Lecture Notes 3: Subculture and Style

• In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.
• Dogtown and Z boys (2001) is a documentary film directed by Stacy Peralta, the film tells the story of a group of California surfer/skateboarders and their influence on the history of skateboarding culture.
• In the 1970s, there had been a change in skate culture when it turned from a nerdy kids pastime to a subcultural sport.
• Borden argues that the performance of street skating gives the body something to do other than passively stare at advertising surfaces; the movement and action creates an interest in other aspects of the city and in the skaters own physical presence - of being in the city, rather than being walked through it by the architecture
• Urban street skating is more political than 1970s skateboarding's use of found terrains: street skating generates new uses that at once work within (in time and space) and negate the original ones ~ Ian Borden, "Performing the City"
• In the quote above, Ian refers to an altered sense of time experienced in skating as the physical experience is cut up into moves and runs. Rather than the city carrying the body along at it's own pace which is dictated by commerce.
• "Skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape from the routinised world of school, family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life." ~ Borden:2001
• Parkour is a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Parkour practitioners are known as tracers. They train to be able to identify and utilise alternate or the more efficient paths through the city. Free running is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures. It places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity than efficiency as compared to parkour.
• Yamakasi (2001) focuses on a group of traceus who battle against injustice in the Paris Ghetto. They use parkour to steal from the rich in order to pay off medical bills for a kid who injured himself while attempting to copy their techniques. The group denies the differences between parkour, 'art du deplacement and free running, and instead consider them all to be the same thing, the only thing that differs them from one another is the individual's way of moving.
• McDonald suggest that women come to the subculture laden with the baggage of gender in that her looks and her sexuality will be commented on critically in a way that male writers do not experience. This seems to be reflected, even exaggerated in Miss Vans' poupees.
• Girl subcultures may have become more invisible because the very term 'subculture' has acquired such strong masculine overtones (1977)
• In postmodern subcultures overly feminine subcultural movements like the Lolita fashion are often assumed to be sexually suspect
• Motorbike girl suggests sexual deviance which is a fantasy not reflective of most conventional real life femininity at the time
• In rocker and motorbike culture, girls usual rode pillion. In this subculture, women were simply either the girlfriend or the mother figure.
• Mod culture springs from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960s in the UK. Teenage girls worked in the cities in service industries for example, or in clothing shops where they are encouraged to model the boutique clothing. This meant that they had money for socialising and mod rallies.
• Subculture arises through universities of the late 60s and early 70s. Middle class girls therefore has the space to explore subculture.  Space for leisure without work encourages 'personal expression'.
• Feminist authors point out that traditional sex roles prevailed in the hippy subculture.
• Hippies are distinguished into two groups, the peace loving flower child, and the drug addict weed smoker, Janis Joplin is used as a figure for the latter, representing a warning against overindulgence in subculture.
• It is suggested that the Riot Grrl movement is one of the few genuine feminine/ feminist subcultures in that it is lead, formed and used by women. The Riot grrrl band often addresses issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism and female empowerment.
• The Spice Girls presents a set of visual 'types' that are easily consumable by the target audience.
• There is no actual empowerment for young women as there is nothing but the reduction of young women to cartoon representations.
• Subcultural signs like dress styles and music are turned into mass produced objects.
• Eg, clothing which is ripped as an archaic anti-fashion statement becomes mass produced with rips as part of the design
• Vivienne Westwood and McLaren capitalise on this through the shop SEX which sells punk clothing - the polar opposite of the original DIY aesthetic of punk.
• Teddy boy culture was an escape from the claustrophobia of the family, into the street. While many girls might adopt the appropriate way of dressing, they would be much less likely to spend the same amount of time hanging about on the streets. Girls had to be careful not to 'get into trouble'. ~ Mc Robbie, Garber
• This is England (2006) by Shane Meadows explores the difference between the skinhead style and the politics of the National Front skins as they infiltrate the working class estate in the UK in the 1980s.
• Refer to Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Hebdige, D (1979), THE book of subcultural theory 

• "Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges but they must end by establishing new conventional; by creating new commodities, new industries, or rejuvenating old ones"
• By being a part of a subculture, it is rethinking what it is to be an individual
• The reason subcultures are formed is because they are trying to suggest that they have a better way of living as compared to the rest of society
• Subcultures are symbolic challenges to the norm, an attempt to oppose mainstream society, though eventually these groups get sucked back into the system
• Eg, skateboarding is a form of micro rebellion, society then makes use of this subculture and sells it to the rest of society, making it a part of the mass market, making the subculture invalid as it leeches of the idea and its true values (Another valid example would be the punk rock subculture)
• That symbolic challenge, edginess, rebellion is then neutralised, being practically made a joke for what it really is
• Refer to Fred Perry presents Subculture by Dir. Don Letts (The unofficial fifth member of the Clash)
• Through the subculture of punk, it would seem races were able to unite for a moment to fight against the wrongs of society, if only for a brief moment
• Are there no more subcultures now? The most prevalent one in this day and age is probably the hipster...
• Though it's just a superficial thing, as it doesn't necessarily have its values or outstanding features (In terms of looks and mindset), unlike past subcultures
• Most youth cultures are about rejecting other things around them
• The Teds are closely associated to the rockers, known for their leather jackets, bikes and need to fight, except more "English-ed"
• The media tends to play a mixed role when it comes to focusing on these up and coming subcultures
• Each one of these youth cultures have a sensational element that attracts the media to them
• In the end however these sub cultures eventually end as they ones that start are are just a bunch of elitist, just wanting to have things different
• Rockers and punk rockers didn't necessarily need to play instruments in akin to the genre that would normally be associated, they just needed to be dressed that way
• Mods are probably one of the only subcultures that still look good to this day
• Elements of relation to the Mods are scooters, that gives them the feeling of independence from their parents, mod fashion seems to be defined by men
• While women were more androgynous in appearance, the men were more campy in a way.
• Mods initially had an upscale London influence, overtime it became distinctly 'corrupted', separating into two groups, hippies and skinheads
• Punkrock was meant to be an anti style of sorts, when it became its own successful style altogether
• Mods were better known for their iconography, music does seem to vary despite there beginnings with jazz
• The Fred Perry is the pinnacle of design for its simplicity
• Youth cultures should be anti-mainstream
• No racism was actually experienced in the original skinhead subculture, hence the unification of two different races that were otherwise always fiercely kept apart at the time
• Hippies tend to get attack by skinheads
• The skinhead culture died out in the 1970s, when it returned however, it was a corrupted, vile parody of what the style originally was, these new 'skinheads' (AKA, new nazis) choosing it merely for its intimidating style in getting what they want
• The Soulboys subculture was practically focused on dancing, it was another subculture that created a unification between the blacks and whites
• Acceptance from other backgrounds and races
• The Soulboys was overlooked by the media
• It didn't have figureheads unlike the other subcultures, in the end it was all down to the kids
• The Soulboys is perhaps one of the healthiest subcultures around, as they were able to avoid the involvement of the media and were able to carry on with their own devices
• Punk rock became a pantomime, along with many other subcultures
• Brit pop was possibly the last defining sub culture (Though was it truly one?) albeit very backward looking with all its influences from mod, punk rock, etc. (Oasis)
• The internet prevents the creation of any new subcultures (Why would there be a need to find people that are just like you because you are able to find people who hold the same interests as you on there?)
• In a global society with a rapid proliferation of images, fashions and lifestyles, it is unsurprisingly becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint what 'subculture' actually means.