Choosing a Particular period from 1800 to the present, in what ways has art or design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period? Since the end of the eighteenth century, culture has been critically analysed around the effects in humans, the division of labour and the creation of mass society. Raymond Williams defined cultures as a ‘particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour. The analysis of culture, from such a definition, is the clarification of the meaning and values implicit and explicit in a particular way of life, a particular culture’ (Williams, 1965) This definition was seen to be the way in which groups of people would live. In the general population there were people who had different values and didn’t want to follow the masses; this is how subcultures were created. Subcultures tend to operate in direct opposition to the accepted culture, differentiating themselves by the way they dress or by behaving differently. Cultural Transmission Theory and Social Disorganization Theory suggest that, in poor areas of a city, certain forms of behavior become the norm and are then passed down generations; through this sub-cultures are perpetuated.
Albert K. Cohen (1955) studied subcultures, focusing on gang crime among working class teenagers in slum areas, who developed a distinctive culture as a response to their perceived lack of economic and social opportunities in society. The characteristics of this theory were; anti-utilitarian: in many cases, there was no profit motive in thefts or other crimes. The main intention was to foster peer bonding through sharing the experience of breaking the laws sometimes as an initiation to the gang. Collective reaction formation: the gang inverted the values of the majority culture, deliberately pursuing the mirror image of the American Dream:
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Malice: many acts of vandalism and property damage were motivated by spite, contempt, and personal intention to injure.
• Short-termism: the gang lived for the moment, looking for instant gratification. Group autonomy: everything was aimed at consolidating group loyalty.
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Later Walter Miller (1959) agreed with Cohen that there was a crime subculture, but he argued that it came from the lower class way of life. At this time there was a clear distinction in values between lower and middle class. The Middle class was oriented around achievement and social goals, whereas the lower class were more concerned about ensuring their children stayed out of trouble. Lower class boys were expected to be tough and street-smart and this gave them the incentive to join a gang. Their ordinary lives were boring, so the excitement of crime brought some relief and gave a sense of independence by denying the social controls imposed by the accepted culture.
Taking the ideas of these theories, you can relate them to the punk subculture, which was present in the late 1970’s. At this time Britain was in a decline; it was hit by the recession and menaced by the IRA. ‘It was a decade of strikes; postal workers, miners and dustmen. It ended with the 'winter of discontent' in 1979 when ITV went off the air for five months. A three-day week was imposed during February 1972 to save on electricity at the start of the miners strike.’ (Barrow,M, 2010).
A lack of investment had left Britain with high unemployment and an ugly landscape of abandoned buildings and derelict houses. Many streets were filled with corrugated iron shutters on house fronts as families moved out and businesses closed down. The accepted ideals of the fifties and sixties had fallen by the wayside as ordinary people began to aspire to better lives, in the form of foreign holidays, new cars, etc. Politicians were slow to recognise these new aspirations and new ideals and dissatisfaction with the politics of the past created a vacuum that was quickly filled by those with more extreme views such as the National Front. The New Wave of young people who felt alienated and disenfranchised started to develop their own counter culture in the form of Punk, both in terms of the music they listened to and in the way they dressed. The punks went around with no values; they were very violent and outraged taking a destructive view on the culture. Many adopted the stance of the anarchist and openly demonstrated a desire to see the fall of the Government and the Monarchy. “Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE.”(Sid Vicious, 1976). Looking back at
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the theory of Walter Miller this backs up the idea of Malice and collective reaction formation. By the beginning of the eighties the music scene had evolved with bands finding commercial success and becoming the idols and pin up posters of the time. Society had embraced the ‘rebels’ and in doing so many of the leading lights of the Punk movement such as Malcolm McLaren and Vivian Westwood moved from the edges of society into the mainstream creating new directions for the creative industries. Punk had a recognisable aesthetic, a stripped-down, raw and loud music style. Many bands took this style on, ‘The Clash’, ‘the Sex Pistols’, ‘Siouxsie and the Banshees’ just to name a few. All of this influenced design; the style and how it was created. ‘Photos were bleached out and high-contrast, shot with flash in dark clubs and further degraded by cheap black and white copying, relieved only by shafts of shrieking neon. Portraits were shot on rough city streets, graffiti crawling over walls and posters, clothes and faces; they were snapped like mug shots and printed in grainy monochrome over blocks of colour, for the imperfect, edgy glamour of Warhol screen print’ (Greeves, S, 2010:4-5). Music was such a big part of this culture, and the design work now recognisable as typical of that movement was tied to the music. Millions of flyers and posters produced throughout the period took on a DIY feel. ‘Punk posters reveal a preference for Xerox or degraded, high-contrast photography, the scrawl of graffiti, stencils, the desperate ransom note; all potentially sophisticated re-workings of the primary DIY code’. (Ford, S, 2010:p11) In the same way that Punk went by saying anyone could make music, the Dada art movement said that art could be made out of anything. With this anti-art ethos, the two movements fit together well, with Dada using elements from other movements in an anarchical non-structured way. This is where the DIY aspect of it came from; posters were created from newspapers, scissors, glue and the use of a photocopier. Designs that would previously had been regarded as unfinished drafts could now be
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used as a finished piece. You would describe the designs as throwing everything together quickly with no time to plan or fuss. The Sex Pistols ‘Never mind the bans’ tour poster of 1977, shows this DIY attitude to design. The poster itself is made up of cancellation letters from promoters and councils from a tour they tried to organise in March 78 where everywhere denied them space to perform. Including this in the poster shows the anger they have towards the organisers and the councils, but also shows determination that this new tour will happen regardless; “Sex Pistols will play December Tour 77” is written across the bottom of the poster. The poster has a black background and all the information on it is scanned in on scrap pieces of yellow paper, this stands out and screams for your attention; like the band. The typography used, is very big, bold typefaces; again this shows that they want to stand to out, they want to be seen and aren’t afraid to show that. At the bottom of the poster the ticket price is very small, this is because it’s not about the money to them, they just want to be out there doing what they love for the fans. Underneath this it says, “if you are charged more DEMAND a refund” again backing this up. The design of the poster does look like it has been thrown together really quickly by one of the band members, but it does have a lot of meaning to it, everything included in it is there for reason and it is a representation of them as a band. The way people acted in the Punk era, being angry, violent and against the government and councils comes through evidently in this poster, but underneath it all the Sex Pistols just want to be performing to their fans. In contrast to that is the concert flyer for the ‘The Clash’ and many others at the Leeds Polytechnic in 1977. The flyers are made up of newspaper articles of mainly the Clash, but other supporting bands were on there too. These articles are reviews of the band and what people think of them from previous shows. Along with this there is a lot of hand written typography and serif fonts. The whole flyer feels completely different, it still has the DIY feel and design to it, but it is not at all angry, in your face or against Society, it feels more like the band are actually proud of what people think of them by including the reviews. They are trying to use these reviews to entice more people to see them and convince them that they are good and different from all the other ‘raged up against society’ bands like the Sex Pistols.
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In these examples we can see that design is influenced by changing cultures and things happening on the edge of society. If design wasn’t influenced in this way it would eventually become irrelevant to Society. Often design will lead the way in helping sub-cultures to become part of the norm, as was the case with the Punk movement. Design in the form of the hairstyles, fashion and posters helped to change the reaction to Punk from the shock of the new to acceptance of the different.
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Bibliography Hebdige, D (1979) ‘Subculture: The Meaning of Style’, England, Methuen and Co. Ltd. Heller, S (2010) ‘Pop, How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture’, New York, Allworth Press. Thornton, S (1995) ‘Club Cultures: Music, Media and subcultural Capital, Cambridge, Polity Press. McNeill, P & Townley, C (1986) ‘Fundamentals of Sociology’, Cheltenham, Stanley Thornes Ltd. The Mott Collection (2010) ‘Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper’, London, Haunch of Vension. Walton, R (1997) ‘Sight for Sound, Design and Music Mixes’, New York, Hearst Books International. Eskilson, S.J (2007) ‘Graphic Design: A New History’, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Walker, J.A (2002) ‘Left Shift: radical art in 1970s Britain’, London, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. Brabazon, T (2008) ‘Thinking popular culture: war, terrorism and writing’ Surrey, Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Heller, S (2000) ‘Graphic Design Timeline: A century of Design Milestones’ New York, Allworth Press. Greeves, S (2010) ‘The Mott Collection: A Personal History of British Punk’, In: Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper. London, Haunch of Venison, pp.4-5
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Ford, S (2010) ‘Punk Posters’, In: Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper. London, Haunch of Venison, pp.11 McNeill, P & Townley, C (1986) ‘Social institutions, process & change’ In: Culture, Chapter 5. Cheltenham, Stanley Thornes Ltd, pp.124 Barrow, M (2010) ‘Britain since the 1930’s’ [Internet], Kent, Woodlands Junior School. Available from: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/war/1970s.html [accessed 18 January 2012]. Bookrags Media Network (2001-2012) ‘Sid Vicious Quotes’ [Internet], Brianyquote.com. Available from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/sidvicious144866.html [accessed 13th May 2012].
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