
What subversive thing will be mainstream tomorrow? - msvan
http://martinsvanberg.com/mainstream-subversion
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jeremysmyth
I think the premise is mistaken, and the so is the meaning taken from David
Bowie's comment (that if he'd started in 2000 he'd not have entered the music
business because it was no longer subversive).

David Bowie started making music in the early-mid 60s, which was the era of
doo-wop, sha-la-la, Louie Louie, and other popular but mainstream (and not
even slightly subversive) music. It so happens that the 60s also gave us the
Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Yes, Genesis, and so on, but it's
_so easy_ to take what we like from that era and remember only that.

The era of the 2000s that Bowie says is not subversive also gave us innovation
in music and other art. The same thing can be said even of this year. Music
might have been _a dominant_ means of novel creative expression in the 60s
(although television was in a massive ascendancy, and the Beat poets and
investigative journalism were also hugely influential in other areas), but it
was no more subversive then than it is today when you consider NiN, Skrillex,
and the constant innovation in indie rock and EDM.

The reason the Internet might have been considered "subversive" by this
article in the 2000s (and music less so) is that it was on the boundary
between innovation and mainstream, as was Bowie's brand of music in the 60s
and 70s. It's nothing to do with authority and everything to do with a new
generation creating something without heeding the status quo, without sticking
within the established norms.

 _This_ , if anything, is what the article describes. Not subversion, but
innovation beyond the established norms. When someone in their late teens or
early twenties starts creating, they often do so by solving problems in new
ways that are not based on existing solutions or patterns, and sometimes that
act of creation from relative ignorance creates entirely new norms.

Applying that thought to now: The Internet is now mainstream, but the
innovation that has not yet become mainstream is that which is controversial,
that which laws and regulations have not yet caught up with. Social media and
social content platforms (Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter) started in an
era where they didn't have to deal with trolls until they arrived, which meant
they could do the fun stuff first and _then_ raise the bar as the bad parts of
society (griefers, regulations, nannying) caught up. A new platform in the
same space has to reach _that_ bar to _get started_. Topics that are currently
in that space between innovation and mainstream acceptance (hence regulation
and nannying) might include privacy/encryption, P2P, geographical presence
sharing and decoupling, piracy, gender/sexuality issues, drug taking and
distribution, or any of a number of other things that create tension due to
being innovated faster than the status quo can keep up.

Some of those things look "subversive" in the classical sense, but in reality
it's technology moving at the leading edge of society and society catching up,
rather than anything to do with authority.

