Definition of Sub Culture:
- In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture which they belong.
- An introduction to writings on subculture
- Skateboarding/parkour and free running/graffiti as a performance of the city
- The Riot Grrrl Movement
- The portrayal of youth culture in film and photography
Dogtown and Z boys (2001)
- Documentary film mixes original footage and recent interviews
- History of skateboarding evolves
Skater Peggy Oki
- Not much difference between the clothing worn by the girls and boys
- Jeans and long sleeve t-shirts for practical reasons
Ian Borden 'Performing the City'
- urban street skating is more 'political' than 1970's skateboarding's use of found terrains: Street skating generates new uses that at once work within.
South Bank Closure Threat To Skaters
- Festival wing under the Queen Elizabeth hall - Redevelopment, turn into shopping area.
- "it is utterly contrived" - Henry Edwards-Wood, spokesman for the Long Live South Bank Campaign
Lords of Dogtown (2005)
- "Skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape from the routinized world of school family and social conventions as replace it with a while new way'" - Borden, 2001
Parkour / Freerunning
- One is a more creative use of the city
- Yamakasi (2001)
- Jump London (2005)
Nancy McDonald, The Graffiti Subculture
- Here (on the street) real life and the issues which may divide and influence it, are put on pause. On this liminal terrain you are not black, white, rich or poor. Unless you are female, you are what you write.
Miss Van
- McDonald suggests that women come to the subculture laden with the baggage of gender in that her physically and her sexuality
- Doesn't play down her female identity and does the opposite
Swoon (US)
- "In the meantime there was a lot of attention coming my way for being female, and it just made me feel alienated and objectified, not to mention patronised"
Anfela Mc Robbie and Jenny Garber
- Girl subcultures may have become more invisible because of the very term sub culture has acquired such strong masculine overtones.
Motorbike Girl
- Brigitte Bardot 1960s - suggests sexual deviance, which is a fantasy and not a reflection of the girls in the subculture at that time.
Hells Angels
- In rockers and motorbike culture girls usually rode pillion, girls where wither the girlfriend or 'mama' figure.
Mod Girl
- Springs from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960s in the UK
Quadrophenia (1979)
Hippy Girl
- Subculture arises through universities of the late 60s and early 70s
- Middle class girl therefore has the space to explore subculture for longer before family etc.
- Bad Hippy - Janis Joplin and Good Hippy - Peace and 'flower power'
Riot Grrl
- Mid 1990s onwards
- Underground punk movement based in Washington DC, Olympia, Oregon etc.
- Influenced by late 70s and early 80s
- Political element to the movement
What makes a true subculture?
- Zines revived from 1970s DIY punk aesthetic
- In turn was influenced by posters and graphic design from Dadaism
- Raoul Hausmann - Dada
- Media attention turns to Grunge movement, Courtney Love and Hole, Style without the subculture
- Distorts even further as the 90s continue into the more media friendly Spice Girl
Spice Girls
- Band styling presents a set of visual types that are easily consumable by the target audience.
- No empowerment for young Women
Dick Hebdige Subculture: The Meaning of Style
- Subculture represents noise
The Commodity Form
- Subculture signs like dress styles and music are turned into mass produced objects
- E.g. Clothing which is ripped as a anarchic anti-fashion statement becomes mass produced
Zandra Rhodes 9ct White Gold Diamond Safety Pin Brooch
- Although punk seems to challenge eventually and surprisingly quickly it goes mainstream/high end and is turned into "To shock chic".
21st Century Demonisation
- "style in particular provokes a double response. It is alternately celebrated and ridiculed or reviled
Bricolage: Edwardian Style
- escape from the claustrophobia of the family, into the strew
Chris Steele-Perkins, The Teds (1979)
Racists give Nazi Salute in London, 1980 - Skin head culture
Gavin Watson, Skins, 1980s
This Is England (2006) Shane Meadows
- The new kid on the estate transforms into a British Skin
- His dad has been killed in the Falklands War and his new friends become his family
- Explores the differences between the skinhead style and the politics of the National Front skins as they infiltrate the working class estate of the 1980s
- The subordination of Milky as 'other' by Combo
Post Subcultures?
- In global society with a rapid proliferation of images, fashions and lifestyles, it is - unsurprisingly - becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint what 'subculture' actually means.
