Scene Kids Sub-Culture Research Project

ISSUE 1 $5

December 9, 2014

SCENE KIDS AN LOOK INTO THE SCENE SUBCULTURE

CULTURAL RESEARCH PROJECT ON

Dress and the Impact on Social Communities

CREATED BY

Alex Hamilton

Audrey Kitching SCENE QUEEN <3

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TABLE OF CONTENTS scene kids magazine explores the scene kids sub-culture, delving into the history, lifestyle, dress, language, and values of the sub-culture. The magazine looks into the relation between the subculture and the digital world.

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OLI SYKES ROCKING DROP DEAD MERCH

Oli Sykes, singer in screamo band Bring Me The Horizon, is seen wearing a Drop Dead Gorgeous band tee

Scene Queens AT LEFT, MYSPACE SCENE QUEENS AND “SITE MODELS” POSE WHILE TAKING PICTURES FOR THEIR MYSPACE PROFILES

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INTRODUCTION A brief synopsis of the scene subculture

HISTORY Exploring the history and origin of the scene sub-culture

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DRESS Lifestyle, special traits, key symbols, and beliefs of scene kids

LIFESTYLE Lifestyle, special traits, key symbols, and beliefs of scene kids

LANGUAGE Digital lingo is crucial to the scene sub-culture

RELATION TO SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT How scene kids relate to the physical, psychological, and societal environments

INFOGRAPH Depiction of typical scene kid

VOCABULARY TERMS List of vocabulary terms used from the chapters

WORKS CITED Formaliter necessario tes lor discrepant sui tot imaginabor

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCENE KIDS The group who perfected the Selfie before iphones It’s hard to remember what the world of Web 2.0 was prior to the creation of Facebook and Instagram. Looking back, to treasures of the past, you’ll most likely recall AOL Instant Messenger, Sidekick phones that included a never-before-seen QWERTY keyboard, and, undoubtedly, the hierarchy of all social networking sites, Myspace.

Enter: the Scene Kids. The establishment of Myspace ultimately caused the revolutionary birth of the Scene

subculture. Though it originated in the United Kingdom in the 90’s, the sub-culture only made it’s way as a legitimate culture subgroup thanks to Internet and the spread of viral Youtube videos depicting “scene kids” fashion and makeup tutorials. scene kids emerged as a sub-group of the “emo” subculture, who in turn took pages from the notorious punk counterculture, as well as the goths. the scene kids changed the way in which society viewed emo’s and made the culture their own.

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HISTORY OF SCENE EXPLORING THE HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE SCENE SUB-CULTURE The Scene sub-culture is somewhat derived from the Emo sub-culture, which is considered a branch of the Punk/ Hardcore movement of the 1980’s and 1990’s, as well as the Goth sub-culture.

The Punk Movement arose as a counterculture of the 1980’s, known for rebellion and as a representation of inequality. !

The Emo Sub-culture Originated in 1985 in Washington D.C. and Maryland as a sub-culture with values similar to punk but ultimately centered around “emocore” (emotionally hardcore) music, which was “originally a subgenre of punk rock and post-hardcore with emotionally charged lyrics.” Emo bands include the likes of Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and Dashboard Confessional. The music genre was reinvented in the “1990s with a more indie/pop punk style” (Diffen, n.d.) leading to a decline in the population of emo individuals. !

Alas, the Scene subculture arose in the UK in the early 2000’s, (known as the “Chav” subculture in United Kingdom), taking bits and pieces of other subcultures, including emo, punk, goth, and ravers, to create a new fashion tribe focused primarily upon aesthetics and

music. The internet lead to the fast spread of this new sub-culture to the United States and Australia by the mid 2000’s. Youtube videos portraying scene fashion and makeup spread like wildfire.

The Name !

The “Scene kids” name derived from the term “scene queen” (derogatory term for 1970’s glam rock musicians who acted but did not officially identify themselves as homosexuals and adopted goth/punk attributes.) The term was adopted by the group and changed to “scene kids” or “scene”; eventually the “scene queen” term itself was adopted by influencers of the scene subgroup like Audrey Kitching.

Subgroups of the Scene Sub-culture were established, including “scene queens”, “perfection groups”, and “Site Models”. !

The collapse of Myspace lead to the end of the scene sub-culture; younger members of the scene kids group adopted the skate/punk fashions and skate culture or, conversely, the hardcore music subgroup. The scene kids group was practically obsolete by 2012. Though some still identify as a part of the scene subculture, it is seen by those who participated in it as a sub-culture of the past.

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Dahvie Vanity, member of Blood on the Dance Floor

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DRESS

LIFESTYLE, SPECIAL TRAITS, KEY SYMBOLS, AND VALUES OF SCENE KIDS

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The scene sub-culture attained its grammar

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of dress from emos, whom prior had made the

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punk dress code their own.

Scene kids are Typically teens and 20somethings; therefore, their living environments are that of teenagers/ high schoolers. Scenesters are typically of middle class, and shop at stores including Hot Topic, Sideca, etc. that are not known for carrying luxury designers nor apparel of the Walmart, Goodwill variety.

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The scene subgroup alters their physical appearance through tattoos, heavy tees/ tanks, hello kitty-themed attire, ripped/tattered tights in leopard/zebra makeup, hair accessories ( i.e. extensions), and various body piercings. The dress rules for female scene kids are a mix of skirts and tutus, mixed with bright, neon graphic band prints, mixed with other black attire.

Accessories includes vans or converse shoes, bandanas or bows in hair, and others channel a pinup look mixed with scene fashion. Females must have piercings ( snakebites, monroe, nose, etc).

DRESS CONTINUED

When it comes to makeup, females typically wear heavy foundation, excessive black eyeliner rimmed around the eyes, bright eyeshadow, sparkles and glitter. Thin eyebrows, tons of mascara and fake lashes, nude or neon lipstick, and tattoos are also seen on female “scene kids”. !

Likewise, The dress rules for male scene kids are stovepipe skinny jeans (girls’ jeans), tons of black, tight neon band/graphic tees, vans/converse shoes, piercings (lip, nose, gauges) multiple tattoos (sleeves, neck tattoos, hand tattoos, etc), and oftentimes eyeliner.

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KEY SIGNS/SYMBOLS Popular signs and symbols amongst the scene subculture include Hello kitty, cartoon/animated/anime graphics seen not only in fashion but found on social networking profiles, accessories, etc.

Brass knuckles in black or neon colors, anime characters, lightening bolts, cupcakes, and 2 dimensional diamonds are popular as fashion prints. Long necklaces of plastic beads and acrylic pendants of things like bats, scene diamonds, knuckle dusters, cupcakes, hello kitty, lightening bolts, and anchors.

The context of use of both dress and key symbols differentiate scene kids from emos : they bring colorful, playful imagery into the emo/gothlike fashion scene as a type of irony to deflect the self-mutilating, depressing, “woe is me” attitude of emo and give either more of a violent, rebellious edge (brass knuckles) considered “brutal” or a colorful edge.

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Social Networking Sites: Myspace

“MySpace and Facebook enable individuals to play an active role in the socialization process and in constructing their own identity.” (Urista, 217). Selfies showing typical scene hairstyles, makeup, fashion, cheap statement jewelry and band tees to represent music interests are coveted by the scene subculture. Scene kids perfected the selfie way before Facebook or Instagram. Often times, scene kids will conduct photo shoots in which they take multiple selfies for their Myspace profiles in various outfits. !

Most influential “scene kids” have 500+ friends on Myspace : often attaining these friends through “whore trains” in which users create trains of “likes” and by connecting with one top user, they receive likes from that user’s friends, as well; this leads to overall status attainment. !

Lifestyle

Warped Tour is the highlight event of the year for the scene community; various screamo and post-hardcore bands, including Bring Me The Horizon, The Used, Dance Gavin Dance, My Chemical Romance, etc. perform at the all-day Warped Tour concerts.

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Social networking sites

Status attainment in the world of the scene subculture relies mostly on one’s presence on social networking sites, specifically Myspace. Typical profiles are heavily edited through outside image generators, encompass a dark, black, somber vibe, contain a username incorporating their first name and a dismal adjective, often a rhyming phobia or other negative connotation. !

Although the scene sub-culture has dwindled drastically, there are some scene kids who have evolved to modern social media platforms to continue their digital lives. the hashtag #scenekid contains 964,634 posts on instagram. similarly, the hashtag #scenequeen holds 383,393 posts.

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Straight Edge a study regarding the impact of myspace on young adult’s social habits procured many comments regarding the scene subculture. the researcher conducting the study, urista, states within his essay that “ it is worth noting several participants’ insights on an emerging group of teens on MySpace who call themselves “Scene Kids.” These teens primarily use MySpace to become more popular online compared to traditional avenues like joining school clubs in the real world (224).

Scene kids connect via Myspace and hang out at “Myspace parties” with other scene kids from various areas. Typically scene kids consider themselves of high status within the social media society; it is difficult to be “accepted” into the community by influential “scenesters” and often requires you have a certain amount of myspace friends and likes on your pictures. Another participant of the myspace study noted that they “always carry a camera around and boast about how many friends, comments and pictures they have to others” (Urista, 224). !

! another element of the scene kid lifestyle is the term “Straight edge”.

Straight edge (sxe) describes “opting out of a life with alcohol, drugs, and promiscuous sex” (Chemotti, 2013). The straight edge movement effectively took over hardcore punk starting in1981 with Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat. The term “straight edge” has been redefined countless times by many different hardcore scenes.

(Chemotti).

Language DIGITAL TERMINOLOGY VITAL TO SCENE KIDS Because the average scene kid’s lifestyle is solely revolved around Myspace and texting, digital lingo is specific: one should always double up on symbols (i.e. && ;; etc), add extra letters to the end of words in a sparing manner, such as “hey kidd” or “hiiiii”; use abbreviations including hXc (hardcore), sXe (straight edge); and on Myspace, scene kids are known to offer adding another’s page for an add in return using acronyms such as W4W? PC4PC? Comment for comment? Also, scene kids use the “<3? symbol excessively.

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Work URL

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Dress provides protection from psychological and social environments of mainstream society.

By communicating mainly via social networking sites, users are allowed “to be selective in choosing who will and will not see his or her posts and other site information. The information on a user’s site can be customized to a selected network of friends in a very efficient way” (Urista, 226). This provides a sense of societal protection. Also, scene kids “use SNS to experience selective, efficient, and immediate contact with others for their interpersonal communication satisfaction and as an ongoing way to seek the approval and support of other people (226).

Relation to Social Environment

! the juxtaposition of black and neon colors, as well as dark and playful imagery, is used to depict not only their dark, brooding attitudes but also their self-confidence and extroverted natures. Scene kids are outgoing as opposed to having a shy mentality, and are looking for attention but specifically differentiating themselves from the Emo subgroup. !

The non-discursive meanings of dress of the scene subculture are not necessarily to rebel against mainstream culture but rather to disclose themselves as a highprofile, social media-famed group that revolves around their music, fashion, and networking choices.

Their dress choices allow them the power to control the gaze of others, outwardly expressing their unconventionality and interests in order to attain a sense of exclusivity.

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VOCABULARY TERMS ✴ Culture ✴Sub-culture ✴Counter-culture ✴Dress ✴Status ✴Inequality ✴Status Attainment ✴Grammar of Dress ✴Dress Rules ✴Context of Use ✴Nondiscursive Meanings of Dress

WORKS CITED Chemotti, L. (2013, July 31). A Straight Edge Dude Tells Us His Top 10 Favorite Straight Edge Bands | OC Weekly [Web log post].

Retrieved from http://blogs.ocweekly.com/ heardmentality/2013/07/ top_10_straight_edge_bands_wit.php Diffen. (n.d.). Emo vs Scene - Difference and Comparison | Diffen [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.diffen.com/difference/ Emo_vs_Scene K. D. Day, Q. Dong, and M. Urista. “Explaining Why Young Adults Use MySpace and Facebook Through Uses and Gratifications Theory”. Human Communication. A Publication of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association. Vol. 12, No. 2, pp.215 - 229.

SMH News. (2008). Inside the Clash of the Teen Subcultures. SMH National News of Australia. Retrieved from http:// www.smh.com.au/news/national/inside-theclash-of-the-teen-subcultures/ 2008/03/29/1206207488553.html

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