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My guest is Jason L Myles, a writer, musician, and podcaster. He is the host of This is Revolution. We explore the overlapping spheres of online politics and music subcultures.
In the mid-2010s, political factions on social media replaced musical genres as the primary mode of youth subculture. But can a subculture ever scale to a mass politics? We discuss the related themes of identity formation, rebellion and revolution.
Teenage identity formation is often a process of defining ones self in opposition to larger cultural and institutional forces. Each generation has its own timely theme of rebellion or “punk rock”. From its early origins, punk music was interpreted as edgy or dangerous because it was adjacent to certain revolutionary themes. Popular performers wore anarchy symbols and promised to radically transform society (or at least they seemed to).
After social media induced a new era of culture war — all aspects of society have now become imbued with a similar political subtext. Today, everything we consume is also considered a political act; from media, to consumer products or even our food. (It sounds silly but online personalities will commonly describe merely avoiding seed oils as a literal “revolt” against modernity.) Similarly, everything we produce is now also an endorsement of certain factions or affiliations. Even tweets have become an act of #resistance.
During the Trump era, liberal culture branded itself as the opposition to conservative dominated institutions. Simultaneously, conservative politicians branded themselves as insurgents against a liberal dominated media. Part of today’s cultural confusion is the disappearance of any mainstream or a clear definition of counterculture. In today’s environment, everything is somehow opposition and everything is “punk rock”.
Meanwhile, music’s political subtext has become increasingly diluted. We still have mass culture war flashpoints, like Bad Bunny at the Superbowl, but no one is handing out revolutionary Earth Liberation Front literature at the DIY punk show. The streaming economy transformed music into an increasingly accessible and consumable good. Social rituals and in-group signifiers quickly dissipated into consumer habits. Once uploaded, culture can no longer remain niche or “underground”.
In major cities, independent venues have been forced close due to the increasing cost of rent. This lack of physical space has further pushed youth culture out from the IRL social experience and up into the cloud of digital platforms. Taken together, social media feeds have subsumed nearly all of youth culture. Jason and I explore this ongoing dynamic of politics and subculture in today’s episode:
Jason Myles: Punk Rock & the Politics of Subculture | Doomscroll
On this week’s bonus episode we discuss Jason’s background in music and his early political experiences. Are we being radicalized by mass media? Or are we being radicalized by real life?
If you’d like to hear more TIR, check out some of these classic videos:
What Jordan Peele Gets Wrong About Race ft Toure Reed and Catherine Liu
Toxic Perverts of the Left ft Amber A’Lee Frost and Ben Burgis
You can read Jason’s writing in Damage Magazine, Sublation Mag, Current Affairs and more.
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Oh shit! Happy to see Jason on here