Name a person that fits into any certain group and you'll automatically get an image in your head. Frat boys have a look about them, as do preppies and jocks. You can peg a raver at a hundred yards. Punks, be they hard line or straight edge, seem to look the same. Swing kids are easy to place. And beatniks, while eschewing fashion, developed a fashion of their own. Often the way the person dresses is considered an expression of the person's individuality. More often than not, the way a person who subscribes to these philosophies dresses tends to keep within the bounds of the others of the group, despite the claim otherwise. This is individuality, only if one bases the concept of individuality upon a group label.
Punk, raver, goth, skater or freakthese are not expressions of who or what a person is. This is an expression of the music the person listens to or the writings the person reads. These are labels, set upon the group by either the rest of society or the group itself. And labels change. Hippies become yuppies. Skaters become punks then become goths. Jocks become frat boys, then become junkies, finally becoming bums. Labels only express the external view that one portrays to society.
Writer, poet, painter, visual artist, musician, actor, comic or bard . . . these are expressions of who and what an individual is. Ask a writer, any writer what he is, and you'll likely get exactly that as your answer--a writer. How many times have you heard the joke that there are no waitresses in LA, simply actresses that haven't hit it big yet? These are not labels. These are terms applied to the expression of the soul and the medium that one uses. These are an expression of the life, the dream and the artist within. These things are constants--the only thing that changes is whether or not a person learns a new form of artistic expression.
We do not dress alike. We do not think alike. We do not share a singular voice nor do we have a similar style. We each have our own views on life, and that ranges across the board. We are not a group. We are not a style. We are not a trend. We are those who choose to express the life that we are given in any way possible. If beauty is what is needed, then beauty is what is provided. If the world mask needs to be ripped away to reveal the shit and the steaming excrement that lays just beneath the surface, then so be it.
We are individuals, individuals bound together by our need for expression and a need for our individuality. We are the artists of the future. We each have our own voice, we each have our own style. We dance to the beat of a very different drummer. We dance to the beat of our own individual hearts pumping the life through our veins. We are writers, poets, painters, visual artists, musicians, actors, comics and bards.
This is not a movement--this is a way of life. We are the pulp culture. This is the digital beat. We express ourselves so that our truth may set us free.
. . . and the beat goes on . . .