"Every Home Is Wired":
2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net
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The Prog and Internet subcultures are thus critical of the establishment they grew out of:
with one foot securely inside the parent culture, middle-class counter-cultures have been able to take a step outside onto different platforms from which to gaze unswervingly at the inherent qualities of the parent culture. What results is not the urgent and stridently distorted counter-thrusts of punk culture, but a straighter, more heightened awareness, often drug-triggered (but not necessarily drug-induced), of the world of industrial capitalism. (Shepherd, Music 147)
Bit 53
Whether that capitalism takes the form of military and scientific interests, and of the computer industry, or that of pop and classical music mainstreams, and the music business, both subcultures are therefore aiming to change the system from within, altering its rules to remove limiting factors.31 It is easy to see that this tendency to innovation within accepted ideological boundaries again constitutes a tactical action, aiming to change society, centrally by softening the implications of capitalism and materialism. The idealism of such goals in itself also attracts participants: Macan suspects "that progressive rock has retained its attraction for many of its older followers -- and has even drawn some younger ones -- because it encapsulates an optimism, a confidence, and perhaps even an innocence that is a refreshing antidote to the cynicism and pessimism of more recent times" (222). Bit 54

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© 1998 Axel Bruns