piece in more detail and the themes behind them. A great example can be found in [[Dismaland]], the biggest project of "[[anarchism]]" to be organised and exhibited which showcases multiple works such as an "iconic [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] princess's horse-drawn pumpkin carriage, [appearing] to re-enact the death of [[Diana, Princess of Wales|Princess Diana]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title = Many are finding this shocking piece hidden inside Banksy's 'Dismaland' gut-wrenching|url = http://www.techinsider.io/banky-dismaland-cinderella-princess-diana-2015-8|website = Tech Insider| date=August 20, 2015 |access-date = November 13, 2015}}</ref>

=== Music ===
Counterculture is very much evident in music particularly on the basis of the separation of genres into those considered acceptable and within the status quo and those not. Since many minority groups are already considered countercultural, the music they create and produce may reflect their sociopolitical realities and their musical culture may be adopted as a social expression of their counterculture. This is reflected in dancehall with the concept of base frequencies and base culture in [[Julian Henriques]]'s "Sonic diaspora", where he expounds that "base denotes crude, debased, unrefined, vulgar, and even animal" for the Jamaican middle class and is associated with the "bottom-end, low frequencies…basic lower frequencies and embodied resonances distinctly inferior to the higher notes" that appear in dancehall.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Henriques |first=Julian |date=2008-07-01 |title=Sonic diaspora, vibrations, and rhythm: thinking through the sounding of the Jamaican dancehall session |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17528630802224163 |journal=African and Black Diaspora|doi=10.1080/17528630802224163 |issn=1752-8631}}</ref>
According to Henriques, "base culture is bottom-up popular, street culture, generated by an urban underclass surviving almost entirely outside the formal economy".<ref name=":1" /> That the music is low frequency sonically and regarded as reflective of a lower culture shows the influential connection between counterculture and the music produced. Although music may be considered base and counter culture, it may actually enjoy a lot of popularity which can be seen by the labelling of hip hop as a counterculture genre, despite it being one of the most commercially successful and high charting genres.

=== Assimilation ===
Many of these artists though once being taboo, have been assimilated into culture and are no longer a source of moral panic since they do not cross overtly controversial topics or challenge staples of current culture.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = Stop Fooling Yourself: Coachella Style Is Trash—"Counterculture" and "subculture" have been assimilated into a commercialized "pop culture" product|url = http://ca.complex.com/style/2015/04/coachella-style-is-trash/counterculture-and-commercialization|website = Complex CA|access-date = November 13, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Sociology in a Changing World|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U41tCgAAQBAJ|publisher = Cengage Learning|date = January 31, 2011|isbn = 9781133172857|first = William|last = Kornblum}}</ref> Instead of being a topic to fear, they have initiated subtle trends that other artists and sources of media may follow.<ref name=":0" />

== Digital counterculture ==

=== Definition and theory ===
Digital countercultures are online communities, and patterns of tech usage, that significantly deviate from mainstream culture. To understand the elements that shape digital countercultures, its best to start with Lingel's classifications of mainstream approaches to digital discourse: "[T]hat online activity relates to (dis)embodiment, that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation, and that web-based interactions are placeless."<ref name=Lingel17>{{Cite book|last=Lingel|first=Jessa|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/982287921|title=Digital countercultures and the struggle for community |publisher=[[MIT Press|The MIT Press]]|date=2017|isbn=978-0-262-34015-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=21|oclc=982287921}}</ref>

==== Disembodiment ====
The basis for online disembodiment is that, contrary to the corporeal nature of offline interactions, a user's physical being does not have any relevance to their online interactions. However, for users whose physical existence is [[Social exclusion|marginalized]] or shaped by counterculture (ex: gender identities outside the [[Gender binary|binary]], ethnic minorities, [[Punk subculture|punk culture]]/fashion), their lived experiences build a subjectivity that carries over into their online interactions. As put by [[Shaka McGlotten]]: "[T]he fluidity and playfulness of [[cyberspace]] and the intimacies it was supposed to afford have been punctuated by corporeality."<ref>{{Cite book|last=McGlotten|first=Shaka|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/864139116 |publisher=State University of New York Press |title=Virtual intimacies : media, affect, and queer sociality|date=2013|isbn=978-1-4619-5242-8|location=Albany|pages=3|oclc=864139116}}</ref>

==== Authenticity and experimentation ====
Arguments that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation highlight its role in the creation or enhancement of identities. This approach asserts that norms of non-virtual social life restrict users' ability to express themselves fully in person, but online interactions eliminate these barriers and allow them to identify in new ways. One means by which this exploration takes place is online "identity tourism," which allows users to appropriate an identity without any of the offline, corporeal risks associated with that identity. A critique of this form of experimentation is that it gives the "tourist" a false impression that they understand the experiences and history of that identity, even if their Internet interactions are superficial.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lingel|first=Jessa|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/982287921 |publisher=The MIT Press |title=Digital countercultures and the struggle for community|date=2017|isbn=978-0-262-34015-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=25|oclc=982287921}}</ref> Moreover, it is especially harmful when used as a means to deceptively masquerade oneself to appeal to digital counterculture communities. However, especially for countercultures that are marginalized or demonized, experimentation can allow users to embrace an identity that they align with, but hide offline out of fear, and engage with that culture.

==== Placelessness ====
The final approach is on online communication as placeless, asserting that the consequences of geographic distance are rendered null and void by the Internet. Lingel argues that this approach is [[Technological determinism|technologically determinist]] in its assumption that the placelessness provided by access to technology can single-handedly remedy [[structural inequality]]. Moreover, Mark Graham states that the persistence of spatial metaphors in describing the Internet's societal impact creates "a dualistic offline/online worldview [that] can depoliticize and mask the very real and uneven power relationships between different groups of people."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Graham|first=Mark|date=2012-10-25|title=Geography/Internet: Ethereal Alternate Dimensions of Cyberspace or Grounded Augmented Realities?|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2166874 |journal=The Geographical Journal|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|pages=9|ssrn=2166874}}</ref> Subscribing to this perceived depoliticization prevents an understanding of digital countercultures. Socio-cultural, power hierarchies on the Internet shape the mainstream, and without these mainstreams as a point of comparison, there are no grounds to define digital counterculture.

=== Examples ===
Marginalized communities often struggle to meet their needs on [[mainstream media]]. Jessa Lingel, an associate professor at the [[Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania|Annenberg School for Communication]], had conducted [[field research]] on examples of digital counterculture as part of her studies. In her book ''Digital Countercultures and the Struggle for Community'', she focused on the Brooklyn Drag community and their battle for a Queerer [[Facebook]] to meet their specific needs of social media utilization. In the drag culture, there are many holiday and festivals such as Halloween, New Year's Eve, and Bushwig that they celebrate over a vibrant queer nightlife. While utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook to post and record their cultural events, the drag community has noticed the large [[schism]] between its "queerer and more countercultural community of drag queens" and Facebook's claimed global community. This gap is further realized through Facebook's change in the [[Facebook real-name policy controversy|policy from "real-name" to "authentic-name"]] in 2015 when hundreds of [[drag queen]]s' accounts were frozen and shut down because they had not registered with their legal names. Communities with "queerer culture" culture and "marginalized needs" continue to struggle to fulfill their social media needs while balancing their counterculture identity in today's social media landscape where the internet is largely monopolized by several big technology firms.<ref name=Lingel17/>

== LGBTQ ==
{{See also|Gay Shame|Gay skinhead|LGBTQ music|Queercore}}

[[Gay liberation]] (considered a [[wikt:precursor|precursor]] of various modern [[LGBTQ social movements]]) was known for its links to the counterculture of the time (e.g. groups like the [[Radical Faeries]]), and for the gay liberationists' intent to transform or abolish fundamental institutions of society such as [[gender]] and the [[nuclear family]];<ref name="HoffmanIntro">Hoffman, Amy (2007) ''An Army of Ex-Lovers: My life at the Gay Community News''. University of Massachusetts Press. pp.xi-xiii. {{ISBN|978-1558496217}}</ref> in general, the politics were radical, [[anti-racism|anti-racist]], and [[anti-capitalist]] in nature.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/glf-london.html|title=Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto. London|orig-year=1971|year=1978|access-date=June 15, 2015|archive-date=April 30, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430002550/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/glf-london.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In order to achieve such liberation, [[consciousness raising]] and [[direct action]] were employed.<ref name="HoffmanIntro" />

At the outset of the 20th century, [[homosexual]] acts were punishable offenses in these countries.<ref>See [[sodomy law]] for more information</ref> The prevailing public attitude was that homosexuality was a moral failing that should be punished, as exemplified by [[Oscar Wilde]]'s 1895 trial and imprisonment for "gross indecency". But even then, there were dissenting views. [[Sigmund Freud]] publicly expressed his opinion that homosexuality was "assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development".<ref name="ErnstLFreud">Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (Vol. 7, pp.&nbsp;123–245). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1905) pp. 423–424</ref> According to Charles Kaiser's ''The Gay Metropolis'', there were already semi-public gay-themed gatherings by the mid-1930s in the United States (such as the annual [[Drag (clothing)|drag]] balls held during the [[Harlem Renaissance]]). There were also [[gay bar|bars]] and [[gay bathhouse|bathhouses]] that catered to gay clientele and adopted warning procedures (similar to those used by [[Prohibition]]-era [[speakeasy|speakeasies]]) to warn customers of police raids. But homosexuality was typically subsumed into [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] culture, and was not a significant movement in itself.<ref name="Gay Metro">{{cite book|last=Kaiser|first=C|year=1997|title=The Gay Metropolis|publisher=New York: Harcourt Brace|isbn=978-0-15-600617-0|url=https://archive.org/details/gaymetropolis19400kais}}</ref>

Eventually, a genuine [[gay culture]] began to take root, albeit very discreetly, with its own styles, attitudes and behaviors and industries began catering to this growing demographic group. For example, publishing houses cranked out [[pulp novel]]s like ''[[The Velvet Underground (book)|The Velvet Underground]]'' that were targeted directly at gay people. By the early 1960s, openly gay political organizations such as the [[Mattachine Society]] were formally protesting abusive treatment toward gay people, challenging the entrenched idea that homosexuality was an aberrant condition, and calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Despite very limited sympathy, American society began at least to acknowledge the existence of a sizable population of gays.

[[Disco|Disco music]] in large part rose out of the New York gay club scene of the early 1970s as a reaction to the stigmatization of gays and other outside groups such as blacks by the counterculture of that era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sagert |first=Kelly Boyer |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/232361470 |title=The 1970s |date=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-08522-2 |location=Westport, Conn. |pages=203–204 |oclc=232361470 |quote=During the late 1960s various male counterculture groups, most notably gay, but also heterosexual black and Latino, created an alternative to rock'n'roll, which was dominated by white—and presumably heterosexual—men. This alternative was disco.}}</ref><ref name="Partylikeits1975">{{Cite web |last=Voice |first=Village |date=2001-07-10 |title=Disco Double Take |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/07/10/disco-double-take/ |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=The Village Voice}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What's That Sound? |url=https://digital.wwnorton.com/whatsthatsound5 |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=digital.wwnorton.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Discomusic.com |url=http://www.discomusic.com/clubs-more/6363_0_6_0_C/ |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=www.discomusic.com}}</ref><ref name="Traces">(2002) "Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music", {{ISBN|978-0-8147-9809-6}}, p.117: "New York City was the primary center of disco, and the original audience was primarily gay African Americans and Latinos."</ref><ref>(1976) "Stereo Review", University of Michigan, p.75: "[..] and the result—what has come to be called disco—was clearly the most compelling and influential form of black commercial pop music since the halcyon days of the "[[Motown]] Sound" of the middle Sixties."</ref><ref name="Italian-americans and disco">Shapiro, Peter. "Turn the Beat Around: The Rise and Fall of Disco", Macmillan, 2006. p.204–206: "'Broadly speaking, the typical New York discotheque DJ is young (between 18 and 30), Italian, and gay,' journalist Vince Aletti declared in 1975...Remarkably, almost all of the important early DJs were of Italian extraction...Italian Americans have played a significant role in America's dance music culture...While Italian Americans mostly from Brooklyn largely created disco from scratch..." [https://books.google.com/books?id=GG1jtWGU0S8C&dq=disco+and+italian+americans&pg=PA205].</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38748136 |title=The Cambridge history of American music |date=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |others=David Nicholls |isbn=0-521-45429-8 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=372 |oclc=38748136 |quote=Initially, disco musicians and audiences alike belonged to marginalized communities: women, gay, black, and Latinos}}</ref> By later in the decade, disco was dominating the pop charts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/disco-ma0000002552|title=Disco Music Genre Overview|website=AllMusic}}</ref> The popular [[Village People]] and the critically acclaimed [[Sylvester (singer)|Sylvester]] had gay-themed lyrics and presentation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Village People Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-village-people-mn0000808201 |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=AllMusic |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sylvester-mn0000756291|title=Sylvester &#124; Biography, Albums, Streaming Links|website=AllMusic}}</ref>

Another element of [[LGBTQ]] counter-culture that began in the 1970s—and continues today—is the [[Womyn's land|lesbian land]], landdyke movement, or [[womyn's land]] movement.<ref>Anahita, Sine. "[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918360903054186 Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land]." ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 56 (2009):719.</ref> Radical feminists inspired by the [[back-to-the-land]] initiative and migrated to rural areas to create communities that were often female-only and/or lesbian communes.<ref>Lord, A., and Zajicek, A. M. "The history of the contemporary grassroots women's movement in northwest Arkansas, 1970–2000." Fayetteville, AR</ref> "Free Spaces" are defined by Sociologist Francesca Polletta as "small-scale settings within a community or movement that are removed from the direct control of dominant groups, are voluntarily participated in, and generate the cultural challenge that precedes or accompanies political mobilization.<ref>Polletta, Francesca. "Free Spaces in Collective Action" Theory and Society, 28/1. (Feb 1999):1.</ref> Women came together in Free Spaces like music festivals, activist groups and collectives to share ideas with like-minded people and to explore the idea of the lesbian land movement. The movement is closely tied to [[eco-feminism]].<ref>Anahita, Sine. "Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land." Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009):720-722.</ref>

The four tenets of the Landdyke Movement are relationship with the land, liberation and transformation, living the politics, and bodily Freedoms.<ref>Anahita, Sine. "Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land." Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009):720-719.</ref>  Most importantly, members of these communities seek to live outside of a [[patriarchal society]] that puts emphasis on "beauty ideals that discipline the female body, compulsive heterosexuality, competitiveness with other women, and dependence".<ref name="AnahitaSine">Anahita, Sine. "Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land". Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009):729.</ref> Instead of adhering typical female [[gender roles]], the women of Landdyke communities value "self-sufficiency, bodily strength, autonomy from men and patriarchal systems, and the development of lesbian-centered community".<ref name="AnahitaSine" /> Members of the Landdyke movement enjoy bodily freedoms that have been deemed unacceptable in the modern Western world—such as the freedom to expose their breasts, or to go without any clothing at all.<ref>Anahita, Sine. "Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land." Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009):734.</ref>  An awareness of their impact on the Earth, and connection to nature is essential members of the Landdyke Movement's way of life.<ref>Anahita, Sine. "Nestled Into Niches: Prefigurative Communities on Lesbian Land". Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009):732.</ref>

The watershed event in the American gay rights movement was the 1969 [[Stonewall riots]] in New York City. Following this event, gays and lesbians began to adopt the militant protest tactics used by [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|anti-war]] and [[black power]] radicals to confront anti-gay ideology. Another major turning point was the 1973 decision by the [[American Psychiatric Association]] to remove homosexuality from the official list of [[mental disorder]]s.<ref>Conger, J. J. (1975) "Proceedings of the American Psychological Association, Incorporated, for the year 1974: Minutes of the Annual meeting of the Council of Representatives." ''American Psychologist'', 30, 620-651.</ref> Although gay radicals used pressure to force the decision, Kaiser notes that this had been an issue of some debate for many years in the psychiatric community, and that one of the chief obstacles to normalizing homosexuality was that therapists were profiting from offering dubious, unproven "cures".<ref name="Gay Metro" />

The [[HIV/AIDS in the United States|AIDS epidemic]] was initially an unexpected blow to the movement, especially in North America. There was speculation that the disease would permanently drive gay life underground. Ironically, the tables were turned. Many of the early victims of the disease had been openly gay only within the confines of insular "gay ghettos" such as New York City's [[Greenwich Village]] and San Francisco's [[The Castro|Castro]]; they remained closeted in their professional lives and to their families. Many heterosexuals who thought they did not know any gay people were confronted by friends and loved ones dying of "the gay plague" (which soon began to infect [[heterosexuality|heterosexual]] people also). LGBTQ communities were increasingly seen not only as victims of a disease, but as victims of ostracism and hatred. Most importantly, the disease became a rallying point for a previously complacent gay community. AIDS invigorated the community politically to fight not only for a medical response to the disease, but also for wider acceptance of homosexuality in mainstream America.

During the early 1980s what was dubbed "[[New Music (music industry)|New Music]]", [[New wave music|New wave]], "New pop"  popularized by [[MTV]] and associated with [[gender bending]] [[Second British Invasion|Second British Music Invasion]] stars such as [[Boy George]] and [[Annie Lennox]] became what was described by [[Newsweek]] at the time as an alternate mainstream to the traditional masculine/heterosexual rock music in the United States.<ref name="Sullivan">{{Cite web |title=Triumph of the New |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qQhKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sx4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2933,2175658&dq=new-music+new-wave&hl=en |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=news.google.com}}</ref><ref name="Reynolds">Rip it Up and Start Again Post Punk 1978-1984 by [[Simon Reynolds]] United States Edition pp. 332-352</ref><ref>Cateforis, Theo. ''Are We Not New Wave Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s''. The University of Michigan Press, 2011. {{ISBN|0-472-03470-7}}.</ref>

In 2003, the [[United States Supreme Court]] officially declared all [[sodomy]] laws unconstitutional in ''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-102.pdf |title=LAWRENCE ET AL. v. TEXAS|date= June 26, 2003 |access-date=March 2, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304114335/http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-102.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2007 }}</ref>

== History ==
Bill Osgerby argues that:
<blockquote>the counterculture's various strands developed from earlier artistic and political movements. On both sides of the Atlantic the 1950s "[[Beat Generation]]" had fused [[Existentialism|existentialist philosophy]] with [[jazz]], [[poetry]], [[literature]], [[Eastern religions|Eastern]] [[mysticism]], and [[drugs]]—themes that were all sustained in the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s counterculture]].<ref>Bill Osgerby, "Youth Culture" in Paul Addison and Harriet Jones, eds. ''A Companion to Contemporary Britain: 1939–2000'' (2005) pp. 127–44, quote at p. 132.</ref></blockquote>

=== United States ===
{{Main|Counterculture of the 1960s|Timeline of 1960s counterculture}}
{{Further|Anti-nuclear movement|Opposition to the Vietnam War|Sexual revolution}}
[[File:Abbie Hoffman visiting the University of Oklahoma circa 1969.jpg|thumb|right|[[Abbie Hoffman]], leader of the countercultural protest group the [[Yippies]]]]

In the United States, the counterculture of the 1960s became identified with the rejection of conventional [[social norms]] of the 1950s. Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially with respect to [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] and initial widespread support for the [[Vietnam War]],<ref name="Eric Donald Hirsch 1993 p 419"/><ref>Mary Works Covington, ''Rockin' At the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock'', 2005.</ref> and, less directly, the [[Cold War]]—with many young people fearing that America's [[nuclear arms race]] with the [[Soviet Union]], coupled with its involvement in Vietnam, would lead to a [[nuclear holocaust]].

In the United States, widespread tensions developed in the 1960s in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the [[Vietnam War]], [[race relations]], [[Sexual revolution|sexual mores]], [[women's rights]], traditional modes of authority, and a [[Economic materialism|materialist]] interpretation of the [[American Dream]]. White, [[middle class]] youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture in [[Western world|Western countries]]—had sufficient leisure time, thanks to widespread economic [[prosperity]], to turn their attention to [[social issues]].<ref name="Conscience"/> These social issues included support for [[civil rights]], [[Women's rights#Modern movements|women's rights]], and [[LGBTQ rights movements]], and [[opposition to the Vietnam War]]. The counterculture also had access to a media which was eager to present their concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for [[social justice]] created far-reaching changes affecting many aspects of society. [[Hippies]] became the largest countercultural group in the United States.<ref name="Yablonsky, Lewis 1968 pp 21-37"/>

{{Quote box
| quote  = "The 60s were a leap in [[human consciousness]]. [[Mahatma Gandhi]], [[Malcolm X]], [[Martin Luther King]], [[Che Guevara]], [[Mother Teresa]], they led a [[Revolution#Political and socioeconomic revolutions|revolution]] of conscience. [[The Beatles]], [[The Doors]], [[Jimi Hendrix]] created revolution and evolution themes. The music was like [[Salvador Dalí|Dalí]], with many colors and revolutionary ways. The youth of today must go there to find themselves."
| source = — [[Carlos Santana]]<ref>[http://puntodigital.com/carlos-santana-im-immortal/224228/ Carlos Santana: I'm Immortal] interview by ''Punto Digital'', October 13, 2010</ref>
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Rejection of [[mainstream culture]] was best embodied in the new genres of [[psychedelic rock]] music, [[pop art]], and new explorations in [[spirituality]]. Musicians who exemplified this era in the United Kingdom and United States included [[The Beatles]], [[John Lennon]], &nbsp;[[Neil Young]], [[Bob Dylan]], [[The Grateful Dead]], [[Jefferson Airplane]], [[Jimi Hendrix]], [[The Doors]], [[Frank Zappa]], [[The Rolling Stones]], [[Velvet Underground]], [[Janis Joplin]], [[The Who]], [[Joni Mitchell]], [[The Kinks]], [[Sly and the Family Stone]]<ref>Vincent, Rickey. &nbsp;[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sly-and-the-Family-Stone "Sly and the Family Stone."] &nbsp;''Encyclopædia Britannica''.  Retrieved from www.Britannica.com, 22 December 2018.</ref> and, in their early years, [[Chicago (band)|Chicago]]. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, with large outdoor rock festivals being the most noteworthy. The climactic live statement on this occurred from August 15–18, 1969, with the ''[[Woodstock]] Music Festival'' held in [[Bethel, New York]]—with 32 of [[rock music|rock]]'s and [[psychedelic rock]]'s most popular acts performing live outdoors during the sometimes rainy weekend to an audience of half a million people. ([[Michael Lang (producer)|Michael Lang]] stated 400,000 attended, half of which did not have a ticket.)<ref name = "NY Times Aug 27, 1969">{{cite news | title = State Investigating Handling of Tickets At Woodstock Fair | work = [[The New York Times]] | page = 45 | date = August 27, 1969|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/27/archives/state-investigating-handling-of-tickets-at-woodstock-fair.html}}</ref> It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history—with ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' calling it one of the ''50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll''.<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6085488/woodstock_in_1969| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209163601/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6085488/woodstock_in_1969| url-status=dead| archive-date=February 9, 2007| title=Woodstock in 1969| date=June 24, 2004| access-date=April 17, 2008| magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> According to Bill Mankin, "It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the 'Woodstock Generation'."<ref>Mankin, Bill. &nbsp;[http://likethedew.com/2012/03/04/we-can-all-join-in-how-rock-festivals-helped-change-america/ ''We Can All Join In: How Rock Festivals Helped Change America''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219032259/http://likethedew.com/2012/03/04/we-can-all-join-in-how-rock-festivals-helped-change-america/ |date=December 19, 2013 }}. Like the Dew. 2012.</ref>

Songs, movies, TV shows, and other entertainment media with socially-conscious themes—some allegorical, some literal—became very numerous and popular in the 1960s. Counterculture-specific sentiments expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period included things such as "do your own thing", "[[turn on, tune in, drop out]]", "whatever turns you on", "[[eight miles high]]", "[[Wine, women and song|sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll]]", and "[[Light My Fire|light my fire]]". Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in [[astrology]], the term "[[Age of Aquarius]]" and knowing people's [[astrological signs]] of the [[Zodiac]]. This led Theodore Roszak to state "A {{sic}} eclectic taste for [[Mysticism|mystic]], [[occult]], and magical phenomena has been a marked characteristic of our [[post-war]] [[youth culture]] since the days of the [[beatnik]]s."<ref name=TRbook/> In the United States, even actor [[Charlton Heston]] contributed to the movement, with the statement "Don't trust anyone over thirty" (a saying coined in 1965 by activist [[Jack Weinberg]]) in the 1968 film ''[[Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes]]''; the same year, actress and social activist [[Jane Fonda]] starred in the sexually-themed ''[[Barbarella (film)|Barbarella]]''. Both actors [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|opposed the Vietnam War]] during its duration, and Fonda would eventually become controversially active in the [[peace movement]].

The counterculture in the United States has been interpreted as lasting roughly from 1964 to 1972<ref name="Reason">{{cite book|last=Riech|first=Robert|title=Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4000-4221-0|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|title-link=Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America}} Chapter 1, pp. 13-14</ref>—coincident with America's involvement in Vietnam—and reached its peak in August 1969 at the Woodstock Festival, New York, characterized in part by the film ''[[Easy Rider]]'' (1969). Unconventional or [[Psychedelia|psychedelic dress]]; political activism; public protests; campus uprisings; pacifist then loud, defiant music; [[Recreational drug use|recreational drugs]]; [[Communitarianism|communitarian experiments]], and [[sexual liberation]] were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture—most of whose members were young, White, and [[middle class]].<ref>Ankony, Robert C., "Counterculture of the 1960s," ''Criminology Brief of Theorists, Theories, and Terms'', CFM Research, Jul. 2012. p.36.</ref>

[[File:Vietnamdem.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|left|A demonstrator offers a flower to military police at an [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War protest]] in [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]], [[Virginia]], 21 October 1967]]
In the United States, the movement divided the population. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of [[free speech]], [[social equality]], [[world peace]], and [[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness|the pursuit of happiness]]; to others, they reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on the country's traditional [[Argument from morality|moral order]]. Authorities banned the psychedelic drug [[LSD]], restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered [[obscenity]] in books, music, theater, and other media.

The counterculture has been argued to have diminished in the early 1970s, and some have attributed two reasons for this. First, it has been suggested that the most popular of its political goals—[[civil rights]], [[civil liberties]], [[gender equality]], [[environmentalism]], and [[Opposition to Vietnam War|the end of the Vietnam War]]—were  "accomplished" (to at least some degree); and also that its most popular social attributes—particularly a "[[wikt:live and let live|live and let live]]" mentality in personal lifestyles (including, but not limited to the "[[sexual revolution]]")—were co-opted by mainstream society.<ref name="Conscience"/><ref name="Beatles">{{cite book|last=Yenne|first=Bill|title=The Beatles|year=1989|isbn=978-0-681-00576-1|publisher=Longmeadow Press}} pp. 46-55</ref> Second, a decline of idealism and [[hedonism]] occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, the rest settled into mainstream society and started their own families, and the "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to the [[1973–75 recession|stagflation of the 1970s]]<ref name="Conscience">{{cite book|last=Krugman|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Krugman|title=The Conscience of a Liberal|year=2007|isbn=978-0-393-06069-0|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.|title-link=The Conscience of a Liberal}} Chapter 5. Economist Paul Krugman comments on the effects of the economy on the counterculture: "In fact," he argues, "you have to wonder whether the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] [[recession]] of 1969-1971 [which nearly doubled the [[unemployment rate]]] didn't do more to end the [[Hippies|hippie movement]] than the killings at [[Altamont, California|Altamont]]."</ref>—the latter costing many in the middle-classes the luxury of being able to live outside conventional [[social institution]]s. The counterculture, however, continues to influence [[social movement]]s, art, music, and society in general, and the post-1973 mainstream society has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and counterculture.<ref name="Beatles"/>

The counterculture movement has been said to be rejuvenated in a way that maintains some similarities from the Counterculture of the 1960s, but it is different as well. Photographer [[Steve Schapiro]] investigated and documented these contemporary hippie communities from 2012 to 2014. He traveled the country with his son, attending festival after festival. These findings were compiled in Schapiro's book ''Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie.'' One of his most valued findings was that these "Neo Hippies" experience and encourage such a spiritual commitment to the community.

===Australia===

[[File:Oz-31-cover.jpg|thumb|1971 edition of the Australian [[underground press]] magazine ''[[Oz (magazine)|Oz]]'']]

Australia's countercultural trend followed the one burgeoning in the US, and to a lesser extent than the one in Great Britain. Political scandals in the country, such as the [[disappearance of Harold Holt]], and the [[1975 Australian constitutional crisis|1975 constitutional crisis]], as well as Australia's involvement in [[Vietnam War]], led to a disillusionment or disengagement with political figures and the government. Large protests were held in the country's most populated cities such as [[Sydney]] and [[Melbourne]], one prominent march was held in Sydney in 1971 on [[George Street, Sydney|George Street]]. The photographer [[Roger Scott (photographer)|Roger Scott]], who captured the protest in front of the [[Queen Victoria Building]], remarked: "I knew I could make a point with my camera. It was exciting. The old conservative world was ending and a new Australia was beginning. The demonstration was almost silent. The atmosphere was electric. The protesters were committed to making their presence felt … It was clear they wanted to show the government that they were mighty unhappy".<ref>{{cite web|title=Vietnam march George street|work=[[Art Gallery of New South Wales]]|date=2007|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/114.1989/|access-date=31 January 2018}}</ref>

Political upheaval made its way into art in the country: film, music and literature were shaped by the ongoing changes both within the country, the Southern Hemisphere and the rest of the world. Bands such as The Master's Apprentices, [[The Pink Finks]] and Normie Rowe & The Playboys, along with Sydney's [[The Easybeats]], [[Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs]] and [[The Missing Links (band)|The Missing Links]] began to emerge in the 1960s.

One of Australia's most noted literary voices of the counter-culture movement was [[Frank Moorhouse]], whose collection of short stories, ''Futility and Other Animals'', was first published in [[Sydney]] 1969.<ref name="Rickard">{{cite book|first=John|last=Rickard|title=Australia: A Cultural History|pages=224|year=2017|publisher=[[Monash University Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-921867-60-6}}</ref> Its "discontinuous narrative" was said to reflect the "ambience of the counter-culture".<ref name="Rickard" /> [[Helen Garner]]'s ''[[Monkey Grip (novel)|Monkey Grip]]'' (1977), released eight years later, is considered a classic example of the contemporary Australian novel, and captured the thriving countercultural movement in Melbourne's inner-city in the mid 1970s, specifically [[open relationships]] and recreational drug use.<ref>{{cite book|title=Monkey grip / Helen Garner|via=[[National Library of Australia]]|access-date=2 April 2018|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7045527|isbn=9781742282138|last1=Garner|first1=Helen|date=2008-03-03|publisher=Penguin Random House Australia }}</ref><ref name="PostColonial">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English|pages=564|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2004|isbn=978-1-134468-48-5}}</ref> Years later, Garner revealed it was strongly autobiographical and based on her own diaries.<ref name="PostColonial" /> Additionally, from the 1960s, [[surf culture]] took rise in Australia given the abundance of beaches in the country, and this was reflected in art, from bands such as [[The Atlantics]] and novels like ''[[Puberty Blues (novel)|Puberty Blues]]'' as well as the [[Puberty Blues (film)|film of the same name]].

===Great Britain===
Starting in the late 1960s the [[counterculture movement]] spread quickly and pervasively from the US.<ref>Elizabeth Nelson, ''The British Counter-Culture, 1966-73: A Study of the Underground Press'' (1989) [https://books.google.com/books?id=dAuwCwAAQBAJ excerpt]</ref>  Britain did not experience the intense social turmoil produced in America by the [[Vietnam War]] and racial tensions. Nevertheless, British youth readily identified with their American counterparts' desire to cast off the older generation's social mores. The new music was a powerful weapon. Rock music, which had first been introduced from the US in the 1950s, became a key instrument in the social uprisings of the young generation and Britain soon became a groundswell of musical talent thanks to groups like [[the Beatles]], [[Rolling Stones]], [[the Who]], [[Pink Floyd]], and more in coming years.<ref>Steven D. Stark, ''Meet the Beatles: a cultural history of the band that shook youth, gender, and the world'' (2005).</ref><ref>Barry J. Faulk, ''British rock modernism, 1967-1977: the story of music hall in rock'' (2016).</ref><ref>William Osgerby, ''Youth in Britain since 1945'' (1998)</ref>

The antiwar movement in Britain closely collaborated with their American counterparts, supporting peasant insurgents in the Asian jungles.<ref>Sylvia A. Ellis, "[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13507486.2014.933186 Promoting solidarity at home and abroad: the goals and tactics of the anti-Vietnam War movement in Britain]." ''European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire 21.4'' (2014): 557-576.</ref>  The  "[[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament|Ban the Bomb]]" protests centered around opposition to [[nuclear weaponry]]; the campaign gave birth to what was to become the [[peace symbol]] of the 1960s.

=== Soviet Union ===
Although not exactly equivalent to the English definition, the term Контркультура (''Kontrkul'tura'') became common in [[Soviet Union]] ([[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian underground]]   and other) to define a 1990s [[cultural movement]] that promoted acting outside of cultural conventions: the use of explicit language; graphical descriptions of sex, violence and illicit activities; and uncopyrighted use of "safe" characters involved in such activities.

During the early 1970s, the [[Soviet government]] rigidly promoted optimism in Russian culture. Divorce and alcohol abuse were viewed as taboo by the media. However, Russian society grew weary of the gap between real life and the creative world,{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} and underground culture became "forbidden fruit". General satisfaction with the quality of existing works led to parody, such as how the [[Russian joke|Russian anecdotal joke]] tradition turned the setting of ''[[War and Peace]]'' by [[Leo Tolstoy]] into a grotesque world of sexual excess. Another well-known example is [[Russian humour#Black humour|black humor]] (mostly in the form of short poems) that dealt exclusively with funny deaths and/or other mishaps of small, innocent children.

In the mid-1980s, the [[Glasnost]] policy permitted the production of less optimistic works. As a consequence, Soviet (and Russian) cinema during the late 1980s and the early 1990s manifested in [[action movie]]s with explicit (but not necessarily graphic) scenes of ruthless violence and social dramas about [[drug abuse]], [[prostitution]] and failing relationships. Although Russian movies of the time would be [[MPAA rating system|rated "R"]] in the United States due to violence, the use of explicit language was much milder than in American cinema.

In the late 1990s, Soviet counterculture became increasingly popular on the [[Internet]]. Several websites appeared that posted user-created short stories dealing with sex, drugs and violence. The following features are considered the most popular topics in such works:

* Wide use of explicit language;
* Deliberate misspelling;
* Descriptions of drug use and consequences of abuse;
* Negative portrayals of alcohol use;
* Sex and violence: nothing is a taboo – in general, violence is rarely advocated, while all types of sex are considered good;
* [[Parody]]: media advertising, classic movies, [[popular culture|pop culture]] and children's books are considered fair game;
* Non-conformance; and
* [[Politically incorrect]] topics, mostly [[racism]], [[xenophobia]] and [[homophobia]].

A notable aspect of counterculture at the time was the influence of contra-cultural developments on Russian pop culture. In addition to traditional Russian styles of music, such as songs with jail-related lyrics, new music styles with explicit language were developed.

=== Asia ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2022}}
[[Sebastian Kappen]], an [[India]]n theologian, has tried to redefine counterculture in the Asian context. In March 1990, at a seminar in Bangalore, he presented his countercultural perspectives (chapter 4 in S. Kappen, ''Tradition, modernity, counterculture: an Asian perspective'', Visthar, Bangalore, 1994). Kappen envisages counterculture as a new culture that has to negate the two opposing cultural phenomena in Asian countries:
#invasion by Western [[capitalism|capitalist]] culture, and
#the emergence of [[Christian revival|revivalist]] movements.
Kappen writes, "Were we to succumb to the first, we should be losing our identity; if to the second, ours would be a false, obsolete identity in a mental universe of dead symbols and delayed myths".

The most important countercultural movement in India had taken place in the state of [[West Bengal]] during the 1960s by a group of poets and artists who called themselves [[Hungry Generation|Hungryalists]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Society}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Alternative culture]]
*[[Alternative housing]]
*[[Alternative lifestyle]]
*[[Anti-establishment]]
*[[Avant-garde]]
*[[Beat generation]]
*[[Beatnik]]
*[[Bohemianism]]
*[[Bomb Culture]]
*[[Brand community]]
*[[Cannabis and LGBT culture]]
*[[Civil disobedience]]
*[[Non-conformists of the 1930s]]
*[[Counterculture of the 1960s]]
*[[Counter-economics]]
*[[Culture jamming]]
*''[[Dialectic of Enlightenment]]''
*[[Flag theory]]
*[[Flower power]]
*[[Freak scene]]
*[[Guerrilla theatre]]
*[[Hippie movement]]
*[[La Movida Madrileña]]
*[[Nambassa]]
*[[Neotribalism]]
*[[Nonconformity to the world|Nonconformity]]
*[[Paradigm shift]]
*[[Peace movement]]
*[[Psychedelic movement]]
*[[Punk subculture]]
*[[Radicalization]]
*[[Rebellion]]
*[[Revolution]]
*[[Second-wave feminism]]
*[[Subculture]]
*[[Timeline of 1960s counterculture]]
*[[Turn on, tune in, drop out]]
*[[Underground (British subculture)]]
*[[Ukrainian underground]] 
*[[Underground culture]]
*[[User revolt]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite journal| last=Bennett| first=Andy| year=2012 | title= Reappraising "counterculture" | journal=Volume!| volume=9| issue=1| pages=19–31|url=http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=VOLU_091_0019 | doi=10.4000/volume.2941}}
*Curl, John (2007), ''Memories of Drop City, The First Hippie Commune of the 1960s and the Summer of Love, a memoir,'' iUniverse. {{ISBN|0-595-42343-4}}. https://web.archive.org/web/20090413150607/http://red-coral.net/DropCityIndex.html
*Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (Vol. 7, pp.&nbsp;123–245). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1905)
*Gelder, Ken (2007), ''[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134181278 Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice],'' London: Routledge.
*Goffman, Ken (2004), ''Counterculture through the ages'' Villard Books {{ISBN|0-375-50758-2}}
*[[Joseph Heath|Heath, Joseph]] and [[Andrew Potter]] (2004) ''[[Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture]]'' Collins Books {{ISBN|0-06-074586-X}}
*Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo (2009), ''Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture''. University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN|978-0700616336}}
*Hall, Stuart and Tony Jefferson (1991), ''[http://www.academia.edu/download/34681481/Resistance_through_Rituals.pdf Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-war Britain]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}},'' London: Routledge.
*Hazlehurst, Cameron and Kayleen M. Hazlehurst (1998), ''[https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2017-0-51089-9&isbn=9781351290630&format=googlePreviewPdf Gangs and Youth Subcultures: International Explorations],'' New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers.
*Hebdige, Dick (1979), ''[http://www.academia.edu/download/37565438/Literary_Theory_-_An_Anthology_Blackwell_Anthologies_by_Julie_Rivkin___Michael_Ryan.pdf#page=1279 Subculture: the Meaning of Style]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}},'' London & New York: Routledge.
*Paul Hodkinson and Wolfgang Deicke (2007), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LUS7LPxp4yEC&q=subculture Youth Cultures Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes],'' New York: Routledge.
*Macfarlane, Scott (2007),''The Hippie Narrative: A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture,'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co Inc, {{ISBN|0-7864-2915-1}} & {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2915-8}}.
*McKay, George (1996), ''Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties''. London Verso. {{ISBN|1-85984-028-0}}.
*Nelson, Elizabeth (1989), ''The British Counterculture 1966-73: A Study of the Underground Press''. London: Macmillan.
*[[Theodore Roszak (scholar)|Roszak, Theodore]] (1968) ''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]''.
*Isadora Tast (2009), ''Mother India. Searching For a Place.'' Berlin: Peperoni Books, {{ISBN|978-3-941825-00-0}}
* {{cite journal| last=Whiteley| first=Sheila| year=2012 | title=Countercultures: Music, Theories & Scenes | journal=Volume! | volume=91| issue=1|url=http://www.cairn.info/revue-volume-2012-1-page-5.htm }}
* {{cite journal| last=Whiteley| first=Sheila| year=2012 |url=http://www.cairn.info/revue-volume-2012-2.htm | title=Countercultures: Utopias, Dystopias, Anarchy| journal=Volume! }}
* Whiteley, Sheila and Sklower, Jedediah (2014), ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20160102235546/http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472421067 Countercultures and Popular Music]'', Farnham: [[Ashgate Publishing]], {{ISBN|978-1-4724-2106-7}}.
* Беляев, И. А. [http://culturolog.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2051&Itemid=6 Культура, субкультура, контркультура] / И. А. Беляев, Н. А. Беляева // Духовность и государственность. Сборник научных статей. Выпуск 3; под ред. И. А. Беляева. — Оренбург: Филиал УрАГС в г. Оренбурге, 2002. — С. 5-18.
*[[Yinger, John Milton]] (1982). ''Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a World Turned Upside Down''. New York: Free Press.

==External links==
{{wiktionary|counterculture}}
{{commons}}
{{wikiquote}}
*[https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2009/jul/17/international-times-underground-newspaper Dugald Baird, ''How International Times sparked a publishing revolution,'' The Guardian, 17 July 2009]
*[http://www.robertankony.net/publications/perspectives "Perspectives", ''Vietnam'' magazine, World History Group, Leesburg, VA, (Aug. 2002):58-62.]

{{Social philosophy}}
{{Counterculture of the 1960s|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Counterculture| ]]
[[Category:Majority–minority relations]]