Counter culture or alternative scene
In the 60’s the were mods and rockers.
In the 70’s there was punk.
In the 80’s there was hip hop/rap. (Which shaped the way i view the world to this day).
Then there was the rave/house scenes.

All were music movements which influenced the wider world.

Do kids today have something equivalent, or am i too old and have missed it?

It has hundreds of them, all of those counter cultures and more. It’s not alternative scenes that have died, it’s the mainstream that’s dwindled.

Good question, youth cultures are traditionally based around music, the music scene across lots of genres is certainly very active but the question should/might be are todays youth are too busy looking at their phones? maybe one based around an online life/gaming as well as music might be more pertinent.

All the hep cats are listening to skiffle ‘n bass these days.

Jekkyl, that’s what i was thinking.
The ‘scene’ around music is no longer there as far as i can see. I’m sure kids are in virtual, online, cliques or gaming scenes.
Halo seems to have a big following. Is it the same though?

The ‘scene’ around music is no longer there as far as i can see. I’m sure kids are in virtual, online, cliques or gaming scenes.

I work over the road from a major gig venue. I reckon the hundreds of teenagers who queue up outside it most days would disagree.

Lemonysam,
what are they queuing up to see?

Music has become a disposable consumer commodity, so it’s hard to see how a counter-culture could grow up around it. For a counter culture to develop around music people must feel an ownership over it, but music today is free and abundant. How can anyone feel any sense of ownership over a particular few slots out of 100,000 on an iPod library?

Compounding this is the fact that we now live in such an interconnected world that the second any counter-culture gains even the slightest bit of traction it’s recognised, categorised, packaged and sold back to the kids that created it for the profit of their elders.

It’s unlikely the next serious counter-culture movement will be driven by music. And it’s likely that when it comes it’ll terrify the establishment far more than punk ever did.

Mcat, huge underground zombie Mcat scene.

Was reading something about this the other day, their conclusion was that, there are still scenes, they just happen in a blink of an eye these days.

They gave the reason with something like punk, you made a real investment to be part of that scene, you spent a few weeks wages on shoes, another few weeks wages on clothes, and wore them till they wore out, scenes had more longevity.

Now, for not wanting to be out of fashion or maybe because the internets speeded everything up so much, movements are just a lot more fleeting, almost like memes or something.

I am over 30 mind so really, I have no idea…

Interesting thread this, and I reckon jackthedog pretty much nails it.
There is certainly a really strong metal/goth scene going though; metalheads are a bit like cockroaches, it’ll take armageddon to wipe them out!

As Jack Black so eloquently put it:

No one can destroy the metal

Do kids today have something equivalent, or am i too old and have missed it?

Religion