teen rebellion is just another product

i watched a pretty good pbs documentary today called the merchants of cool on the symbiotic relationship between teens & the media.
basically it left me with the question of whether there is room anymore for kids to start a counter-culture.
there may be, but it's such a small window of time before the ideas are bought up, re-packaged, and sold back to us. this is when it turns mainstream. and that gap is getting smaller. especially with music.
it's just one big feedback loop....which leads to the old chicken or egg adage: is the media really reflecting the actual world of kids/teens or vice versa?
anyway, as interesting as it is, i'm still procrastinating on that damn essay about female body image in the media, in particular Dove's "campaign for real beauty".
argh.

Music to my ears: Fugazi's End Hits
Current food for thought: The Rebel Sell: why the culture can't be jammed by Joseph Heath & Andrew Potter

Words to live by: "Step off the straight and narrow career-and-materialism groove and you just end up on another one--the groove for people who step off the main groove. And that groove was worn indeed...Everywhere we imagined ourselves standing turned into a cliche beneath our feet." ~ Naomi Klein, No Logo (start of the chapter on The Youth Market and the Marketing of Cool when she's lamenting on the fact that upon finishing highschool her and her best friend wanted to "do something" but everything had been done already)

In reality: (or is it?) this is just screaming lord of the flies or alex garland's the beach meets survivor.