Definition of Subculture:
• 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 to which they belong.
Dogtown and Z boys (2001)
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 (in time and space) and negate the original ones
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
whole new way of
life.” (Borden:2001)
• 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 to which they belong.
This lecture will look at:
Skateboarding/ parkour and free running/
graffiti as a performance of the city
• The Riot Grrrl movement as a feminine and feminist subculture
• The portrayal of youth subculture in film and photography
Skateboarding/ parkour and free running/
graffiti as a performance of the city• The Riot Grrrl movement as a feminine and feminist subculture
• The portrayal of youth subculture in film and photography
Dogtown and Z boys (2001)
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 (in time and space) and negate the original ones
Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Parkour/Freerunning
Parkour
• amethodofmovement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Originally developed in France, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping. Parkour practitioners are known as traceurs. They train to be
Free running
• aformofurbanacrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures
Yamakasi (2001)
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’.
• 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’.
Black graffiti writer Prime says:
• I mean I’ve met people that I would never have met, people like skinheads who are blatantly racist or whatever. I can see it in them and they know we know, but when you’re dealing on a graffiti level, everything’s cool and I go yard with them, they’d come round my house , I’d give them dinner or something.
• I mean I’ve met people that I would never have met, people like skinheads who are blatantly racist or whatever. I can see it in them and they know we know, but when you’re dealing on a graffiti level, everything’s cool and I go yard with them, they’d come round my house , I’d give them dinner or something.
Miss Van
• McDonald suggest
that women come to
the subculture laden
with the baggage of
gender in that her
physicality
(her looks)
and her sexuality will
be commented on
critically in a way that
male writers do not
experience
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 patronized.
Angela Mc Robbie and Jenny
Garber
• Girl subcultures may have become more invisible because the very term ‘subculture’ has acquired such strong masculine overtones (1977)
• Girl subcultures may have become more invisible because the very term ‘subculture’ has acquired such strong masculine overtones (1977)
Motorbike girl
• Brigitte Bardot 1960’s
• Suggests sexual deviance which is a fantasy not reflective of most conventional real life femininity at the time
• Brigitte Bardot 1960’s
• Suggests sexual deviance which is a fantasy not reflective of most conventional real life femininity at the time
Hells Angels
• Inrockerandmotorbike culture girls usually rode pillion
• Wills1978:girlsdidnot enter into the cameraderie, competion and knowledge of the machine
Inthissubculturewomen were either girlfriend of.. Or ‘mama’ figure
Mod girl
• Mod culture springs from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960’s in the UK
• Teenage girls worked
in cities in service
industries for
example, or in
clothing shops where
they are encouraged
to model the boutique
clothing
Quadrophenia (1979)
Hebdige outlines the hierarchies within the mod subculture where “the ‘faces’ or ‘stylists’ who made up the original coterie were defined against the unimaginative majority...who were accused of trivialising the mod style”
• Inrockerandmotorbike culture girls usually rode pillion
• Wills1978:girlsdidnot enter into the cameraderie, competion and knowledge of the machine
Inthissubculturewomen were either girlfriend of.. Or ‘mama’ figure
• Mod culture springs from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960’s in the UK
Quadrophenia (1979)
Hebdige outlines the hierarchies within the mod subculture where “the ‘faces’ or ‘stylists’ who made up the original coterie were defined against the unimaginative majority...who were accused of trivialising the mod style”
Hippy girl
• Subculture arises through universities
of the late 60’s and early 70’s
• Middle class girl therefore has the space to explore subculture for longer before family etc.
• Space for leisure
without work:
encourages ‘personal
expression’ • Subculture arises through universities
of the late 60’s and early 70’s
• Middle class girl therefore has the space to explore subculture for longer before family etc.
Riot Grrrl- mid 1990’s onwards
• Underground punk
movement based in
Washington DC,
Olympia, Portland,
Oregon and the
greater Pacific
Northwest
Bands
• Bikini Kill, Bratmobil,
Excuse 17, Heavens
to Betsy, Fifth
Column, Calamity
Jane, Huggy Bear,
Adickdid, Emily's
Sassy Lime, The
Frumpies, The
Butchies, Sleater-
Kinney, Bangs and
also queercore like
Team Dresch
Cold Cold Hearts, side project band of Allison Wolfe of riot
grrrl band Bratmobile, playing 'Sorry Yer Band Sux' live at
Black Cat, Washington, D.C. 3/7/97
The Raincoats, Poly
Styrene, LiLiPUT,
The Slits, The
Runaways/Joan Jett,
Patti Smith, Chrissie
Hynde, Exene
Cervenka, Siouxsie
Sioux, Lydia Lunch,
Kim Gordon, Neo
Boys, Chalk Circle,
Ut, Bush Tetras,
Frightwig, Anti-Scrunti
Faction, Scrawl
Riot Grrl???
• Mount Pleasant Race
Riots in 1991
• Bratmobile member
Jen Smith (later of
Rastro! and The
Quails), reacted to
the violence by
prophetically writing
in a letter to Allison
Wolfe: "This
summer's going to be
a girl riot."
Wolfe and Molly
Neuman collaborated
with Kathleen Hanna
and Tobi Vail to
create a new zine
and called it Riot
Grrrl, combining the
"riot" with an oft-used
phrase that first
appeared in Vail's
fanzine Jigsaw
"Revolution Grrrl
Style Now”. Riot grrrls
What makes this a true
subculture?
• Zines revived from
1970’s DIY punk ethic
• In turn this was
influenced by posters
and graphic design
from the Dadaists in
the 1920’s 30’s
• Women self-
publishing their own
music
Raoul Hausmann- Dada
• ABCD Self-portrait
(1923-24)
• ABCD Self-portrait
(1923-24)
• “Like the author of the
the surrealist collage
typically juxtaposes
two apparently
incompatible realities”
(Hebdige: 1979)
Media attention turns to Grunge
scene
• Courtney Love and
Hole
• Style without the subculture
• Courtney Love and
Hole
• Style without the subculture
• Distorts even further
as the 90’s continue
into the more more
media friendly Spice
Girls use of phrase
“Girl Power”
Spice Girls
• Band styling presents a set of visual ‘types’ that are easily consumable by the target audience
• Band styling presents a set of visual ‘types’ that are easily consumable by the target audience
• There is no
empowerment for
young women as
there is nothing but
the reduction of
young women to
cartoon
representations
Dick Hebdige Subculture: The
meaning of Style
• “Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media.”
• “Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media.”
• Offence caused by
lyrics and behaviour
is important as it
The commodity form
• Subcultural signs like dress styles and music are turned into mass produced objects
• Subcultural signs like dress styles and music are turned into mass produced objects
• Eg: clothing which is
ripped as an anarchic
anti-fashion
statement becomes
mass produced with
rips as part of the
design
A threat to the family?
• Womens Own 1977 runs a feature on “Punks and Mothers”, smiling, reclining next to the family pool etc.
• Non political threat that ultimately will not disturb traditional values
• Hebdige suggests
that the press set up
this perceived threat
as away of
neutralising
something that could
not be conceived by
the petit-bourgeois
therefore has to be
‘domesticated
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” which marks the end of the movement as a subculture.
• Although punk seems to challenge eventually and surprisingly quickly it goes mainstream/high end and is turned into “To shock chic” which marks the end of the movement as a subculture.
21st century demonisation
• “Style in particular
provokes a double
response (in the
media): it is
alternately
celebrated (in the
fashion page) and
ridiculed or reviled (in
those articles which
define subcultures as
social problems)”
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