Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Impact of culture on consumer behaviour
An essay on consumer culture
An essay on consumer culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Impact of culture on consumer behaviour
There are a few number of people that believes counter culture does not exists anymore. They claim that it is now merely a commodity that can be bought and sold like any other product. Some others disagree. Personally, I agree with the former group. This piece of writing will analyse this statement of whether counter culture is only a commodity or not. First I’m going to explain how counter culture starts and what is consumerism. Then I’m going to analyse how it is commodified and the connection between consumerism. Then I will discuss how the consumerism affect counter cultural group’s lifestyle in the past. Then I’m going to give a few examples of different counter cultural people and groups from different countries and I will state my counter-argument. Finally I will conclude my argument and state my opinion on this. According to Oxford Dictionary, counter culture is “a way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm“. It exist because of different attitudes on how to live a lifestyle. Some people are going with the mainstream society but others want to make a difference and they form a group to oppose it. Consumerism is one of the lifestyle that mostly counter cultural groups are opposed to, it …show more content…
Mostly people nowadays just go with the mainstream, they use music and fashion to say they are a part of counter culture but they did not really live the lifestyle of a counter culture. There are also significant number of people that are taking advantages of counter culture to attract consumers through music and fashion. People are using the name of counter culture to commerce, though it is not particularly a bad thing but if this continues than counter culture will really only be a commodity, nothing more and nothing
The chosen article is Two Cheers for Consumerism by James Twitchell. In this article he talks about consumerism, commercialism, and materialism. He argues the stand point of consumers and the role they live by every day. In other hands the critics, Academy, gives the consumers and overview description to their consumers.
Counterculture (Pg. 48)- a group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture
Richard Louv attempts to question the modern consumer culture of the United States by juxtaposing the complexity of purchasing a modern “Mercedes SUV” with the simplicity of staring out the window of a car. Louv uses a multitude of images to remind his audience ¬¬ who are likely the same age as he is ¬¬ of their childhood experiences. Louv also uses personal anecdotes to promote the drastic differences between simple wholesome actions and the modern consumer culture. His use of rhetorical questions also helps the reader in his/her attempt to understand that, “people no longer consider the physical world worth watching.” Louv’s use of technically specific words like, “municipalities” helps him to qualify his statements. The use of rhetorical
As the 1950’s rolled along and the 1960’s came into effect, the world was thrown into a topspin that would soon define every generation of youths. As the trends changed and the music got more complex a deeper metamorphosis was taking place inside every city and every person. To develop a counterculture in the 1960’s there had to be new ideas circulating that were counter-norm. These ideas were not developed right away for any one reason, though. Just like the times, the causes for this counter-culture were far more complex than anyone had seen before in the 20th century. Some could say it was because of a civil rights call or say it was because of the drugs, but I just don’t know if anyone could really pin it to one key cause.
In historical context the rise of the free market industries is at its peak. In the year 1999 oil industries, electronics, fast food, clothing lines hit the front line. For the first time ever poor people are able to have what rich people have. Keeping up with the Jones, as many people say. There is this mindset of get it now and pay for it later. This leave most of the working class in debt. While consumers get the latest luxuries they are being “Consumed by Consumerism” (Domigpe). We have all become slaves to the brands of everything we buy. For example, when new electronics come out on the market that is mostly a want, but looks awesome, we buy it to keep up with the Jones and also because the advertisements tell us to. We also need the companies to live, because without them there is no employment. “Because of this circle, which is hanging over everybody in a modern society, the capitalists have pushed us into a place, where consumerism and capitalism go hand in hand” (Denzin). With the deb...
The counter culture of the 1920’s has affected the way the American lifestyle is today. Counter culture is a culture that primarily consists of younger people, with values and lifestyles opposing those of the original established culture. (Dictionary.com) A need for change. The 1920’s are also known as the “Jazz Age,” which was coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the “Roaring Twenties.” It was a decade of change.
There are many people who are driven by consumerism and many people who wish they can get in touch with that type of world. Consumers are often promoted to advertise more of the products that they are buying to get more people to buy more products. Hari Kunzru, author of “Raj, Bohemian,” creates a narrator who is obsessed with maintaining his individuality and free will in a world that is overcome with consumerism. Believes that the world takes away individuality when consumerism comes into play and how hard it is to maintain their true self. In her LA Times article “Teen Haulers Create a Fashion Force,” Andrea Chang writes about the phenomenon of teenage Youtube users who make videos that publicize their latest shopping binges. She expresses
Ultimately, the counterculture movement spread its values opposing the mainstream norms of the 1950s through the New Left, the anti-war movement, and the Hippie movement. All these movements urged people to not conform and accept new ideas and different ways of life. Today, a sense of consensus still exists, and there are not enough people or groups willing to fight against the contemporary conformity. Everyone likes how it feels to fit in. However, copying others should be the last thing on one’s mind. Everyone should truly adhere to the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world that constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley is a science-fiction book in which people live in a futuristic society and a place called the World State. In ‘Brave New World’, Aldous Huxley used the idea of consumerism to describe the behaviors and lives of the citizens of the World State. The practice of consumerism by the people of the World State fulfilled their satisfactory and happiness. However, it also blinded purity and truth among its people. Different classes and different genders of people practiced different acts of consumerism such as consuming soma, technology and bodies. They sought happiness from them and eventually these acts became a social norm. However, these practices of consumerism also had side effects. It blinded truth such as
However, not all counterculture movements have failed. Perhaps the three most cited examples of counterculture making a more than negligible impact are the rise of rock and roll music and electric guitars in the early fifties; the hippie, anti-war and free love movements of the late sixties; and the rise of grunge music, along with the attitude of rebellion and freedom of youth in the early nineties. These three movements were anything but failures: they all gave rise to icons – the Elvis Presleys, the Jimi Hendrixes, the Kurt Cobains – who are still revered today; and they all had a transformative impact on society, garnering mass media attention, massive followings, perhaps even bringing change among the masses, and creating ripples which emanated throughout society for years afterwards.
During the sixties Americans saw the rise of the counterculture. The counterculture, which was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, was embraced by the decade’s young Americans. Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and freer country.
The counterculture movement has many wrong perceptions that are not entirely untrue but leave out some important points of the movement. The hippies were not just a bunch of college age kids causing a big uproar in society or a bunch of wild minded environmentalist. The group was not just people who listened to loud rock music and used illegal drugs. The movement was not all about men with long hair, tie-die shirts, cut off shorts, sunglasses and sandals or a bunch of friends cruising around in a Volts Wagon van. The truth to the counterculture is that the movement started in nineteen sixty-four with young people who opposed the Vietnam War.
This is one of the main differences between Fiske’s and MacDonald’s theories, while Fiske believes in the power of the consumer to decide what is popular culture and to decide how to consume it, MacDonald asserts that popular culture and mass culture are something that is force-fed to consumers and forces mass conformity. Although mass culture and popular culture do breed conformity it is very important not to ignore the choice and the power of the consumer. Counter-cultures are great evidence to show that choice. The hippies of the 70’s and the hipsters of today are two well-known examples of counter-cultures formed by people who were exposed to mainstream popular culture and mass culture and chose to deviate from it. Although mass culture and the very peer pressure like influence it has can be very hard to deviate from, but the choice is still there and MacDonald ignores that choice. When faced with the commodity of popular culture we as consumers have the power to deny it as individuals and to change it as a society whether or not we chose to use that power or to even realize we have
According to Slater (1997), Consumer Culture is the culture of market societies and is defined though market relations. It predominantly is the product of capitalism. He believes that this new culture is a pecuniary culture based on money. The central claim is that the values from the realm of consumption will spill over into other domains of social action. He further argues that Consumer Culture is in principle, universal and impersonal. He simultaneously agues, that there is an ultior claim towards this definition, as although it seems universal and is depicted as a land of freedom, in which everyone can be a consumer, it is also felt to be universal because everybody must be a consumer. ...
Throughout history, countercultures have been present wherever social norms or political actions are conceived as unjust by a group of people. In the spirit of advancement, these groups take stances of resistance and rebellion and oftentimes, heavily rely on the arts to express their opinions and protest the wrongs of society. Through comparison of various counterculture timelines, it can be seen that the development, impact, and resolution of most countercultures occur in similar patterns. It starts with the congregation and organization of like-minded “oppositionists” seeking improvement or justice in an aspect of their present culture. With time, this union either fails to blossom as a result of insufficient support and momentum or grows