Sullen Fate - Corruption Within

The Corruption Within music video presents a juxtaposition between the subversive nature of the gritty underground industrial music scene of the 80s and 90s, and the bright, glitchy nature of the scene at present time. By clashing imagery of abandoned spaces with contemporary scene aesthetics, Corruption Within is an uncanny déjà vu that signals the counterculture’s struggles. The work addresses the loss of underground spaces which are no longer an option for use as gentrification now entreats neighboring communities to police and otherwise control them. The video’s contemporary glitch aesthetic and the futuristic character that guides the viewer, mirror the scene’s transition from underground inner-city spaces into commercial and virtual spaces. This dystopian combination of imagery of past and present signals the outcomes of late stage capitalism on countercultures and their impulses; What once was radical defiance is now a marketable and consumable identity which marks the death of the counterculture’s influence on the social imaginary. orig.