Counterculture (also written
counter-culture) is a
sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a
cultural group, or
subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day,
[1] the cultural equivalent of
political opposition. It is a
neologism attributed to
Theodore Roszak.
[2][3][4]Although distinct countercultural undercurrents have existed in many societies, here the term "counterculture" refers to a more significant, visible phenomenon that reaches critical mass, flowers and persists for a period of time. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos, aspirations, and dreams of a specific population during an era — a social manifestation of zeitgeist.
Countercultural milieux in 19th-century Europe included the traditions of Romanticism, Bohemianism and of the Dandy. Another movement existed in a more fragmentary form in the 1950s, both in Europe and the US, in the form of the Beat generation, or Beatniks,[2] followed in the 1960s by the hippies.
The term 'counterculture' came to prominence in the news media as it was used to refer to the social revolution that swept North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand during the 1960s and early 1970s.[1][2][4]
