Postmodernism & Subculture

• Borden


  • YSC are now 'Neo-tribes' - loosely associated groups with low commitment, status gained through shared interests and consumer choices
  • Skaters emerged due to local authorities creating new skate ramps - bonded through shared interests and clothing brands like Vans
• Muggleton


  • No longer politically motivated - less clearly defined and less distinction between members and non-members, weaker sense of commitment.
  • 'Punkish' rather than Punk
  • Brighton and Preston
• Back


  • Found that new hybrid identities were emerging among young people in council estates in South London
  • Youth have a lot of freedom to construct new identities and play with different styles, symbols, and meanings.
  • Found lots of cultural borrowing and inter-racial friendships.
• Nayak


  • ‘White Wannabes’ - white WC males tried to adopt the style and language of ‘black culture’
  • Listen to hip hop or gangster rap 
  • Ali-G (parody), Eminem, and Professor Green
• Thornton


  • Clubbing culture- only thing that brings ravers together is their shared taste in music.
  • Pic'n'mix approach to style - choosing random elements of subcultures and making a new, mismatched identity
  • Subcultural capital = knowing what is 'in' and 'out' in the clubbing subculture, helping clubbers gain status from mainstream followers of rave music
• Blackman (critique of Thornton) 


  • By studying subcultures like clubbing you distance yourself from the most politically active subcultures and fail to see the political angle
  • Ravers were politically motivated - wore anti-apartheid colours, campaigned against nuclear energy and drug legislation
• Polhemus


  • Supermarket of style - freedom to choose from different subcultural fashion and music, just like a supermarket.
  • Blending and rehashing of style due to the infinite choice
• Katz


  Youth form deviant subcultures for the pleasure of transgression, thrill of misbehaviour, and the break from routine. Deviance is impulsive, seductive, and sensual.

  1. Sexual metaphor = pulses race, excitement, adrenaline.
  2. Religious metaphor = ruin something sacred
  3. Ludic metaphor = strategic like a game
• Manchester Institute of Popular Culture (MIPS)


  • Role of media in club culture in the 70s and 80s - found they formed within and through the media
  • Phones used to find local raves and learn what was 'cool' and 'hip' (subcultural capital)