A subculture is a group of people within a
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, political, and sexual matters. Subcultures are part of society while keeping their specific characteristics intact. Examples of subcultures include
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
,
hippies,
goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
,
bikers,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
s,
skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...
s,
hip-hoppers,
metalheads A metalhead is a member of the heavy metal subculture.
Metalhead may also refer to:
Music
* ''Metalhead'' (album), 1999 album by Saxon
* "Metalhead", a song by Blotto
* "Metalhead", a song from the 2008 Miss Kittin album ''BatBox''
* Metalheadz ...
, and
cosplayers
Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...
. The
concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
of subcultures was developed in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
and
cultural studies. Subcultures differ from
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
s.
Definitions
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' defines subculture, in regards to sociological and cultural anthropology, as "an identifiable subgroup within a society or group of people, esp. one characterized by beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger group; the distinctive ideas, practices, or way of life of such a subgroup."
As early as 1950,
David Riesman
David Riesman (September 22, 1909 – May 10, 2002) was an American sociologist, educator, and best-selling commentator on American society.
Career
Born to a wealthy German Jewish family, he attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 1931 ...
distinguished between a
majority, "which passively accepted
commercially provided styles and meanings, and a 'subculture' which actively sought a minority style ... and interpreted it in accordance with
subversive
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
values
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of di ...
". In his 1979 book ''
Subculture: The Meaning of Style'',
Dick Hebdige
Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...
argued that a subculture is a
subversion to normalcy. He wrote that subcultures can be perceived as negative due to their nature of criticism to the dominant societal standard. Hebdige argued that subculture brings together like-minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity.
In 1995,
Sarah Thornton
Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves ...
, drawing on
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...
, described "subcultural capital" as the cultural knowledge and commodities acquired by members of a subculture, raising their status and helping differentiate themselves from members of other groups. In 2007, Ken Gelder proposed to distinguish subcultures from countercultures based on the level of immersion in society.
[Gelder 2007] Gelder further proposed six key ways in which subcultures can be identified through their:
# often negative relations to work (as 'idle', 'parasitic', at play or at leisure, etc.);
# negative or ambivalent relation to class (since subcultures are not 'class-conscious' and do not conform to traditional class definitions);
# association with territory (the 'street', the 'hood', the club, etc.), rather than property;
# movement out of the home and into non-domestic forms of belonging (i.e. social groups other than the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
);
# stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration (with some exceptions);
# refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and massification.
Sociologists
Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine (born May 11, 1950, in New York City) is an American sociologist and author.
Life and career
The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in Manhattan and went to the Horace Mann School. He studied psyc ...
and
Sherryl Kleinman argued that their 1979 research showed that a subculture is a group that serves to motivate a potential member to adopt the artifacts, behaviors, norms, and values characteristic of the group.
History of studies
The evolution of subcultural studies has three main steps:
Subcultures and deviance
The earliest sociological studies on subcultures came from the so-called
Chicago School, who interpreted them as forms of deviance and delinquency. Starting with what they called
Social Disorganization Theory
In sociology, the social disorganization theory is a theory developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighbourhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of social disorgan ...
, they claimed that subcultures emerged on one hand because of some population sectors’ lack of socialization with the
mainstream culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...
and, on the other, because of their adoption of alternative
axiological
Axiology (from Greek , ''axia'': "value, worth"; and , ''-logia'': "study of") is the philosophical study of value. It includes questions about the nature and classification of values and about what kinds of things have value. It is intimately c ...
and normative models. As
Robert E. Park
Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of sociology, changing it from a pas ...
,
Ernest Burgess
Ernest Watson Burgess (May 16, 1886 – December 27, 1966) was a Canadian-American urban sociologist born in Tilbury, Ontario. He was educated at Kingfisher College in Oklahoma and continued graduate studies in sociology at the University of Ch ...
, and
Louis Wirth
Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban ...
suggested, by means of selection and segregation processes, there thus appear in society "natural areas" or "moral regions" where deviant models concentrate and are re-inforced; they do not accept objectives or means of action offered by the mainstream culture, proposing different ones in their place—thereby becoming, depending on circumstances, innovators, rebels, or retreatists (
Richard Cloward
Richard Andrew Cloward (December 25, 1926 – August 20, 2001) was an American sociologist and activist. He influenced the Strain theory of criminal behavior and the concept of anomie, and was a primary motivator for the passage of the Na ...
and
Lloyd Ohlin).
Subcultures, however, are not only the result of alternative action strategies but also of labelling processes on the basis of which, as
Howard S. Becker
Howard Saul Becker (born 1928) is an American sociologist who teaches at Northwestern University. Becker has made contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociologic ...
explains, society defines them as outsiders. As Cohen clarifies, every subculture's style, consisting of image, demeanour and language becomes its recognition trait. And an individual's progressive adoption of a subcultural model will furnish him/her with growing status within this context but it will often, in tandem, deprive him/her of status in the broader social context outside where a different model prevails. Cohen used the term 'Corner Boys' which were unable to compete with their better secured and prepared peers. These
lower-class youths didn't have equal access to resources, resulting in the status of
frustration
In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to anger, annoyance and disappointment. Frustration arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of an individual's will or goal and is likely to in ...
,
marginalization
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
, and search for a solution.
Subcultures and resistance
![Goth weekends Portraits (63613710)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Goth_weekends_Portraits_%2863613710%29.jpg)
In the work of John Clarke,
Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson, and Brian Roberts of the Birmingham CCCS (
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
), subcultures are interpreted as forms of resistance. Society is seen as being divided into two fundamental classes, the working class and the
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
, each with its own class culture, and middle-class culture being dominant. Particularly in the working class, subcultures grow out of the presence of specific interests and affiliations around which cultural models spring up, in conflict with both their parents' culture and
mainstream culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...
. Facing a weakening of class identity, subcultures are then new forms of
collective identification, expressing what Cohen defined "symbolic resistance" against the mainstream culture and developing imaginary solutions for structural problems.
As
Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
and
Dick Hebdige
Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...
underline, identity and resistance in subcultures are expressed through the development of a distinctive style which, by a re-signification and "bricolage" operation, use
cultural goods and services
Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens, physical books, salt, apples, and hats. Services are activities provided by other people, who include architects, suppliers, contractors, technologists, teachers, doc ...
as standardized products to buy and
consume, in order to communicate and express one's own conflict. Yet the culture industry is often capable of re-absorbing the components of such a style and once again transforming them into
consumer goods
A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, b ...
for the
mass society
Mass society is a concept that describes modern society as a monolithic force and yet a disaggregate collection of individuals. It is often used pejoratively to refer to a society in which bureaucracy and impersonal institutions have replaced some ...
. At the same time the
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit informati ...
, while they participate in building subcultures by broadcasting their images, also weaken subcultures by depriving them of their subversive content or by spreading a
socially stigmatized image of them and their members.
Subcultures and distinction
The most recent interpretations see subcultures as forms of distinction. In an attempt to overcome the idea of subcultures as forms of deviance or resistance, they describe subcultures as collectivities which, on a cultural level, are sufficiently homogeneous internally and heterogeneous with respect to the outside world to be capable of developing, as Paul Hodkinson points out, consistent distinctiveness, identity, commitment and autonomy. Defined by
Sarah Thornton
Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves ...
as taste cultures, subcultures are endowed with elastic, porous borders, and are inserted into relationships of interaction and mingling, rather than independence and conflict, with the cultural industry and mass media, as
Steve Redhead Steve Redhead (January 1952 in Shropshire – 8 March 2018) was the Professor of Jurisprudence and Head of Law in the Faculty of Arts at Charles Sturt University. He was also an adjunct professor at York University (Toronto) and was visiting Profess ...
and David Muggleton emphasize. The very idea of a unique, internally homogeneous, dominant culture is explicitly criticized. Thus forms of individual involvement in subcultures are fluid and gradual, differentiated according to each actor's investment, outside clear dichotomies. The ideas of different levels of subcultural capital (
Sarah Thornton
Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves ...
) possessed by each individual, of the supermarket of style (
Ted Polhemus
Ted Polhemus (born 1947 in Neptune, New Jersey, United States) is an American anthropologist, writer, and photographer who lives and works on England's south coast. His work focuses on fashion and anti-fashion, identity, and the sociology of s ...
) and of style surfing (Martina Böse) replace that of the subculture's insiders and outsiders – with the perspective of subcultures supplying resources for the construction of new identities going beyond strong, lasting identifications.
Identifying
![Ramones 30081980 10 800](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Ramones_30081980_10_800.jpg)
The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
,
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
,
hairstyles
A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human scalp. Sometimes, this could also mean an editing of facial or body hair. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming ...
,
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
, and other visible affectations by members of subcultures, and also of the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Dick Hebdige writes that members of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes
fashion
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...
s, , and
argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
.
![Star Trek uniforms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Star_Trek_uniforms.jpg)
Subcultures can exist at all levels of organizations, highlighting the fact that there are multiple cultures or value combinations usually evident in any one organization that can complement but also compete with the overall organisational culture. In some instances, subcultures have been legislated against, and their activities regulated or curtailed.
[Hall, Stuart, Tony Jefferson, Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (Routledge, 1993).] British
youth subculture
Youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Youth subcultures ...
s had been described as a moral problem that ought to be handled by the guardians of the dominant culture within the
post-war consensus
The post-war consensus, sometimes called the post-war compromise, was the economic order and social model of which the major political parties in post-war Britain shared a consensus supporting view, from the end of World War II in 1945 to the ...
.
Relationships with mainstream culture
![Bar-b-quin' with my HONEY](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Bar-b-quin%27_with_my_HONEY.jpg)
It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of ''
Cool'', which remains valuable in the selling of any product. This process of
cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society.
Music-based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process; what may be considered subcultures at one stage in their historiessuch as
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
,
goth
A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were:
*Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history
*Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history
Goth or Goths may also refer to:
* Goth (surname) ...
,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
hip hop, and
rave culture
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mu ...
smay represent mainstream taste within a short period. Some subcultures reject or modify the importance of style, stressing membership through the adoption of an
ideology which may be much more resistant to commercial exploitation. The
punk subculture's distinctive (and initially shocking) style of clothing was adopted by mass-market fashion companies once the subculture became a media interest.
Dick Hebdige
Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...
argues that the punk subculture shares the same "radical aesthetic practices" as the
Dadaist
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...
and
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
art movements:
Like Duchamp's 'ready mades' - manufactured objects which qualified as art because he chose to call them such, the most unremarkable and inappropriate items - a pin, a plastic clothes peg, a television component, a razor blade, a tampon - could be brought within the province of punk (un)fashion ... Objects borrowed from the most sordid of contexts found a place in punks' ensembles; lavatory chains were draped in graceful arcs across chests in plastic bin liners. Safety pins were taken out of their domestic 'utility' context and worn as gruesome ornaments through the cheek, ear or lip ... fragments of school uniform (white bri-nylon shirts, school ties) were symbolically defiled (the shirts covered in graffiti, or fake blood; the ties left undone) and juxtaposed against leather drains or shocking pink mohair tops.
Urban tribes
In 1985, French sociologist
Michel Maffesoli
Michel Maffesoli (born 14 November 1944) is a French sociologist.
He is a former pupil of Gilbert Durand and Julien Freund, and an emeritus professor at Paris Descartes University. His work touches upon the issue of community links and the p ...
coined the term ''urban tribe''. It gained widespread use after the publication of his ''
The Time of the Tribes
''The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society'' (french: Le Temps des tribus : le déclin de l'individualisme dans les sociétés de masse) is a 1988 book by the French sociologist Michel Maffesoli. It argues that mass so ...
'' (1988). In 1996, this book was published in English.
According to Maffesoli, urban tribes are microgroups of people who share common interests in urban areas. The members of these relatively small groups tend to have similar worldviews, dress styles and behavioral patterns. Their
social interactions
A social relation or also described as a social interaction or social experience is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more individuals ...
are largely
informal
Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements (forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to:
Dress code and events
* Formal wear, attire for formal events
* Semi-formal attir ...
and emotionally laden, different from
late capitalism
Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada t ...
's
corporate
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
-
bourgeoisie cultures, based on dispassionate logic. Maffesoli claims that
punks
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture ...
are a typical example of an "urban tribe".
Five years after the first English translation of ''Le temps des tribus'', writer
Ethan Watters
Ethan Watters is an American journalist. He is the author of articles for ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''Spin'', '' Details'', '' Mother Jones'', '' Glamour'', '' GQ'', ''Esquire'', and the ''San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' as well as books ...
claims to have coined the same
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
in a ''
New York Times Magazine'' article. This was later expanded upon the idea in his book ''Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment''. According to Watters, urban tribes are groups of never-
marrieds between the ages of 25 and 45 who gather in common-interest groups and enjoy an urban
lifestyle
Lifestyle often refers to:
* Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives
* ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle
* Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality
Lifestyle may also refer to:
Bu ...
, which offers an alternative to traditional
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
structures.
Sexual and gender identity-based subcultures
![Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg)
The
sexual revolution of the 1960s led to a
countercultural rejection of the established sexual and gender norms in the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , particularly in the urban areas of Europe, North and South America, Australia, and white South Africa. A more permissive social environment in these areas led to a proliferation of ''sexual subcultures''—cultural expressions of
non-normative sexuality. As with other subcultures, sexual subcultures adopted certain styles of fashion and gestures to distinguish themselves from mainstream Western culture.
Lesbian,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual, and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
(
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
) people express themselves through the
LGBT culture
LGBT culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture (indicating people who are queer), while the term gay culture may be used to mean "LGBT culture" o ...
, considered the largest sexual subculture of the 20th and 21st centuries. With the
ever-increasing acceptance of homosexuality in the early 21st century, including its expressions in fashion, music, and design, the
gay culture
Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including '' ...
can no longer be considered a subculture in many parts of the world, although some aspects of gay culture like
leathermen,
bears
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
, and
chubs
Chub is a common fish name. It pertains to any one of a number of ray-finned fish in several families and genera. In the UK, the term ''chub'' usually refers to the species ''Squalius cephalus''. In addition, see sea chub.
In family Cyprinidae ...
are considered subcultures within the gay movement itself.
The
butch and femme identities or roles among some lesbians also engender their own subculture with stereotypical attire, for instance
drag king
Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, ...
s.
A late 1980s development, the
queer movement can be considered a subculture broadly encompassing those that reject normativity in sexual behavior, and who celebrate visibility and activism. The wider movement coincided with growing academic interests in
queer studies and
queer theory.
Aspects of sexual subcultures can vary along other cultural lines. For instance, in the United States, ''
down-low'' is a slang term specifically used within the
African-American community to refer to
Black men
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
who usually identify as
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
but actively seek
sexual encounters and relations with other men, practice
gay cruising, and frequently adopt a specific
hip-hop attire during these activities.
They avoid sharing this information even if they have female sexual partner(s), they are married to a woman, or they are single.
Social media
In a 2011 study, Brady Robards and Andy Bennett said that online identity expression has been interpreted as exhibiting subcultural qualities. However, they argue it is more in line with
neotribalism
Neotribalism, also known as modern tribalism or new tribalism, is a sociological concept which postulates that human beings have evolved to live in tribal society, as opposed to mass society, and thus will naturally form social networks constitu ...
than with what is often classified as subculture.
Social networking website
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s are quickly becoming the most used form of communication and means to distribute information and news. They offer a way for people with similar backgrounds, lifestyles, professions or hobbies to connect. According to a co-founder and executive creative strategist for RE-UP, as technology becomes a "life force," subcultures become the main bone of contention for brands as networks rise through cultural mash-ups and phenomenons. Where
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
is concerned, there seems to be a growing interest among media producers to use subcultures for branding. This is seen most actively on social network sites with
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
, such as
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
Social media expert Scott Huntington cites one of the ways in which subcultures have been and can be successfully targeted to generate revenue: "It’s common to assume that subcultures aren’t a major market for most companies. Online apps for shopping, however, have made significant strides. Take Etsy, for example. It only allow vendors to sell handmade or vintage items, both of which can be considered a rather 'hipster' subculture. However, retailers on the site made almost $900 million in sales."
Subcultures and Social Media: Mass Differentiation
/ref>
Discrimination
Discrimination-based harassment and violence are sometimes directed towards a person or group based on their culture or subculture. In 2013, the Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
, Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...
in the United Kingdom began to classify attacks on subcultures such as goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
, emo
Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...
s, punks
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture ...
, and metalheads A metalhead is a member of the heavy metal subculture.
Metalhead may also refer to:
Music
* ''Metalhead'' (album), 1999 album by Saxon
* "Metalhead", a song by Blotto
* "Metalhead", a song from the 2008 Miss Kittin album ''BatBox''
* Metalheadz ...
as hate crimes, in the same way they record abuse against people because of their religion, race, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. The decision followed the murder of Sophie Lancaster
The murder of Sophie Lancaster occurred in England in August 2007. The victim and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, were attacked by a group of teenage boys while walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Rossendale, Lancashire, on 11 August 2007. ...
and beating of her boyfriend in 2007, who were attacked because they were goths. In 2012, human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
activists
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
have denounced the occurrence of emo killings in Iraq
The emo killings in Iraq were a string of homicides that were part of a campaign against Iraqi teenage boys who dressed in an emo#Fashion and subculture, emo style carried out by terrorists as an attack on Western culture. Between 6 and 70 young ...
, which consisted of between at least 6 and up to 70 teenage boys who were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
and elsewhere in Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, due to being targeted because they dressed in a "Westernized" emo style.
See also
* Alternative lifestyle
* Art world
The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alte ...
* Brandalism
* Cultural identity
* Culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It att ...
* Far-right subcultures
Far-right subcultures refers to the symbolism, ideology and traits that hold relevance to various politically extreme right-wing groups and organisations. There are three kinds of subcultures within far-right movements to distinguish: subcultural ...
* Folk culture
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...
* Heterosociality
In sociology, heterosociality describes social relations with persons of the opposite sex or a preference for such relations, often excluding relationships of a romantic and sexual nature. The opposite of heterosociality is homosociality.
At an ...
* High culture
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society con ...
* History of Western subcultures in the 20th century
* Intercultural competence
Cultural competence, also known as intercultural competence, is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures.Deardorff, D. K. (2009). ''The Sage handbook ...
* List of subcultures
This is a list of subcultures.
A
* Africanfuturism
* Afrofuturism
* Anarcho-punk
* Athlete
B
* BDSM
* Beat Generation, see beatnik
* Bent edge
* Bikers, see motorcycle clubs and outlaw motorcycle clubs
** Bōsōzoku
* Bills
* Biopunk
* Bird ...
* Low culture
In sociology, the term Low culture identifies the forms of popular culture that have Commoner, mass appeal, which is in contrast to High culture, which has a limited appeal to a smaller proportion of the populace. Culture theory proposes that b ...
* Neotribalism
Neotribalism, also known as modern tribalism or new tribalism, is a sociological concept which postulates that human beings have evolved to live in tribal society, as opposed to mass society, and thus will naturally form social networks constitu ...
* Popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
* Subcultural theory
In criminology, subcultural theory emerged from the work of the Chicago School on gangs and developed through the symbolic interactionism school into a set of theories arguing that certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attit ...
* Underclass
The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class.
The general idea that a class system includes a population ''under'' the working class has ...
* Underground culture
Underground culture, or simply underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different from the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by others. The word "underground" is used ...
* Urban culture
Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. The defining theme is the presence of a great number of very different people in a very limited space - most of them are strangers to each other but still try to be polite to each other more times ...
* Urban sociology
Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doin ...
* Youth subculture
Youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Youth subcultures ...
* Rainbow Family
References
Citations
Sources
*
* Gelder, Ken (2007). '' Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice'' (Routledge, March 2007; softcover )
* Hebdige, Dick (1979). '' Subculture: The Meaning of Style'' (Routledge, March 10, 1981; softcover ). Cited in Negus, Keith (1996). ''Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction''. Wesleyan University Press. .
* Huq, Rupa (2006) 'Beyond subculture' (Routledge, 2006; softcover . Hardcover )
* Maffesoli, Michel (1996). ''The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society''. (London: Sage Publications. )
* McKay, George (1996) ''Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties''. (London: Verso. .)
* McKay, George (2005) ''Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain.'' Durham NC: Duke University Press. .
* Riesman, David (1950). "Listening to popular music", ''American Quarterly'', 2, p. 359-71. Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music'', p. 155. Philadelphia: Open University Press. .
* Thornton, Sarah (1995). ''Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital''. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cited in Negus, Keith (1996). ''Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction''. Wesleyan University Press. .
* Watters, Ethan (2003). ''Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment''. .
* Hall, Stuart, Tony Jefferson (1993). ''Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain''. Routledge, 1993.
*
* Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. "Producers of 'Japan' in Israel: ''Cultural appropriation'' in a non-colonial context." ''Ethnos:Journal of Anthropology'' 68.3 (2003): 365. Print.
* Lewin, Phillip, J. Patrick Williams. "Reconceptualizing Punk through ''Ideology'' and Authenticity". ''Conference Papers—American Sociological Association''. 2007 Conference Papers, 2007.
* Howes, David. ''Cross-cultural consumption: global markets, local realities''. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
*
* Francois, L. (2013, May 25). Subcultures: Big Opportunity for Social Brands to Generate Value. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/subcultures-big-opportunity-social-brands-generate-value
* Huntington, S. (2014, March 24). Subcultures and Social Media: Mass Differentiation. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://socialmediadata.com/subcultures-and-social-media-mass-differentiation/
*
* Беляев, И. А
Культура, субкультура, контркультура
/ И. А. Беляев, Н. А. Беляева // Духовность и государственность. Сборник научных статей. Выпуск 3; под ред. И. А. Беляева. — Оренбург: Филиал УрАГС в г. Оренбурге, 2002. — С. 5-18.
* Berzano, L., Genova, C. (2015). Lifestyles and Subcultures. History and a New Perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.
External links
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Subcultures: Big Opportunities for Social Brands to Generate Value
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