Text: Internet with links Design: Krystsina Drazdousaya Illustrations: Krystsina Drazdouskaya Photo: Internet with links Sketches: Krystsina Drazdouskaya Typeface: Din Pro Paper Cover: Maco mat 250 Inside: Maco glans, 135 Print: Printed in Belgium ISBN 0471 761389
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Research book
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The young always have the same problem : how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another. Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
INTRODUCTION My Research book is the investigation witch I went throw to to develop my project. I started with a small question why everybody so different external and internal, why so much difference between subcultures if the main pattern of mainstream dictate the rules. Whats the crucial points and why culture do not except the radical variations between us. As the main and most interesting question is about youth who is during a long time brings us a new alternative vision to our life and what is acceptable for general culture and what is not. As a graphic designer i brought some my ideas of vision subcultures and make the graphical explanation as much as i can embrace My intention was not to race the problems of social researchers but make a base of my project supporting my idea in developing the project
SUBCULTURES? It is a commonplace of history that the most visible recipients of this economic dividend were the adolescent children of the generation that had fought in the Second World War. Already between 1945 and 1950 the average real wage of youth had increased at twice the rate of adults (Bourke 1994: 46). This trend continued during the 1950s, paving the way for that high-point of adolescent consumerism, the Swinging Sixties. It was amid such economic property that the “teenager”—initially a working-class phenomenon—was born (Marwick 1991: 91-3; Lewis 1978: 141-2). Comparing his own adolescence with what he was witnessing in the 1950s, the novelist Colin MacInnes put his finger right on the major defining point of difference: in those days [when I was an adolescent] there were big boys and girls, or young men and women—but no such thing as a teenager: who, one must insist, is a new kind of person, chiefly on account of his [sic] economic power. (MacInnes 1966: 57) MacInnes was the first writer to describe the new teenager lifestyle with empathy and understanding in his cult novel (Hewison 1987: 6) Absolute Beginners (1959). What distinguished working-class children from their parents more than ever before was not merely economics, however, but the widening discrepancy in their expectations of life, particularly with regard to leisure. Enjoying the greater egalitarianism that had arrived in the wake of the election of Clement Atlee’s Labour government in 1945, these young people had no intention of following their parents into forelock-tugging social subservience. If their parents had known their place, so to speak, then
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these youngsters refused to recognize a fixed and inferior social station. The novels of Alan Sillitoe, Keith Waterhouse and David Storey probed this new working-class teenage refusal to pull on the yoke of adult responsibility and conformity. The new subcultural response of teenagers was thus . . both a declaration of independence, of otherness, of alien intent, a refusal of anonymity, of subordinate status. It [was] an in subordination. And at the same time it [was] also a confirmation of the fact of powerlessness, a celebration of impotence. (Hebdige 1996: 35) The result of this expression of “alien intent” was the sudden appearance of what we now refer to as the “generation gap”. An early inquiry into this problem concluded that: “There are clear signs of alienation between the young people of today and the adult generations” (Schofield 1963: 6-7). The threat, as adult society saw it, manifested itself most clearly in the exponential rise in the juvenile crime rate during the second half of the 1950s. Offence committed by young people under the age of 21 rose from = 24,000 in 1955 to 45,000 in 1959 (Lewis 1978: 118). For adult society the words ‘tee ager’ and ‘juvenile delinquent’ were becoming almost synonymous. Since the Sixties the existence of a separate teenage culture, in Western societies at least, has become a familiar concept—acceptable, too, largely on account of the fact that middle-class teenagers participated more and more in the creation of popular youth culture, diluting the initial anger of
working-class youth, making it ‘safer’. It is perhaps necessary to recall, therefore, both the sense of claustrophobia felt by this first teenage generation, and the shock and incomprehension with which its rebellion was met by adult society at that time. Pushing against confinement, these working-class juveniles set about negotiating ‘space’ for themselves, sometimes through delinquent behavior, (although, as we shall see, this was frequently sensationalized by the press media). As a result, adult society—the “Control Culture” (Clarke/ Hall et al. 1975)—set in motion a whole range
of disciplinary measures. Youth subcultures are commonly seen as being somehow ‘self-generated’ and discrete phenomena; products entirely of the adherents of a given style: punks create punk style, skinheads create skinhead style. In this paper, I proceed from the view that working-class youth subcultures are products not of a single but of various complementary and mutually reinforcing discourses.
Subcultures tend to be based around common interests, hobbies and beliefs. Professions, religion, race, immigrant status and age all play a part in a group of people joining together and making their own subculture with characteristics that separate it from the dominant culture that surrounds them.
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BEATNIK
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Where does the word “Beat” Come from? The word “Beat” originally derived from circus
cal perspective. “The point of Beat is that you get
and carnival argot, reflecting the straitened circumstances of nomadic carnies. In the drug world, “beat” meant “robbed” or “cheated” (as in a “beat” deal). Herbert Huncke picked up the word from his show business friends on the Near North Side of Chicago, and in the fall of 1945 he introduced the word to William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. He never intended it to be elevating, but the opposite: “I meant beaten. The world against me.”1
beat down to a certain nakedness where you actually are able to see the world in a visionary way,” wrote Ginsberg, “ which is the old classical understanding of what happens in the dark night of the soul.”2
The word acquired historical resonance when Jack Kerouac, in a November 1948 conversation with fellow writer John Clellon Holmes, remarked, “So I guess you might say we’re a beat generation.” Appropriating this conversation, Holmes introduced the word to the mainstream public four years later, in a November 1952 article for the New York Times Magazine, entitled “This is the Beat Generation”. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul,” Holmes wrote, “a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness.” By the early 1950’s, Kerouac and Ginsberg had begun to emphasize the “beatific” quality of “Beat”, investing the viewpoint of the defeated with mysti-
For an entry in the Random House Dictionary, Jack Kerouac provided an apt historical definition: “Members of the generation that came of age after World war II, who, supposedly as a result of disillusionment stemming from the Cold War, espouse mystical detachment and relaxation of social and sexual tensions.”3 As the twentieth century draws to a close, the Beat Generation has outlived that historical moment, surviving notoriety and media blitz to become classic literature for succeeding generations. Excerpted from The Birth of the Beat Generation Copyright © 1995 Steven Watson 1 William Carlos Williams, “Introduction”, in Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, 1956 2 Scumacher, Dharma Lion, p. 261 3 Gilbert Millstein, New York Times, 1957
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Buddhism and the Beats Buddhism, the ancient and highly philosophical Asian tradition, was the religion of the Beats. It began to influence the lives of the major New York Beat writers in the mid-1950’s, when Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg each began delving into it, unaware at first that the other was doing so as well. Kerouac and Ginsberg began their studies by reading books in libraries, but when they migrated to California they began integrating the religion into their lives, inspired by Gary Snyder (the Beat writer
“The Beat style was a non-style; it was anti-style. They tried to be invisible, to be existential.”
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most consistently identified with Buddhism) and Kenneth Rexroth. Buddhism will change the life of anyone who begins to understand it, and all the works Kerouac wrote after the mid-fifties, particularly ‘The Dharma Bums’ and ‘Big Sur,’ can be interpreted as Buddhist parables. Ginsberg’s works are no less influenced by Buddhist thought, and the poet has devoted an enormous amount of his time and energy to Buddhist causes in the last three decades.
Excerpted from The Birth of the Beat Generation Copyright © 1995 Steven Watson http://www. urbandictionary.com Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture (Guides to Subcultures and Countercultures) by Alan Bisbort http://www.beatniksbeyou.com Henri Lenoir, owner of Café Vesuvio, stands in front of their tongue-in-cheek ad for a “Beatnik Kit” in the ’60s. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/cool-for-sale/
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The photo at the top of this page was taken by Diana Church at the Cafe Trieste in North Beach in 1975. Guests at the table include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Minelte Le Blanc, Peter Le Blanc, Allen Ginsberg, Harold Norse, Jack Hirschman & Bob Kaufman.
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Drugs Drugs became a definite character of the Beat. Constantly in the media they were portrayed as pot-smoking, coffee-drinking, sloppy Beat guys and Beat chicks. Soon, marijuana became a focal point in the attack of the Beat lifestyle and the Beats were accused of taking many other hard drugs. But, the Beat writers were very open about the kind of lifestyle they were leading, a fact that enraged many parents. Diana Trilling wrote in the Partisan Review, Spring, 1959, “it is no accident... that our single overt manifestation of protest takes the wholly non-political form of a bunch of panic-stricken kids in blue jeans, many of them publicly homosexual, talking about or taking drugs, assuring us that they are out of their minds.�
Real, live Beats: Larry Rivers, Jack Kerouac, David Amram, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso (in the hat) at a coffee shop in the 1950s.
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Beatnik art
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In 1959, “Life Magazine” contrasted the stereotypes of America’s two halves: Squaresville U.S.A. vs. Beatsville (really Hutchinson, Kansas vs. Venice Beach, California).
The Beatniks (1960) Director: Paul Frees Writer: Paul Frees Stars: Tony Travis, Karen Kadler, Peter Breck
Many pulp paperbacks in the ’50s and ’60s featured the beatnik stereotype, highlighting licentious sexuality and a drug-crazed mentality.
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Sneaking into conversation Plenty of phrases from the first self-described hipster generation have lasted into modern conversation: people still get bent out of shape, annoying people bug us and muscular guys are still built, just to scan the b-words. Here are 26 words and phrases that don’t get much use today, but are worth sneaking into conversation. 1. A shape in a drape A well-dressed person. “Usually she just wears jeans, but she sure is a shape in a drape in that dress.” 2. Bright disease To know too much. “He has bright disease. Make sure he doesn’t rat us out.” 3. Claws sharp Being well-informed on a number of subjects. “Reading Mental Floss keeps your claws sharp.” 4. Dixie fried Drunk. “It’s Friday and the eagle flies tonight. Let’s go get dixie fried.” 5. Everything plus Better than good-looking. “He wasn’t just built, he was everything plus.” 6. Focus your audio Listen carefully. “Shut your trap and focus your audio. This is important.” 7. Gin mill cowboy
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A bar regular. (A gin mill is a bar.) “Cliff Clavin was the _flossiest gin mill cowboy of all time.” 8. Hanging paper Paying with forged checks. “I hope that chick who stole my purse last week goes to jail for hanging paper.” 9. Interviewing your brains Thinking. “I can see you’re interviewing your brains, so I’ll leave you alone.” 10. Jungled up Having a place to live, or specific living arrangements. “All I know is that he’s jungled up with that guy he met at the gin mill last month.” 11. Know your groceries To be aware, or to do things well. (Similar to Douglas Adams’ “know where your towel is.”) “You can’t give a TED Talk on something unless you really know your groceries.” 12. Lead sled A car, specifically one that would now be considered a classic model. “His parents gave him their old lead sled for his sixteenth birthday.” 13. Mason-Dixon line Anywhere out of bounds, especially regarding personal space. “Keep your hands above the Mason-Dixon line, thanks.” 14. Noodle it out Think it through. “You don’t have to make a decision right now. Noodle it out and call me back.” 15. Off the cob
Corny. “Okay, some of this old Beat slang is kinda off the cob.” 16. Pearl diver A person who washes dishes. “I’m just a pearl diver at a greasy spoon, but it’s a job.” 17. Quail hunting Picking up chicks. “I’m going quail hunting and you’re my wingman.” 18. Red onion A hole in the wall; a really crappy bar. “I thought we were going somewhere nice but he just took me to the red onion on the corner.” 19. Slated for crashville Out of control. “That girl’s been in college for five minutes and is already slated for crashville.” 20. Threw babies out of the balcony A big success; interchangeable with “went down a storm.” “I was afraid the party would suck, but it threw babies out of the balcony.”
22. Varicose alley The runway in a strip club. “Stay in school or you’ll be strutting varicose alley, girls.” 23. Ways like a mowing machine An agricultural metaphor for impressive sexual technique, from the song “She’s a Hum Dinger” by Buddy Jones. “She’s long, she’s tall / She’s a handsome queen / She’s got ways like a mowing machine.” (Let us know if any of you ever successfully pull this one off in conversation.) 24. X-ray eyes To understand something, to see through confusion. “That guy is so smart. He’s got x-ray eyes.” 25. Yard A thousand dollars. “Yeah, it’s nice, but rent is half a yard a week. Let’s jungle up somewhere else.” 26. Zonk on the head A bad thing. “It stormed all night and we lost power, but the real zonk on the head was when hail broke the bedroom window.”
21. Used-to-be An ex, a person you used to date. “I ran into my used-to-be in Kroger’s and I looked terrible.”
These were collected from Straight From the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang by Max Décharné and A Historical Dictionary of American Slang.
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ROCKABILLY
Sociological Analysis of the Rockabilly Lifestyle The Fifties was an era often referred to as the Golden Era, a time that is most commonly reminisced by the modern generations especially those who grew up during the 1950s. Baby boomers, the largest age demographic to ever exist in the US, were born starting in 1946, which would entail their growing up during the ’50s. Combine that with the end of World War II and the subsequent social changes associated with freedom from war and rationed spending for an era that was hopeful and filled with promise of a successful and progressive future. Rock and roll music exploded during this era, bringing to the stage names including Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. Additionally, rockabilly music was established in the ’50s with musicians including Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, and the Everly Brothers. Households benefited from the emergence of more affordable appliances and a wide variety of gizmos
intended to make the home more comfortable and efficient. Electrical washing machines, toasters, microwaves, and televisions came out of the Fifties, as did Tupperware, TV dinners and mass production of telephones. The futuristic style of the era is symbolic of the increase of inventions and technologies that led to the first man on the moon a decade later and the personal computer two decades after that. Another feature of a 1950s household was the reemergence of roles held by men and women. Women who had left the home to work in factories during the war were expected to return to the domicile, while the men took to the office as the main breadwinners of families throughout America. This social change had quite the effects on women, as noted by the emergence of antidepressant drugs in the 1950s, in particular Valium, as a way to subdue the boredom and isolation associated with being at home rather than in the workforce.
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Rockabilly Look Rockabilly is best known as a musical style, but besides its distinct rhythm and beat, it’s characteristics are also found in the world of fashion. An entire sub-culture sprung up with the rise of rockabilly, and rockabilly dress has become an integral part of society. Rockabilly dress imitates the original style promoted by the prominent idols of rockabillys past. In the 50’s, the musical style was made popular by legendary artists like Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. The origins of rockabilly dress can also be found in looking back at the clothes worn by these high-profile musicians. The components of rockabilly dress are simple. Slacks with pastel colored shirts, or sometimes Daddy-O style shirts, are worn, with the collar of the shirt worn over the collar of a baggy coat. Creeper shoes finish off the look. Creeper shoes are available in almost any color imaginable, but the favored look is still simple black and white. Rockabilly dress is often mistaken for other well-known sub-cultures likes that of Greasers, Teds (Teddy Boys), and Rockers, all of
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which hail originally from the same era. However, it should be noted that rockabilly dress maintains a look and culture of its own, completely separate from these other styles. The notable rockabilly dress gives the avid music lovers a visible presence in the rock community. The clothes work to create a persona that cannot go unnoticed. People following this fashion and music trend are themselves referred to as Rockabillies or simply Billies. There are some contemporary musical acts that can be linked to the rockabilly style. The Stray Cats, well known 80’s artists, were very closely linked with rockabilly because they played in the musical style and wore the rockabilly clothes. The fashion sub-culture created by the rockabilly movement is easily spotted today, with many artists worldwide still working to keep rockabilly dress and music in the mainstream. Just flip through the stations on the radio and the channels on the television, and you are bound to find a sample of rockabilly hiding in the airwaves.
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Gil Elvgren Paintings
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Rockabilly now At first look, you might think that these pictures were taken sometime in the 1950s, but these are members of America’s Rockabilly community. Photographer Jennifer Greenburg has been capturing America’s Rockabilly subculture for more than a decade. Rockabillies not only dress like it’s the Fifties, but also drive old cars and decorate their
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homes with vintage furniture to mimic the retro sets. For this subculture fashion is not only appearance and vanity. This is a culture of people who live as a community. They don’t go to the mall and buy the image of fifties. Most of them are skilled at repairing and restoring own belongings.
Tom Henneberry, 1978
http://music.remezcla.com
http://www.sociology.com
http://www.rockitroost.com
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TEDDY BOYS
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Teds The first modern English subculture takes its name from a period that would have wholly ignored its principle membership of working-class youths and soldiers. The short reign of King Edward sees the emergence of extravagant fashions and a rigid class system, but also women’s suffrage and an interest in socialism. These Teddy Boys combed their hair a la Elvis and Roy Orbison, wore shoes made of rubber crepe used in desert combat, and thieved in suits that cost upwards of 20 GBP (about 370 currently). This is a subculture that helped establish a privilege of rejection, a privilege that skinheads, mods, and punks would adopt in their own worlds. While youths across the nation adopted a neo-Edwardian dress, it is this main irony that establishes the Teddy Boys as a subculture–and a very important one. England saw increased dilapidation and depression in working-class neighborhoods, and the import of American rock n’ roll. Narratives of the postwar individual rebuilding the self are far and wide, though tales of how a style can communicate this
are harder to find. The Teds’ drape coat–easily identified with their mid-thigh length, slim-straight silhouette, and velvet cuffs and collar, most recently seen by aristocrats and middle class alike on Downton Abbey–and “drainpipe trouser,” as they were called, rejected England as much as it celebrated and reestablished it. T.R. Fyvel writes in his 1963 essay, “Fashion and Revolt,” that the iconic quiff and “jelly roll” haircuts were “clearly symbols of masculinity.” “Dead-pan facial expressions” were of “special determination” amongst the working-class youth fresh from the navy ships. The teenagers growing up in war-torn England, who would proudly parade being an Edwardian–a Ted–were a new sort of Englishmen. These working-class youths from England’s harsher neighborhoods adopted a style that brushed against their economic reality, exemplifying an attitude that set the foundation for each subsequent English subculture. The patterned brocade waistcoat and drape jackets were often made-toorder at local shops throughout England, and the
In Britain, the first adolescents to make a show of shaking off the austerity of the postwar period, “the first to walk down the road to the promised land of Teen Age” (Savage 1982: 12), and the first consequently to be disciplined by adult society were the Teddy Boys (hereafter referred to as Teds), so-called on account of their ‘Edwardian’
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footwear brands of choice were either George Cox and Robot (who still produce creepers today).This was the Teds’ way of breaking out of their exclusion from mainstream society. Fyvel’s article suggests that when Teds went broke for their outfit, they stole and burgled to keep up appearances, only further separating them from the upper classes. The mix of the hard crepe sole with the tailored trouser aimed to shake the working-class stereotype from their shirt sleeves. This only made them more exclusive, as disparaging remarks of the uniform warranted a good lashing, firmly establishing a public perception of the Teddy Boys as gang culture. The Ted was founded on the juxtaposition of hard and soft, wearing and owning what you wanted to be, but most definitely did not have. “Ted” was a sort of side-long, cheeky glance and nod to the old culture they were rejecting. These youths were determined not to be marginalized by middle-class society any longer, no matter how they did it. Various websites dedicated to the history of Teddy Boys cite theft, beatings, and gang-ongang violence, but the influence of American music and film are not to be discounted when discussing the stylistic and attitudinal proclivities of the Teds’. The pompadour was made popular by rock n roll in the states, and similarly imported across the pond. Cliff Richard, whom John Lennon once said was the beginning of post-war English music, performed a very American style of British rock often heard in dancehalls, wore his hair in a quiff and cradled the mic much like Elvis. Lennon’s band, too, has much to owe to American popular music. Quiff-adorned
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and Americana-obsessed, what kind of England were they dreaming of? More importantly, whose England? That question pervades the ideology and attitude of the Teds – if it was to be their England in the ‘50s, they would wear and do as they pleased. No one was going to tell them otherwise. Ownership through rejection–and wearing it extravagantly–is established by the Teds, their hardedged manners, and crisp tailoring. There was a “Teddy Boy Revival” in the 1970s, anecdotally confirmed on wikipedia, and an apparent beef between punks and Teds over drape coats defiled by safety pins and Teddy Boy pride. It’s as if these punks, who’d had enough of England period, were now owning their England by rejecting another gang, one steeped in rejecting an England. In the 1990s the Teds and Rockabillies buried the hatchet, and any remaining racism amongst Teddyboys evaporated, leading to the emergence of Teddyboys in the rest of Europe where Rock and Roll has always been popular. The original Teddyboys were by now too old for violence and those that appeared in the 1980s were not interested in fighting. This led to a new type of safer Rock and Roll event where people could feel comfortable without Rock and Roll clothes or leathers. When the Manchester Peacock Society was formed in 2010, the aim was to recreate the original Teddy Boy look from the 1950s. The society now numbers over 30 Teds – originals from the ‘50s, second wave Teds from the ‘70s and young new recruits. By Ryan Chang http://www.vol1brooklyn.com
The mix of the hard crepe sole with the tailored trouser aimed to shake the working-class stereotype from their shirt sleeves.
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Ted’s Tattoo
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Teddy Girls These are one of just a few known collections of documented photographs of the first British female youth culture ever to exist. In 1955, freelance photographer Ken Russell was introduced Josie Buchan, a Teddy Girl who introduced him to some of her friends. Russell photographed them and one other group in Notting Hill. After his photographs were published in a small magazine in 1955, Russell’s photographs remained unseen for over half a century. He became a successful film director in the meantime. In 2005, his archive was rediscovered, and so were the Teddy Girls. Russell remembers 14 year-old Teddy Girl, Jean Rayner: “She had attitude by the truckload. No one paid much attention to the teddy girls before I did them, though there was plenty on teddy boys. They were tough, these kids, they’d been born in the war years and food rationing only ended in about 1954 – a year before I took these pictures. They were proud. They knew their worth. They just wore what they wore.” To understand the Teddy Girls style, we first have to go back to the boys culture. They emerged in England as post-war austerity was coming to an end and working class teenagers were
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able to afford good clothes and began to adopt the upper class Saville Row revival of dandy Edwardian fashion. By the mid 1950s, second-hand Edwardian suits were readily available on sale in markets as they had become unwearable by the upper-class once the Teddy Boys had started sporting them. Teddy girls were mostly working class teens as well, but considered less interesting by the media who were more concerned with sensationalizing a violent working class youth culture. While Teddy boys were known for hanging around on street corners, looking for trouble, a young working class woman’s role at the time was still focused around the home. But even with lower wages than the boys, Teddy girls would still dress up in their own drape jackets, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars and put their feminine spin on the Teddy style with straw boater hats, brooches, espadrilles and elegant clutch bags. They would go to the cinema in groups and attend dances and concerts with the boys, collect rock’n’roll records and magazines. Together, they essentially cultivated the first market for teenage leisure in Britain.
http://www.messynessychic.com/
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ROCKER
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Ton-up Boys The Rockers were considered to be a progression of the Teddyboys, and are often classed as their “spiritual ancestors”. The Rockers, like the Teddyboys before them, were immersed in 1950s Rock ‘N’ Roll music and fashions, and became known for their devotion to the music as much as their passion for British motorcycles. Many favored 1950s and early-1960s rock and roll by artists such as Bill Haley, Buddy Holley, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent & Eddie Cochran. The original Rockers of the late 1950’s were known as “Ton-up Boys”. A name that came about because of their obsession with trying to do the Ton (100mph). A feat that wasn’t easy on the bikes that were around at that time. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that the term Rocker was widely used. Until the post-World War II period motorcycling held a prestigious position and enjoyed a positive image in British society, being associated with wealth and glamour. But in the 1950s factors such
as: the end of post-war rationing in the UK, a general rise in prosperity for the working class, and the recent availability of credit and financing meant that motorcycling was now a option for everyone. The Youths at this time for the first time were able to afford their own transport. They bought standard factory-made motorcycles and wishing to be individual they tended to strip them down, tuning them up and modifying them to appear like racing bikes. Their bikes were not merely transport, but were used as an object of their identity. With the bike came the need for safety gear. This lead to the style of the rocker. The rocker fashion style was born out of necessity and practicality. Rockers wore leather motorcycle jackets, often heavily-decorated and adorned with metal studs, patches & pin badges. As there was no helmet law at this time, they tended not to wear one, so as to not to ruin their quiffs, or if they did they wore a classic open-face jet style helmet, with aviator goggles and a white silk scarf to protect them from the elements. Other common items included: T-shirts,
The original Rockers of the late 1950’s were known as “Ton-up Boys”. A name that came about because of their obsession with trying to do the Ton (100mph).
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leather caps, leather trousers and tall motorcycle boots with white seahock socks turned down over the top. Due to their appearance and reputation the rockers were not widely welcomed by venues such as pubs and dance halls. So instead they tended to hang about transport cafes and coffee bars (were the name Coffee Bar Cowboys comes from). Some of the more widely known are The Ace Cafe, Chelsea Bridge tea stall, Ace of Spades, Busy Bee and Johnsons. It was from these cafes that the term Café racer comes from, as they would often use them as starting and finishing points for road races. It was mainly these racers that lead to the Rockers been seen as tear a ways and hooligans by the rest of society. In the early sixties the Rockers image as tear a ways, trouble causes & hooligans was not helped as they clashed with a new subculture that was emerging. The Mods. Media coverage of Mods & Rockers fighting at seaside resorts such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and Clacton sparked a moral panic about British youths, and the two groups became labeled as folk devils. Unfortunately although these clashes were only few and far between the media hype at the time has lead to this been one of the main images of both the Mods & Rockers that people seem to remember. Another famous hang out for the Rockers, and possible the biggest and most well known motor-
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cycle club of the time, with over 20,000 members in it’s heyday is the 59 Club. The 59 Club started as a Church of England -based youth club founded in Hackney Wick on the 2 April 1959, in the East End of London. Later in 1962 Father William Shergold, a motorcyclist himself decided to try and encourage the Rockers to join the club and so he decided to hold a church service for them. He visited The Ace Cafe on the North Circular Road and handed out leaflets about the service. He had an immense reaction. The church was full of ‘Rockers’. Even some of their ‘bikes were brought into the church to be blessed. Due to the success of this a ‘bike section was added to the youth club which became so popular that it overtook the club and premises. Hence The 59 Club was born. The 59 club is notable for its adoption by the Rockers, and helped promote a more positive image of them with an archetype for the young members to follow, in the bad boys made good vein. According to one of its leaders Father Graham Hullett, its success was based on its almost entire lack of rules. The 59 Club is still going strong today Today although the original Rocker style is not popular as it was in the 1960’s it still has a hardcore following and has recently started to see an increase in its numbers with regular meets and rides taking place.
http://www.rockers-uk.co.uk
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CONFLICT BETWEEN ROCKERS AND MODS
Rockers VS Mods In the United Kingdom, Rockers were often engaged in brawls with Mods. BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that Mods and Rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns in Southern England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and Clacton. Mods sometimes sewed fish hooks or razor blades into the backs of their lapels to shred the fingers of assailants; the same thing was done by Teddy Boys in the 1950s. Weapons were often in evidence; coshes, bike chains and flick knives being favored. The Mods and Rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to develop the term moral panic in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics, which examined media coverage of the Mod and Rocker riots in the 1960s. Although Cohen admits that Mods and Rockers had some fights in the mid-1960s, he argues that they were no different to the evening brawls that occurred between youths throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, both at seaside resorts and after football games. He claims that the UK media turned the Mod subculture into a negative symbol of delinquent and deviant status. The conflict came to a head at Clacton during the Easter weekend of 1964. Round two took place on the south coast of England, where Londoners head for seaside resorts on Bank Holidays. Over the
Whitsun weekend (May 18 and 19, 1964), thousands of Mods descended upon Margate, Broadstairs and Brighton to find that an inordinately large number of Rockers had made the same holiday plans. Within a short time, marauding gangs of Mods and Rockers were openly fighting, often using pieces of deckchairs. The worst violence was at Brighton, where fights lasted two days and moved along the coast to Hastings and back; hence the Second Battle of Hastings tag. A small number of Rockers were isolated on Brighton beach where they – despite being protected by police – were overwhelmed and assaulted by Mods. Eventually calm was restored and a judge levied heavy fines, describing those arrested as sawdust Caesars. Newspapers described the Mod and Rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labeled Mods and Rockers as "vermin" and "louts". Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964, which warned that Mods and Rockers were "internal enemies" in the UK who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". The magazine Police Review argued that the Mods and Rockers' purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire".
The Mods and Rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to develop the term moral panic
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Cohen argues that as media hysteria about knife-wielding, violent Mods increased, the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would “stimulate hostile and punitive reactions”. As a result of this media coverage, two British Members of Parliament travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism. One of the prosecutors in the trial of some of the Clacton brawlers argued that Mods and Rockers were youths with no serious views, who lacked respect for law and order. Cohen says the media used possibly faked interviews with supposed Rockers such as “Mick the Wild One”. As well, the media would try to get mileage from accidents that were unrelated to mod-rocker violence, such as an accidental drowning of a youth, which got the headline “Mod Dead in Sea”.
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Eventually, when the media ran out of real fights to report, they would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading “Violence”, even when the article reported that there was no violence at all. Newspaper writers also began to associate Mods and Rockers with various social issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines, and violence. And soon thereafter the youth culture morphed into the hippie culture and the press fascination turned psychedelic and the Mods and Rockers, mostly, were forgotten. For a brief and glorious time between 1963 and 1966 the British working class kids identified as Mods and Rockers dominated the pop culture. It was a magnificent time to be young and to be part of a wave that changed the course of music and culture.
http://www.modrockmusical.com
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MOD
Mods The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs. From the mid-to-late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or modern. There was a mod revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, which was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California. Coffee bars were attractive to youths, because in contrast to typical British pubs, which closed at about 11 pm, they were open until the early hours of the morning. Coffee bars had jukeboxes, which in some cases reserved some of the space in the machines for the students' own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music. By the summer of 1966, the mod scene was in sharp decline. Dick Hebdige argues that the mod subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialised, artificial and stylised to the point that new mod clothing styles were being created "from above" by clothing companies and by TV shows like Ready Steady Go!, rather than being developed by young people customising their clothes and mixing different fashions together. As psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular in the United Kingdom, many people
drifted away from the mod scene. Bands such as The Who and Small Faces had changed their musical styles and no longer considered themselves mods. Another factor was that the original mods of the early 1960s were getting into the age of marriage and child-rearing, which meant that they no longer had the time or money for their youthful pastimes of club-going, record-shopping and scooter rallies. The peacock or fashion wing of mod culture evolved into the swinging London scene and the hippie style, which favored the gentle, marijuana-infused contemplation of esoteric ideas and aesthetics, which contrasted sharply with the frenetic energy of the mod ethos. The hard mods of the mid-to-late 1960s eventually transformed into the skinheads. Many of the hard mods lived in the same economically depressed areas of South London as West Indian immigrants, and those mods emulated the rude boy look of pork pie hats and too-short Levis jeans. These "aspiring 'white negros'" listened to Jamaican ska and mingled with black rude boys at West Indian nightclubs like Ram Jam, A-Train and Sloopy's. Dick Hebdige claims that the hard mods were drawn to black culture and ska music in part because the educated, middle-class hippie movement's drug-oriented and intellectual music did not have any relevance for them.
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Fashion Jobling and Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and Kings Road districts. The Royal Air Force roundel, was a mod symbol. Newspaper accounts from the mid-1960s focused on the mod obsession with clothes, often detailing the prices of the expensive suits worn by young mods, and seeking out extreme cases such as a young mod who claimed that he would "go without food to buy clothes". Jobling and Crowley note that while the subculture had strong elements of consumerism and shopping, mods were not passive consumers; instead they were very self-conscious and critical, customising "existing styles, symbols and artefacts" such as the Union flag and the Royal Air Force roundel symbol, and putting them on their jackets in a pop art-style, and putting their personal signatures on their style.
http://www.thescooterist.com by Da Nguyen
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The song "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" by The Kinks from 1966 jokes about the fashion obsession of the mod community. Mod fashion adopted new Italian and French styles in part as a reaction to the rural and small-town rockers, who were seen as trapped in the 1950s, with their leather motorcycle clothes and American greaser look. A few male mods went against gender norms of the era by enhancing their appearance with eye shadow, eyepencil or even lipstick. Female mods dressed androgynously, with short haircuts, men's trousers or shirts (sometimes their boyfriend's), flat shoes, and little makeup — often just pale foundation, brown eye shadow, white or pale lipstick and false eyelashes. Female mods pushed the boundaries of parental tolerance with their miniskirts, which got progressively shorter between the early and mid-1960s. As female mod fashion went from an underground style to a more commercialised fashion, slender models like Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy began to exemplify the high-fashion mod look. The television programme Ready Steady Go!, presented by Cathy McGowan, helped to spread awareness of mod fashions and music to a larger audience. geographic conditions.
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Scooters were chosen over motorbikes because scooters' use of bodypanelling and concealed moving parts made them cleaner and less likely to stain an expensive suit with grease.
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PUNK
DIY Youth Without doubt one of the most important artistic movements of recent times, if not the, punk rock’s unwavering power and intensity is still felt daily in 21st century creativity. In fact, you feel there’s very little about today’s art, design, music or fashion that would be the same were it not for the explosion of DIY youth culture in the 1970s.
Stones virtually embodied the devil himself, it’s hard to imagine a time before the Sex Pistols made anarchy a way of life. Punk: An Aesthetic, published by Rizzoli on 13th September, is a new book that coincides with Someday All the Adults Will Die! Punk Graphics 1971-1984, an exhibition at the Southbank’s Hayward Gallery Project Space.
Sure, the original venom has been watered down, commercialised, but the disenthrallment of traditional conventions, the freedom to act out whims of creativity before over-thinking and diluting, the two fingers stuck up at the establishment… they’re all elements of punk’s legacy that make the best of today’s creativity what it is.
Both are curated by Jon Savage and Johan Kugelberg, and both celebrate the iconic graphic design of punk rock. From thrown together gig posters, to DIY photocopied fanzines, and onto the publications that turned punk into an international movement; this comprehensive retrospective of a culture-defining moment is a welcome reminder of the ever-lasting impact and influence of punk and its key movers.
Rewind a few decades; The Beatles were deemed rebellious for the length of their mop-tops, The
Reverse of sleeve for ‘Yes Sir, I Will’ by Crass (Crass, 1983). Designed by G. Sus [Gee Vaucher].
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How Punk changed Graphic Design When Punk first exploded in the 1970s it looked like youthful rebellion. In actuality it was part of the Postmodernist movement which began as a reaction to the rigid restrictions of Modernism. Its DIY ethos encapsulated the anti-establishment mood of the mid 1970s, a time of political and social turbulence. The former British Empire was dissolving and a new era in British music, fashion and design was beginning.
Treating type as if it was a photograph also freed him from the restrictions of typesetting within a structured grid. Reid designed the band’s logo and many of their record covers.
Taking the stage to articulate the feelings of a dissatisfied generation calling for change were the Sex Pistols, who played their first gig in 1975 at St Martins College of Art. Their outrageous behaviour and contempt for established conventions announced the beginning of Punk. The DIY ethos and uncontrolled, home made style was revolutionary at the time and launched a new era in British music, fashion and design.
Vinyl records were mass produced, disposable items (although treasured by their owners), a 45 Sex Pistols single cost about 70p. We didn’t realise at the time that they would go on to become such significant pieces of work, charting the start of a major art and design movement which would change the face of Britain.
The band’s style of music was well represented by art student and anarchist Jamie Reid who had developed his unique collaged ‘ransom note’ typography whilst art directing a radical political magazine. In the ’70s graphic designers needed to commission a typesetter to create the type and they wouldn’t see what it looked like until it came back as finished copy printed out on a sheet. Instead Reid cut letters out of newspapers and magazines, collaging them together to be photographed. By doing this he could see what he was creating as he went along, trying out different font styles and sizes and seeing the results instantly.
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At the time Reid’s DIY style was considered shocking and uncontrolled but the influence on design has been far reaching and subsequently widely emulated.
Barney Bubbles (Colin Fulcher) was also subverting the Modernist style in his work as the Stiff Records designer where he created record sleeves for Elvis Costello, Ian Dury & the Blockheads and the Damned. Elsewhere Postmodernism was taking the form of New Wave Design which was championed in Switzerland by Wolfgang Weingart and in Holland by Gert Dumbar. The DIY design ethos gained new impetus with the arrival of the Apple mac in the 1980s which gave designers direct access to typefaces and started a whole new debate about ‘ugly’ design.
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http://www.weheart.co.uk/2012/09/10/punk-an-aesthetic/ http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/punk-uncovered
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Ralphy Boy from Squat or Rot did four issues of a scene news sheet called NOT ALWAYS THE NEWS. It had info on bands, new releases, shows, gossip, etc. It was hand written, and if you wanted a copy you had to run into Ralphy on the street or at a show.
SLUG & LETTUCE originally started in Pennsylvania, but moved to NYC around 1990 when editor Chris Boarts came to town to go to the School of Visual Arts. As far I know SLUG & LETTUCE is still going, published out of Virginia now.
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http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/ punk-an-aesthetic-edited-by-johankugelberg-and-jon-savage
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PUNKS BAR DE ROTTE Personal research
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SKINHEAD
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First Skinheads The first skinheads appeared in England in 1969. They are born of the encounter between the Jamaican rude boys and the hard mods (1). Thanks to these Jamaican rude boys, while immigrants in England, they discover the bottom ska (2), rocksteady (3) and the reggae which are rapidly becoming the musics of the movement. It’s the skinheads who are really spread reggae in England, particularly through the production of Trojan label whose symbol is a Trojan warrior helmet. Under the influence of hard mods, skinheads created their own style, both marked by their working class membership but also very accurate: high doc martens , jeans, Ben Sherman shirts and Fred Perry polo, braces and shaved heads ( for not getting caught by the police, or to avoid accidents at work in factories). The spirit then prevailing in the movement has absolutely nothing to do with politics and is a spirit of celebration (often summarized in beer, flirting, fighting) all on the bottom of ska to rocksteady and skinhead reggae (4) (also called early reggae). Then there is no problem of racism within the skinhead movement and it is not uncommon to see black skinheads. The movement on these bases will live for 10 years of steam in the mid-1970s, then revived thanks to the revival and ska bands like Madness, the spacial or Bad manners.
1980: Margaret Tatcher has been in power for a few months. If his liberal politics globaly redress the country’s economy, but it has disastrous consequences for the working class. Actually the “Iron Lady” reduces the role of the state, it is pass laws against trade unions in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1988 (5), the entreprises privatization of which has the consequences to the fail of the smaller, taxes are increasing (including VAT at 15%) as the unemployment rate reached a record 5 million in 1982. During her tenure she has always wanted to marginalize the youth since banned rave party and said, in one of his most famous speech “we must crucified all the skinhead crucified”. This last sentence more or less give birth to the “crucified skinhead”. I must mention that Margaret Tatcher always supported General Pinochet ... The disastrous social climate allowed the development of the national front. This eager to find new activists for the sound of youth went to the place where she often met the football stadiums. A part of skinheads were then seduced by the ideas of extreme right forever staining the movement .... But these considerations can’t explain the drift of the skinhead movement towards the extreme right ...
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In 1977 the punk storm sweeping the United Kingdom. But in 1978 the bandss of the “first wave” (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones ...) splittent or turn to a more “commercial” music. The skinheads will then create their own style of punk, and back to where it all began: in the street. Their punk is more brutal and heavier than the 77 punk. It is characterized by a voice éraillée,football hooligans chorus, guitars slow but powerful and ultra interjection Oi! (meaning “hey you” in cockney slang) that very often. This interjection to give its name to this new genre. If music is radicalizes skinhead style dress too as they would shave the hair even more pronounced, and military clothes and heavy coats dockworker come gradually replace the jeans and shirts. If the first groups of Oi! (Sham 69, Cock Sparre, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs) already exist in 1978 (or earlier), the Oi! develops especially after 1980, thanks to Garry Bushell, a Sounds magazine journalist. It was him who created the first Oi ! compilation , “Oi! The album, released in November 1980. At that time, skinhead bands shows often turn to confrontation between different gangs of hooligans supporting differents football teams, or between apolitical skinheads and racist skinheads. Things get worse still, when on 3 July 1981, a concert
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bringing together The 4 Skins, The Business and Last Resort turns to riot after the cops who try to calm the fights between skinheads and Pakistan, during which Molotov cocktails were thrown (we don’t know do that). In addition, the Oi! band Screwdriver, formed in 1977 and reform in 1981 after having split for two years, but meanwhile its leader, Ian Stuart has become a neo Nazi militant activity, bringing with him a skinhead in the audience. In the early 80s he founded Blood and honor international organization, bringing together the fascist skinheads, who also has an armed group, C18 (meaning Combat Adolf Hitler). The same year Garry Bushell publishes a second Oi! compilation “Strengh through Oi!” On the cover of which you can see a gay and Nazi skinhead kicking. These facts, very relayed by the press and ruin the movement and music to the general public who hastily conclude that all skinheads are Nazis. Between 1980 and 1987 raids carried out by Nazi skins against Pakistani immigrants in England, as well as violence in the concerts, which grows more and more. Real networks are created racist skinheads and the first RAC (Rock Against Communism) (6) shows are organized. The RAC is a fascistic version of Oi! with homophobic, xenophobic and racist lyrics ... The first alternative for halting
the recovery of movement by the extreme right, is created in New York in 1987. This first group of anti-racist skinheads is called SHARP: Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice. SHARP skinheads claim fundamentally anti-racist and anti-fascist, yet there are among them some patriotic pride. The SHARP skins were created with the intention to embedded the movement in anti-racism and the need to bring the movement of black Jamaican roots. That is why they claim apolitical, like the the first hour skinheads . However, a major difference is noted between these two approaches to the apolitical. If the first skinheads did not care completely of this polics, SHARP them have political views but they do not want to mix with the skinhead culture. To differentiate them to nationalist skinheads they create the term “Bonehead” because they do not recognize the right for them to say skinheads because they deny the roots of the movement. Their first logo was a Doc Martens that overwrites a swastika. But the logo they use today takes the sign of the Trojan label (7) with the initials SHARP at the top of the helmet. SHARP movement will quickly grows, particularly in England where it was popularized by Roddy Moreno, singer of The Oppressed very committed to the extreme left. Today there are SHARP skinheads
in the world (USA, England, Canada, France ...) Created by a small group of people, the mayday crew, formed by dissidents of SHARP, the RASH (Red & Anarchist Skinheads) is a group of red and black skinheads, which emerged in 1989 in New York. This movement is based on the fact that if the skinheads of the late 60s were apolitical, they claimed they belonged to the working class, which indicates that the class consciousness has always been present among them. The RASH is formed in response to the racist movement, but also SHARP patriotism. Indeed, the Redskins are much more radical deal with boneheads and patriotic and nationalist ideas, which explains many disputes between RASH skinheads and skinhead SHARP, sometimes displaying the American flag on their bombers. The RASH skins are often very close to political parties and unions such as the revolutionary CNT, the SWP or the CP. RASH today is a global network more or less formal. There are “fields” RASH everywhere: USA, Canada, South America, Colombia, Romania, Spain, France ... The skinhead movement landed in France in 19781979 with the ska revival. The first french skins are usually of old punks. They first appear around the school and St Sulpice in the neighborhood of the
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station Colombe. A few years later the first bands of Oi! are created : Trotskids, Kommintern Sect, Wunderbach ... Among them, RAS (clearly marked on the far left) and Snix or Tolbiac Toads (first groups Oi! French nationalists). The Tolbiac Toads is a band of music, but also one of the first boneheads crew in Paris. In a move to better organize, Serge Ayoub (aka Batskin) form the Nazi Klan (first micro skins Nazi organization in the country), including Evil skins members in their ranks, in the early 80’s, which will birth to JNR (Nationalist Revolutionary Youth) in 1987. The JNR are made up of members of different boneheads crews (Halles, Luxembourg, Clignancourt ...) It is in this tense atmosphere that the first redskins crew is formed. (8) Between 1985 and 1989 they multiply. However only few of them have marked the french antifascist landscape.
Then in 1989 the SHARP Beauvais is created, and some years later, in 1993 the Paris-Banlieue SHARP was born. By the mid-90’s rash appears Paris-Banlieue . Finally one evening in 2002, where “there were two moons in the sky” International Situationist Skinhead was founded by Chéribibi ( old french skinhead who realized the magazine with the same name). Although a joke when it created the ISS is becoming increasingly important. But behind the creation of the ISS, is witness to a bitter conclusion: the skinhead scene is divided*.
The largest is called the Redwarriors: it was created in 1985 to end of the healthy plant, Squatter and self Mecca of alternative rock movement. Each band member did a fighting sport of , to fight foot by foot with the bones. At their first face-to french nationalist skinheads, they return their bombers . Thus was born the legend of urban bombers returned to the skins.
This is the story common to all skinheads. But this scene is difficult to identify because in each country it has different specificities. For example members of the Colombian RASH are required to be Straight Edge, that the drug market is very active there, in Romania on RASH means Radical Anarchist Skinheads, SHARP in France are mostly not patriots ... ect .
The Redwarriors had a solid reputation in the french radical antifascist scene and form a few years later the security order during Bérurier Noir shows. Other important band: The Ducky boys. This is a band of rockers, some twenty people, which is formed at about the same time as Redwerriors. On their bombers they fly the American flag in tribute to the Black Panthers and the As-NAYS. They focus their actions in neo-Na-
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zi shows, where they do battle with the audience. Finally 1988-1989 to french racist skinheads are found in healthy pitbull cop in the PSG stadium . In response to the reunification Ruddy fox is created. This crew consists of members of Ducky boys and young cities that are becoming more involved in the battle against fascism.
“First, to be a skinhead you must love your Doc Martens, you must love ska music, yu must have the right attitude from the heart and the brain, you must like football, you must like to dance harder than anybody else of any subculture and most of it who need to be antiracist “(Buster Bloodvessel - Bad Manners) Everything is said ...
SOME GOOD MUSIC :
boys.
The Oppressed :Oi! Oi! music . Last resort :A way of life (skinhead anthems). The 4 Skins :The good the bad and the 4 skins. V/A :Oi! The album. Toy Dolls :Dig that groove. Cock Sparrer :Shock troops. V/A:Chaos en France (vol.1 et vol.2). Hors Contrôle :Enfants du charbon . Sham 69 :The aventure of Hersham
Toots And The Maytals :Funky kingston. V/A :Trojan skinhead reggae boxset. V/A :Trojan rocksteady boxset. Bob Marley And The Wailers :African herbsman.
SPIKE (2009).
Notes: *I wanted to translate the ISS manifesto but ut’s to hard because there’s a lot of trick word and humor (1): Mods have radicalized their appearance to show their reject of the hippie ideals to which more and more mods in the first hour is running. (2): Music before rocksteady emerged in Jamaica in 1960, with industrialization, a mixture of rock n ‘roll, soul and rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, mentoring, jazz of scat, calypso, merengue, African music and Cuban ... First stai stai then called ska, some argue that these names are born of sound produced as dry plates agreements on the guitar. His times are very marked by the rhythmic bass / drums and a brass section very much. The syncopated rhythm based on the setback is marked by a highlight on the second and fourth measures. The upbeat guitar playing is the setback of the R & B and boogie piano. The brass are added to the solos of jazz bass and a very forward, like merengue, calypso and mento. Often, songs are played instrumentals, frantic and supported. Punctate over the years by onomatopoeia from the scat, it is also anger in the sound system where people come skank. (3): The ska evolution is a rocksteady whose golden age was from 1966 to 1968. It is slower, and have strong soul accents. In this style the third time is punctuated by the snare and ska contrbasse is replaced by electric bass. The brass are less present than in the ska. The texts of rocksteady artists mainly speak of love. One of the most
important musicians of this style was Alton Ellis, who died in 2008. (4): The early reggae (or skinhead reggae) denotes a style of reggae nervous tempo that developed between 1968 and 1972. In this style the guitar skank is often doubled by the Hammond organ, which then becomes a very important instrument (the organ solos are not uncommon). In the texts of the artists there are many references to skinheads (ex “skinhead moonstomp” or “skinhead a message to you”) and social grievances. (5): “Winter of discontent” is the name given to a miners’ strike which lasted from winter 1984 to winter 1985. The miners have not been successful. You can see images of his strike in the film “Billy Elliot” and the first images of “This is England.” (6): The name RAC was chosen referring concerts Rock Against Racism (RAR) which participated Sham 69. (7): Founded in 1967 by Chris Blackwell, who signing Bob Marley 6 years later on Island records, Trojan Records is a label specializing in black Jamaican music whose first skinheads especially appreciate the productions, so that they are sometimes called the “Trojan skins “. (8): The first crew of “ skins hunters skins “in Paris (a term invented by the Ducky Boys), were called in reference to redskin music band of the same name, but also the face of provocation by boneheads. However, these crews have belatedly adopted the skinhead look (circa 1988 -1989).
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http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org
Nik Knight ”Skinhead” - Premke bib
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HIPPIE
Hippies as Counter-culture The 1960’s hippie counter culture movement involved a variety of social concerns and beliefs. The hippies’ primary tenet was that life was about being happy, not about what others thought you should be. Their “if it feels good, do it” attitudes included little forethought nor concern for the consequences of their actions. Hippies were dissatisfied with what their parents had built for them, a rather strange belief given that their parents had built the greatest booming economy the world had ever seen. Hippies rejected established institutions. Calling them “The Establishment”, “Big Brother”, and “The Man”, hippies believed the dominant mainstream culture was corrupt and inherently flawed and sought to replace it with a Utopian society. Hippies rejected middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War. They embraced aspects of eastern philosophy and sought to find new meaning in life. Hippies dancingHippies were often vegetarian and believed in eco friendly environmental practices. They championed free love and sexual liberation, particularly for women. They also promoted the use of psychedelic drugs which they believed expanded their consciousness. Hippies participated in alternative arts and street theater and listened to folk music and
psychedelic rock as part of their anti-establishment lifestyle. They opposed political and social violence and promoted a gentle ideology that focused on peace, love, and personal freedom. Some hippies lived in communes or aggregated communities of other hippies. Some described the 1960’s hippies movement as a religious movement. Hippies created their own counter culture founded on psychedelic rock and the embracement of the sexual revolution. Drugs such as marijuana and LSD were tightly integrated into their culture as a means to explore altered states of consciousness. Contrary to what many believe, hippies tended to avoid harder drugs such as heroin and amphetamines because they considered them harmful or addictive. Hippie dress, which they believed was part of the statement of who you were, included brightly colored, ragged clothes, tie-dyed t-shirts, beads, sandals (or barefoot), and jewelry, all of which served to differentiate them from the “straight” or “square” mainstream segments of society. Their aversion to commercialism also influenced their style of dress. Much of their clothing was often purchased at flea markets or second hand shops. Hippie men wore their hair long and typically wore beards and mustaches while the women wore little or no makeup and often went braless (occasionally shirtless).
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The peace symbol became the hippie official logo and the VW bus their official means of group transportation. Hippies often drove VW buses painted with colorful graphics so they could quickly pack up and travel to where the action was at any given time. Their gypsy like travel habits also meant many hitchhiked to get to and from major hippie events. The origin of the word “hippie” derives from “hipster” which was first coined by Harry Gibson in 1940 in a song titled “Harry the Hipster” (as Harry referred to himself). In the song, hipsters were beatniks who had moved into New York City’s Greenwich Village. Beatniks were followers of the Beat Generation literary movement who through their writings, promoted anti-conformist attitudes and ideals. The first clearly used instance of the term “hippie” occurred on September 5, 1965 in the article “A New Haven for Beatniks” by San Francisco journalist Michael Fallon (who was writing about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse). handler A. Laughlin II, cofounder of the infamous Cabale Creamery club in Berkeley, was greatly influenced by the Beat Generation and their beatnik culture. In 1963, Laughlin followed their lead and established a tight family-like identity among 50 people in Greenwich Village in New York City and later Berkeley, California. Laughlin recruited many of the early psychedelic musical talent acts including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, The Charlatans, and others.
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During this time, LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley, who also lived in Berkeley, provided much of the LSD to the burgeoning hippie scene. Stanley, an ex-army radar operator, converted his amphetamines lab to an LSD lab and became one of the first millionaire drug dealers in the United States. His LSD product became a part of the “Red Dog Experience”, the early evolution of psychedelic rock and the budding hippie culture. At the Red Dog Saloon, the Charlatans were the first psychedelic rock band to play live while high on LSD. By June of 1966, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district was the epicenter of the hippie movement. The area was already primed to become the center of hippie activity as its residents consisted of beatniks, writers, artists, and musicians. About 15,000 hippies had moved to the area including the psychedelic bands The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, and Holding Company. The hippies accepted into their family the performance group The Diggers, a street theater group who combined spontaneous street theater with anarchistic action and art happenings. The Diggers sought to build an alternative free society where every need and desire could be obtained for free. By late 1966, The Diggers had opened public stores that provided free food (some of which was stolen off the backs of trucks), distributed free drugs, gave away money, and organized music concerts and art events.
In October 1966, California became the first state to make LSD illegal when they declared LSD a controlled substance. In response to the criminalization of their psychedelic drug, San Francisco hippies staged a gathering in the Golden Gate Park. The event was called the Love Pageant Rally. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate that those who used LSD were not evil, criminals, or mentally ill. It was the first incidence of political activism initiated by the hippies. Drugs were handed out to participants and the hippies put tabs of LSD on their tongues in front of police in protest of the new law. On January 14, 1967 the Human Be-In event was held in Golden State Park in San Francisco. This event, which received extensive media coverage from the major networks, popularized the hippie culture throughout the United States and led to the legendary Summer of Love on the West Coast. Three thousand hippies were expected but thirty
thousand hippies showed up and gathered in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to celebrate the hippie culture. “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair” inspired thousands to travel to San Francisco, many wearing flowers in their hair and distributing flowers to passerby at intersections and on the street. The name “Flower Children” stuck. It has been estimated that 100,000 people travelled to San Francisco during the summer of 1967. The media followed the movement of the hippies casting a spotlight on the Haight-Ashbury district where many of the psychedelic bands lived and played. In the hippies’ eyes, they had become freaks and little more than a sideshow for the amusement of visiting tourists. Many began to flee Haight in search of calmer, more remote settings.
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RUDE BOY
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Rudeboy You’ve probably heard the term ‘rude boy’ brandished around quite a bit. In modern society the rude boy wears a tracksuit, a flat peak cap and listens to dirty stinking Grime music. However, there was a time when a rude boy wouldn’t be seen dead in a tracksuit. The original rude boy inhabited a smart and slick appearance, listened to Reggae, Rock-Steady and Ska music and shared beliefs surrounding politics and culture. The Evolution Of Rude Boy Culture. History Of The Name Just like its Jamaican roots suggest the term ‘rude boy’ first came alight in 1950s Jamaica. It was a term that was commonly associated with adolescent criminals in the poorer sections of Jamaica, noticeably Kingston. Violence on the streets went hand in hand with the early rude boy, activities such as gate crashing rival sound systems became a familiar sight. The rude boy would aspire to dress in the latest street fashion which included razor sharp suits, thin ties and hats such as pork pies or trilbies. An image that was clearly inspired by American gangsters, Jazz musicians and Soul artists at the time; however it was the Jamaican sound of 60s Ska
music that influenced the benchmark rude boy. How Music Contributed It was Ska music that helped to transform the negative connotations associated with the rude boy. Jamaican Ska musicians sought to speak to the youth about their violent tendencies and urged them to channel their culture’s attention towards a much more political motivation. The song ‘Message to You, Rudy’ by Dandy Livingstone in 1967 is a prime example of Ska musicians reaching out to the rude boy faction. This song would later be covered by British Ska group The Specials. The origin of Ska music derived from Jamaican Reggae and Rocksteady, as well as being the hybrid child of Carribbean Mento, Calypso, American Jazz and Rhythm and Blues. However, music historians argue that Ska music takes up three noticeable periods: in the 1960s – Original Jamaican Ska music, in the late 70s – English 2 Tone Ska and in the 90s the third wave of Ska – American Ska Punk.
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The Evolution Of Rude Boy Culture Overseas Rudeboy It wasn’t only in Jamaica where the rude boy could be found. In 1960s Britain, the influx of Jamaican migrants into urban city dwellings helped expose Britain to the rude boy. Yet, it was in the late 70s where rude boy culture became truly embraced and found a home within Britain. The British streets smelt aromas they’d never smelt before, laid eyes on new fashion trends and were blessed with the sounds of authentic Jamaican Ska, Reggae and Rocksteady. It was this introduction that sparked the infusion of British styles with Jamaican heritage. Trilby hats were still donned upon the head of the rude boy but Dr Marten’s boots and Fred Perry polo shirts were now the staple attire and uniform of the white British rude boy. The Evolution Of Rude Boy Culture2 Tone Era Ska formed its second wave sound in the 2 Tone era. 2 Tone grabbed elements from original Ska, Punk Rock, Rocksteady and Reggae to create a faster tempo style of music. Ska now had more edge and bite, including a huge influence from brass instruments. Groups such as The Specials
helped to pave the way for the new sound, and more importantly they managed to unite black and white people when tensions were high within smaller racist skinhead cultures. Similar to Jamaican Ska musicians, The Specials resonated with the British youth, showing sympathy and highlighting issues such as unemployment and racism. The Specials single ‘Ghost Town’ being the most notorious example. Madness also began to make the Ska sound a lot more popular. Madness threw both Ska and the rude boy image into a wider public domain with hits such as ‘One Step Beyond’ and ‘Our House’. Modern Day Rudie Rude boys have come a long way from the streets of Kingston. You’ll now hear the likes of Dexter or Fatboy in Eastenders calling everyone and anyone a ‘rude boy’. The term was maintained by Hip Hop and Grime musicians, and although a different style of music, there’s still a running theme to the rude boy. It may have been diluted and slightly tainted from its founding roots but the rude boy is still regarded as a working class member of society, living in inner cities and sharing a huge passion for music
The Evolution Of Rude Boy Culture. October 12, 2013 By Douglas Smythe
Read more: http://howtogrowamoustache.com/the-evolution-of-rude-boy-culture
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HIP HOP
Hip Hop From Subculture to Popculture Rap music represents the latest form of African-American music. From the earliest forms of African-American song and music traditions there has been an element of resistance in the music. As black music and music in general became a commodity, the record industry increased its role in developing and forming music in order to accommodate the product to the market. Neal suggests that rap music represents a counter-narrative to theexpanding black middle-class and the capitalistic music industry because it originated “on the street” and was initially formed by black youth itself without any corporateinterests (125-126). Hip hop is usually dated back to New York, 1974. The traces of postindustrializationwas the same as in other urban areas, the white population had largelyabandoned the city in pursuit of the suburbs, and left behind was an urban population consisting mainly of racial minorities. At the same time the range of jobs were shifting from manufacturing to service- and information-oriented jobs decreasing the amount of jobs available to uneducated workers. The increase in unemployment led to higher costs of social ser-
vices. President Ford refused to give financial support to the economically challenged cities, an act that came to be crucial to the formation of ghettos. Tricia Rose describes how the people in the lowest income group (who are disproportionably represented by Hispanics and Blacks) became poorer as people in the highest income group became wealthier thus increasing class differences (Black Noise 28). In Bronx the streets were ruled by African-American and Puerto Rican street gangs (Fricke and Ahearn 2-20). The concentration of racial minorities in Bronx was due to poor city-planning and an attempt to clear “slums” around the city through relocating the inhabitants to housing projects in South Bronx1. High unemployment rates and little or no entertainment available, lead to territorial fights and gang violence (ibid). Poverty was one of the aspects that kept the Bronx youth out of the disco nightclubs, and caused the rise of underground parties, lead by disc jockeys that spun disco and funk records. Much contemporary rhythmic music contained “break beats”, which is a pause in the singing where the beat plays alone. The DJ or “turntablist” would play this break beat over and over, and it would invite
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to a certain kind of dance, later to be known as break-dancing. Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash were pioneers of this type of DJ’ing, and are regarded the forefathers of hip hop (Fricke and Ahearn). In the beginning the DJ would sometimes speak rhymes over the beats, later “microphone controlling” would become a feature in itself and the MC (microphone controller/Master of Ceremonies) or rapper was born. The competitive element of hip hop was introduced by gang-members, who would compete in break-dancing or rapping. In this light, hip hop was from the beginning anti-violent and was in fact an attempt to decrease the violence between street gangs. The fourth cornerstone in hip hop culture (the three first being Dj’ing, MC’ing and break-dancing) was graffiti. “Tagging” had for a long time been used by gangs as a way of marking territory and spreading news, as Kohl describes in Names, Graffiti, and Culture but now it also became an integrated part of hip hop culture, as a way of marking territory, but also as a purely stylistic element. 2 The culture, being based on “hip” music and dancing, was later given the name “hip hop” by
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Afrikaa Bambata, who was a prominent figure in early hip hop, stressing the importance of hip hop as a multicultural and anti-violent lifestyle. Of the four elements of hip hop, three are directly music-related (Dj’ing, rapping, breakdancing) and music can be said to be the most important element of the culture. However, I believe that there is a fifth element which encompasses all of the other four. This element is style. As I will demonstrate in chapter four, style in terms of fashion and display plays a crucial role to the formation and continuing existence of hip hop culture. In 1979 the rap song Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang was released as the first rap single ever. Its major success and importance for following rap releases 1 Tricia Rose gives a detailed description of the rise of ghettos in New York in Black Noise pp. 27-34. 2 Tagging is a less elaborate type of graffiti. It is usually in plain black writing and consists of a signature or short message written on a wall. A signature can for instance be “Spyder 35” meaning Spyder (nickname) of block 35. The messages are information to other kids stating new identities (i.e. “Paul is Spyder 35”) or telling who is going out with whom i.e. “Spyder 35 and Jenny T.L.F.E.” meaning Spyder and Jenny True Love For Ever.
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HIP HOP INTRUSION Personal research
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METALHEAD
How to be a Metalhead 1 Know and appreciate metal. This is the most important and quite possibly the biggest step because without this, you’re a poseur, plain and simple. Do your homework! Know the difference between heavy metal and nu-metal, hard rock, death metal, black metal, metalcore, and such. Study the history of metal. Where did it begin? Who were the trailblazers? How did it change over time? Become familiar with the variety of subgenres within metal:[2]black, death, doom, folk, glam, gothic, neo-classical, power, progressive,industrial, and thrash, among others. 2 Go to shows. In addition to buying albums, support the artists by buying tickets to their concerts. Moshing, headbanging, and crowdsurfing are optional (but recommended). How to Mosh in a Mosh Pit How to Headbang How to Dress for a [metal] concert.
3 Perform the music. A lot of people think that performing metal doesn’t require talent because they immediately reject the harshness or unfamiliarity of the sound, but the truth is that many metal artists are highly skilled. A good way to appreciate the skill involved in creating and performing metal is to try your hand (or voice) at it. How to Get Started Playing Hard Rock and Metal Guitar How to Be a Guitar God
How to Do Harsh Death Metal Vocals How to Drum the Metal Way 4 Look the part. Be forewarned, though, that if you do this without following all of the above steps, people will label you a poseur, and they’re probably right. The following list will explain some of the elements of the metalhead look, and how and why they are associated with metal. Just remember, in the end it doesn’t really matter what you dress like. Dressing “metal” only serves a beacon to other metal fans. If you love the music, you can dress however you want. Band shirts and black shirts - When you go to metal concerts, buy a shirt of a band you like. This is a basic fashion staple for metalheads, since it’s a direct way of expressing your taste in music. Make sure to buy officially licensed shirts; the ones made from screenprinting or iron-on transfers are cheaper, but many metal artists make a significant portion of their income from merchandise and “bootleg” shirts cut that out for them. Devil horns - This hand gesture was popularized by Ronnie James Dio (and you better know who that is!) who got it from his Italian grandmother. Black leather and studs - In the late 70s, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford adopted the biker look on stage when promoting Hell Bent for Leather, and from then on forth, leather (jackets, pants) and studs were worn by many a metalhead.[3] Celtic, Saxon, Viking and Chivalric culture - Among many metalheads, especially fans of power metal, there’s a strong emphasis on masculinity and the
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warrior mentality, in sharp contrast to consumerist and metrosexual culture. Long hair and beards are a tribute to Viking, Saxon and Celt men. Clothing that hearkens back to the Renaissance and the Middle Ages is not uncommon, either.[4] In sum, looking like a man from the very distant past is metal. Blue tight or skinny jeans, high-tops, band shirts, and battle jackets - This look was popular in the early days of metal. A battle jacket is a leather or denim vest emblazoned with woven patches and button pins from metal bands you like.
Black tight or skinny jeans, army fatigue pants, very short or no hair - These elements became more popular among metalheads in the 1990s and 2000s as some subgenres of metal leaned towards hardcore punk, goth, and industrial. If you’re a metal chick, you have more leeway in the fashion department, since looking like a Viking will be hard to pull off, and wearing Renaissance outfits just doesn’t mix with going to shows. Borrowing a few elements from 80s fashion, punk culture, and goth will work. Even just wearing band shirts can do the trick. Stay away from the preppy girl look.
Useful tips You don’t have to limit yourself to metal in order to be a metalhead. Many metalheads like other kinds of music, such as classic rock, classical music, punk rock, powerviolence, old reggae, or grunge. An easy way to learn about metal is to ask metalheads about it. Some of them will talk your ear off. You’ll do that too, eventually. Remember in every case: Metal Brotherhood, always help other metalheads to go to shows by giving them car passages if you can, or always help who asks you about music etc. Try not to look too rich or trendy. Metal is anti-com-
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Metalhead
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mercialist. That doesn’t mean you have to look like a hobo to be metal, but you can’t look too metal when you’re wearing $1,000 worth of bling and custom-tailored clothes. Understand that the only difference between name-brand jeans and Walmart jeans is the name on them, so you shouldn’t need to spend too much on clothes. Not only does this help make you look metal, but it’s also more cost-efficient than just about any other style. Always try to find a different metal band to listen to. Ask metalheads, look on Encyclopedia Metallum, or go buy a random metal cd that you haven’t heard!
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GOTH
Goth The Goth subculture first emerged in Britain in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It rose as a phoenix from the dying flames of the late 1970s punk movement with bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Joy Division and The Cure to name but a few. Musicians such as these were undoubtedly influenced and involved in the punk subculture, both musically and in their choice of style. There was, however, a concerted effort to move in a new, more artistic and thoughtful direction, musically. The early 1980s saw the development of the Goth musical style. The post-punk bands continued in their underground popularity, and were joined by a multitude of new bands. It is difficult to say which of these were the most influential in forming and developing the Goth subculture but certainly among the most influential were The Sisters of Mercy, Alien Sex Fiend, Fields of The Nephilim, Gary Numan and Depeche Mode. All of these bands, although showing quite a wide variation in musical style have had an enormous impact on Goth Culture. The audience will tend to emulate the bands or artists. By copying the artists style of dress and way of dancing, the individual seeks to gain acceptance. From a psychoanalytic point of view, the individual members of the audience are seeking
to identify with the artist and by so doing, gain an imaginary acceptance and respect from the artist. In more simple terms, by imitating the artist, the members of the audience will become the artist they will adopt the success and status of the artist. Although music is only a part of the Goth culture, it is the initial point of entry into the catacombs of the subculture. Music is the primary cultural force which brings the Goth subculture together. In contemporary society and culture, musical taste is an important part of the individual's identity, this being especially true for youth. It defines a specific area in the 'maps of meaning' and shows where one positions oneself in relation to others of the same group and members of other groups. Musical taste can easily be used to describe oneself in a way which holds many complex connotations that others will find easy to grasp and relate to. It holds the key to membership of a certain group which has, in turn, its own consumption of media and cultural products, social activities, beliefs systems, traditions and customs, associated physical spaces and locations and media-produced stereotypes and myths. So by exploring an individual's music tastes, it is possible to infer a great deal about that individual's personality and cultural identity.
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The Goth style of clothing, like the music, shows a wide diversity. Goth style can be broadly divided into categories of (New) Romantic, Fetish, and Cyber- or Techno- Goth. In its early days, Goth style used to reflect its punk roots, drawing heavily on the early bondage and S&M style. The more traditional look associated with the Goth subculture is that of the romantic or new romantic. This style relies on traditional 18th and 19th century clothing for its inspiration and closely ties in to the 80’s New Romantic movement. The romantic style of clothing features Frock Coats, waistcoats and capes for the gentleman Goth and gowns, corsets, muffs and sometimes parasols for the lady. The clothing can be very elaborate or understated. It is almost always a very elegant style and perfectly encapsulates the sense of theatricality of the Goths. Tattooing in the Goth subculture is a difficult issue to understand. Tattooing is most easily understood from the perspective of the individual, as opposed to a group- or community- based perspective. On a general level, the tattoo signifies personal meaning the its wearer Religion and religious beliefs play a large part in the formation or identification of the Gothic identity. Religious belief throughout the Goth subculture tends to show a leaning towards ancient ritual and pagan religions. Most of these religions do stem from ancient pre-Christian Europe, particularly from Britain and the Celts. Gothic religious beliefs align themselves with the traditions of Witchcraft, Shamanism, Druidism, worship of the Mother Goddess, the Cult of the Dead and eco-magic. Spiritual religions of the middle and far East also tend to
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influence the spiritual beliefs with Ancient Egyptian rituals playing a major influencing role. The identification with various religions is usually visible and can be seen in the type of jewellery worn - pentagrams, crosses and Ankhs being amongst the more popular. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.fereday/ macs01.htm Bibliography Clarke, J. et al (1976) Resistance Through Rituals, London: Routledge. Mercer, M.(1991) Gothic Rock: All you ever wanted to know... But were too gormless to ask, Birmingham: Pegasus. Mercer, M.(1996) Hex Files: The Goth Bible, London: Batsford. Schiffmacher, H. & Reimschneider, B. (eds.) 1000 Tattoos, London: Taschen. Storey, J. (ed.) (1994) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, New York, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital, Cambridge: Polity. Welton, J.G. (1994) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, Detroit: Visible Ink Press.
Goth subculture may protect vulnerable children About half of teenage goths have deliberately harmed themselves or attempted suicide, a new study suggests. But joining the modern subculture - which grew out of the 1980s gothic rock scene may actually protect vulnerable children, researchers say. The study followed 1258 young people who were interviewed at ages 11, 13, 15 and 19. It found that of those who considered themselves goths, 53% had self-harmed and 47% had tried to commit suicide. The average prevalence of self-harm among young people in the UK is 7% to 14%. Self-harm includes behaviours such as cutting or burning oneself. And about 6% of young people admit suicide attempts. Some studies suggest the incidence is rising in society. "Rather than posing a risk, it's also possible that by belonging to the goth subculture, young people are gaining valuable social and emotional support from their peers." But he cautions: "However, the study was based on small numbers and replication is needed to confirm our results." Only 25 participants felt strongly associated with goth culture. Self-harming, Young says, is a behaviour that people often employ as a mechanism to deal with negative emotions. "It may be used as a quick-
fix. "Some physiological studies suggest, or are compatible with the theory that endorphins [brain chemicals that produce a feeling of well-being] are released after episodes of self-harm," he told New Scientist. Just 2% of the adolescents in the study identified with goth culture, although 8% said they had identified with it at some point in their lives. But it is a strongly non-violent and accepting subculture, which teens may find offers a supportive environment. Michael van Beinum, a psychiatrist for children and adolescents, who advised on the study, agrees: "For some young people with mental health problems, a goth subculture may be attractive as it may allow them to find a community within which it may be easier for their distress to be understood." The 1980s goth culture grew out of the post-Punk movement and underwent a revival in the mid1990s. Central to goth belief is the black aesthetic - taking icons that society regards as evil, such as skull imagery, and making them beautiful. http://www.newscientist.com/ Journal reference: British Medical Journal (vol 332, p 909)
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Misk
Dorian Cleavenger
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Brom Gerard
H. R. Giger
Zdislav Beksinski John Bolton
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NEW ROMANTIC
The Blitz Kids The Blitz Kids were a London-based group of young people fearlessly experimenting with sex, drugs and fashion in the 1980s. Crane.tv sat together with some of the key figures (including: Princess Julia, Wendy Dagworthy, Stephen Jones, Joe Casley-Hayford, Scarlett Cannon, Thelma Speirs and Paul Bernstock) that were credited with launching the infamous subcultural fashion movement ‘New Romantic’ to talk about its beginnings and development, its influence on the fashion industry today and what we may learn for the future. It all started when pop singer Steve Strange started running a weekly devil-may-wear club night named ‘The Blitz’. The celebrity club lay between the two art colleges St Martin’s School and Central School (today united as the Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design) and quickly started making headlines for outrageous styles, drug parties, and non-protected sex orgies. The impact of Bowie’s androgynous image influenced these people, who came to listen to this ‘new’ kind of music. When everyone arrived in their androgynous, theatrical clothing, Strange and Egan knew they had started something huge and the event was moved to a larger venue- the Blitz club. Between 1981 and 1984 the Blitz club would personify the spirit of the New Romantics. Evocative of the 1930’s Berlin Cabaret scene, the Blitz was a haven for posing, cross-dressing, make-up and underground, unique music. (Videodrome Discotheque, 2013) New romanticism, “shared the visual aesthetic and culture of Glam, where ostentation, androgyny, flamboyance and narcissism were king.
New Romantics biggest controversy and misconception The biggest controversy about New romantics is that they abetted the popular belief that “rock is dead” replacing skilled musicians with synthesized instuments and operators who pushed buttons. Biggest misconception is that New Romantics still have, and listen to New Wave music on the original vinyl. New Romantics (New wavers) maintain a strong appeal among the demographic designated in the early 1990s as “Generation X” (which was also the name of the band Billy Idol was in, prior to his solo success). Heroes of New Romantics are musical fashion plates David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Boy George, Adam Ant. New Romantics biggest controversy and misconception By the end of the 1980s many acts had been dropped by their labels and the solo careers of many New Romantic stars gradually faded. In the mid-1990s, New Romanticism was the subject of nostalgia-oriented club nights — such as the Human League inspired “Don’t You Want Me Baby”, and “Planet Earth”, a Duran Duran-themed night club whose promoter told The Sunday Times “It’s more of a celebration than a revival”. In the same period New Romanticism was also an inspiration for the short-lived romo musical movement. Although the scene only lasted a few years, the legacy of the New Romantics lives on today.
http://emulehparker.co.uk/2014/02/13/subcultures-the-new-romantics-of-the-1980s/
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PSYCHOBILLIE
Psychobillies At first glance it is hard to imagine a more unlikely combination than Punk and Rockabilly, but the Psychobillies made a virtue of such apparent incompatibility. At the wonderfully named 'Klub Foot', the West London venue where the Psychobillies first came together as a subculture, their fusion of 1950s Americana and 1970s British Punk seemed both obvious and inevitable To make the connection one must forget the soft drizzle of sentimentality which in the end became all too typical of the Rockabillies (Elvis singing about Teddy Bears in Vegas) and go back to the angry, licentious snarf of their early days. From this perspective it is clear that the thumping beat, the in-your-face sexuality, the deliberate shunning of prissy sophistication and the greasy quiffs of the early Rockabillies were in tune with Punk's gutsy spirit of raw rebellion. The Punks simply added a stylistic extremism, an assumption of gender equality and fetishistic trashiness which could not conceivably have existed in Memphis in the mid-fifties. The common denominator is rock 'n' roll energy in its purest form. Although the slezoid music and style of the American post-Punk band The Cramps was clearly an inspiration, the first 100-percent-proof Psychobilly band was The Meteors, which formed in South London in 1980. With musicians consisting of one Rockabilly, one Punk and one psychedelic horror enthusiast, The Meteors constituted a complete microcosm of the subculture which would almost immediately form around it. By 1982, with the opening of Klub Foot, the Psychobillies were more than simply the followers of
a cult band. Their style has been termed 'Mutant Rockabilly' and it is an apt description - with cartoon quiffs sometimes dyed green or purple and always thrust out far beyond the expectations of gravity, aggressive studded belts ans Doc Martens, shredded, bleached jeans and leather jackets painted with post-nuclear-holocaust imagery. Here were creatures straight out of tacky comic books or ketchup-splattered horror movies brought to life (?) and waiting patiently for the last bus to Planet Zorch. Needless to say, such an extreme styletribe never reached an enormous size and its bands (in time including the likes of Guana Batz, Demented are Go, Batmobile and the truly unbelievable King Kurt) never appeared on TV's Top of the Pops. It did however, quickly acquire members throughout most of Europe (especially Germany, Italy and Spain) and a large, dedicated following in Japan. Stylistically, the Psychobillies' principal effect seems to have been on the Rockabillies - causing a shift towards battered denim workwear and away from fancy suits and pristine footwear. From there (and it should be remembered that the Rockabilly movement was huge in Britain in the early eighties) this look moved into the street mainstream in the form of the 'Hard Times' look. At one level the Psychobillies exhibited an alarming fixation with violence and wanton destruction, but this was always tempered by a wonderful, surreal sense of humour, which made you smile, even as you crossed hurriedly to the other side of the street.
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EMO
Emotional The emo subculture is a combination from the punk rock and the hardcore tendencies. From etymological point of view the name emocore comes from emotional hardcore and its roots are in Washington in the middle of 80s. For founders of the emocore tendency could be shown Rites of Spring, Embrace and Rain. Gradually with the notion emocore they start to define themselves hardcore punk bands, which start to add melodic elements to their songs. The sadness, the love, the sense of guilt is the basic topic in the lyrics of the emocore. The emo style could be qualified as „rock music with emotional-lyric elements”. But this couldn’t be a final definition, because the debates about the definition of the emo subculture still continue. The emo culture continues to develop and in 90s till today it continues to be popular for the young people. A whole teenage generation succeeds the name emo and the young people start to call themselves emos. The melodramatic behavior and clothes introduce a new taste to the music. This subculture is maybe one of the most popular and the most obsessing the mind of young people today. At first considered as a music genre, the emocore today is a subculture phenomenon that unifies music, behavior, fashion, style and way of life. The values, expressed through the music, consist in
emotional topics, often associated with the despair, the nostalgia, the broken heart, the hope and the self hatred. The emo-tional nature of the subculture youth... The emo subcultureAt their nature the emo representatives are extremely sensitive characters. The psychologists define them as introverts, who don’t want to communicate with the ambient world. Because of that they find a field of manifestation in the poetry. The poems that they write are dark, dispiriting, depressive and they inspire sadness and nostalgia. In this respect they to a great degree resemble to the Goths. The life and the pain are basic topics in the poetry of the young creators. The specialists advise the parents to pay more attention to their subculture person at home. They suffer, they cry and they listen to their favorite emocore bands – the only ones that understand them. For all these emotions, characteristic for the emos, it is especially important the moment with the age. Usually the emo maniacs are between 12- and 18-years-old, when they are especially emotionally and psychically unstable and namely this tendency is the vent for the most young emo adherents. When we add to this the factor „family problems” the receipt is perfectly made and the real emocore representative is ready.
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The dangerous emo subculture... The emo subculture got very popular in the last years with some negative events that had shaken the parents and the society. It is found to be that the values and the beliefs that he emo culture preaches are extremely dangerous the most for the health and for the life of the young people. But here it is not about alcohol and cigarettĐľs, but for something more dangerous and frightening, called suicide. The emo communities decide their problems as they commit suicide by rituals. And this is not the only case. In the virtual space the information for such tragic events flows. The emos believed, that after their death they will be regenerated and they will go to a better world.
Style One of the most important signs, characterizing the emo subculture is the way of forming of the hair. The emo hair styles are unisex – they are suitable as for girls, as for boys. Usually the emo hair cut is short, colored in black or at the worst in dark red. Every day to the emo maniac are necessary tons of gel, to make his hair cut in the possible most cult way. A typical particularity of the emo hair style is the bang. It is maybe the longest element of the emo hair that is put closely over the one eye, as in this way it covers almost the half of the face. Usually it is straighten with the help of a press and it is fixed with gel or wax. The hair at the back is disheveled, again fixed with different styling products.
http://www.fashion-lifestyle.bg/subculture_en_broi11 Kristina Paytasheva
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STRAIGHT EDGE
How to Be Straight Edge Refrain from illicit substances, such as alcohol, illegal drugs, and tobacco products. Straight-edgers reject the drug/alcohol lifestyle and instead, choose not to pollute the body. Respect your body. Contrary to common belief about hardcore punk, the straight-edge lifestyle in no way promotes self-harm of any kind. This means no cutting, burning, or harming yourself. Abstain from promiscuity. This means that you shouldn’t engage in casual hookups, one-night stands, etc. Listen to straight-edge bands. This cannot be stressed enough. If you’re straight-edge, then you should also listen to and appreciate the music. Start off with Minor Threat, then look for some related bands if you like them. Learn the history of straight-edge.
Don’t do it if you just want to be a part of a trend. (For instance, the scene trend. Many SXE people outside your trend may think you are just doing it for a fad, you don’t know what it means, or you aren’t really edge if it’s a fad in your trend.) Don’t self-harm. Follow the some of the straight edge celebrities like pro wrestler cm punk. If you claim to be straight edge but then drink or smoke, then you are not straight edge and will get called a sell-out or “tate edge”. (Which could result in you getting hurt. Don’t use it as a title to try to be trendy or cool. It’s a lifestyle. A very dedicated one. And being outright hypocritical about it, and/or selling-out are both considered some of the worst kind of things you can do to those that uphold the true straight edge.)
Tips Claiming edge is a lifelong choice. There is no dress code or way to act. Be yourself, dress how you want, respect your health and body.
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In recent years straightedge has extended beyond face-to-face punk music scenes into cyberspace. Straightedgers now gather in chat rooms, post on internet bulletin board forums, trade music MP3s, and publish internet infozines and fanzines. In this respect, participants use the internet both as a subcultural resource and as a medium for participation. The internet provides a place where straightedgers can reach people throughout the world whom they might never meet in person, allowing them to construct and express identities for themselves and others. It
http://www.wikihow.com Heith Copes University of Alabama, Birmingham
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also acts as a communication interlock, a nexus through which members communicate and negotiate subcultural symbols outside traditional music-based networks. In some parts of the United States straight edge is considered a gang, despite the fact that the majority of their members are nonviolent. October 17 is considered “National Edge Day,� a straight edge holiday in which members of the community attend local hardcore punk shows. Some members of straight edge are involved in other political and social organizations and programs that fit into the abstinence philosophy, such as organizations against drinking, animal cruelty, and pro-life issues.
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GRUNGE
Grunge In every decade, for all squeaky clean bubble gum pop actions there develops an opposite and angstier reaction. It's a law of subculture physics. Mainstream culture is simply too narrow and too goody-goody to encompass the whole of the youth population. The 70s gave us hippies, the 80s punk rock mavens, and the 90s bore us the Generation X-level gloom of grunge. Youth culture can not subsist on good clean fun alone; it needs an introspective core to lend some much-needed depth and idealistic values to the mix. The Pacific Northwest was a fitting setting for the rising music subcultural movement; rainy Seattle weather provided an appropriately gloomy backdrop for the angst-ridden alternative lifestyle. The grunge movement was borne of a blended puree of idealism and cynicism, encompassing the themes of Generation X disillusionment with societal norms. The Seattle Music scene provided a showcase for the encapsulation of youth subculture burnout, giving voice to artists outside of the mainstream. A number of local punk rock bands in the Seattle music scene began to experiment with a fusion of heavy metal riffs and punk rock energy, influenced by a group called the Melvins. The new sound, developed first in Seattle, featured heavily distorted guitars and emotional lyrics delivered in an unpol-
ished and rough style. This prompted a member of one Seattle band, Green River, to coin the term “grunge.“ Although there were many local Seattle post-punk bands performing the grunge sound in the late 1980s, only a few managed to receive national attention. Grunge bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains and the legendary Nirvana did manage to attract the attention of mainstream labels. The rawness of the grunge sound, by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, brought a new punk-like energy to the national music scene, and offered feelings of angst and frustration. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city of Seattle was the hub for a growing high-tech industry second in size only to California’s Silicon Valley. The city became home for the thousands of young, upwardly mobile professionals (“yuppies”) who worked for gigantic companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. So-called “grunge” fashion developed as a reaction to their chic, dressed-up style by the city’s anti-establishment youth. In direct opposite to the corporate look, Seattle’s young people began to favor the torn jeans, clunky boots, and plaid flannel shirts of Washington State’s lumber country. With these came an image of rebellion, in that many of the grunge-era bands took a blue-collar approach to their appearance and wardrobe.
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Like all pure, genuine social movements, it wasn't long before The Man found a cunning way to capitalize on the rise of Grunge culture. It's the ultimate irony of alternative youth culture: it rises through sincere and meaningful expression, only to be diluted into a marketable, packageable blurb for distribution. Grunge was a lucrative business; much to the chagrin of Grunge scene musicians, their music skyrocketed to popularity in conventional circles. While these artists rose to fame for their elucidation of their innermost alienation and disillusionment, suddenly their music was playing on a top 40 station and their faces were adorning
concert t-shirts. From subculture to mass culture, the trend time line gets shorter and faster all the time. It was just over a year ago that MTV began barraging its viewers with the sounds of Seattle "grunge rock," featuring the angst anthems and grinding guitars of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. By last summer, the glossy magazines began tracking grunge looks, the threadbare flannel shirts, knobby wool sweaters and cracked leatherette coats of the Pacific Northwest's thrift-shop esthetic.
http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.be/2010/04/grunge-style-and-fashion.html http://mccarthyunt.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/grunge-a-suculture-movement/ This entry was posted on March 6, 2011. It was filed under SMHM 3350 Survey of Historic and Contemporary Styles .
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CONCLUSION A peculiar feature of contemporary life is that nearly all of us feel marginalized and alienated and seek some experience that feels truly authentic. It is generally irrelevant if a group is objectively marginalized—the Tea Party, furries, religious minorities, doomsday preppers, cosplayers, and straight-edgers all perceive themselves in the midst of an antagonistic world that denies their values and invalidates their experiences. These collectives are energized by their self-conscious sense of marginalization and the belief they have been denied an unfettered experience by mainstream society. The imaginationof alienation; belief in marginalization; affirmation in a dominating “mainstream”; and investment in something “authentic” are perhaps more significant than any objective analysis of these “outsider” collectives or their strategic political goals. Many groups have been defined by themselves or observers as “subcultures,” which in popular use often clumsily refers to any modestly oppositional social collective. In Dick Hebdige’s influential use of the term (borrowing from scholars in the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies), a subculture expresses contradictions in the social mainstream using alternative stylistic materiality. Hebdige’s study was of British punks, a subculture with spectacular material style, and it was punks’ manipulation of style on which Hebdige focused. Hebdige somewhat soberly concluded that all subcultures get “recuperated” when the marketplace neu-
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tralizes their danger and commodifies their style, transforming resistant symbolism into shallow, depoliticized commodity aesthetics. Indeed, any suburban youth can now consume punk, goth, or hippie style in mall chain stores that sell pre-torn jeans, mass-manufactured tie-dye shirts, or black nail polish alongside music that fits those commodified subcultural subjectivities. Even the term subculture itself has become a commodified subjectivity, referring to, among other things, a magazine providing edgy consumer advice, a bike shop, a musical project, and a skatepark. Subcultures’ essential roots are constantly being monitored to ensure members are hewing to the authentic spirit of the collective (e.g., the Urban Dictionary has guidelines to identify Goth poseurs, and Uncyclopedia’s lengthy dissection of metal fans includes a whole section of the types of Metal poseurs). The persistent commitment to authenticity underscores that many of these marginalized collectives have deep emotional investment in the “real” yet are ensnared in the division between, on the one hand, emergence and being—an authentic and meaningful moment of origination among a particular self-selected group who craft a style with distinction and purity—and, on the other hand, incorporation and performance—the moment when the marketplace reduces the distinctive style to fashion accessible to anybody who will purchase and display the goods.
SUBCULTURE INTRUSION Personal research
HIPSTER PARTY
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DARKWAVE PERFORMANCE
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HIP HOP R&B PARTY
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