Youth Sub-culture

WHAT IS A YOUTH SUB-CULTURE?

• A group of individuals who are united through a common value system and tastes (clothes, music, politics etc.)

• A group who are also positioned outside of the mainstream, and who unify as a response to the mainstream

What are the values of a subculture?

1. Choose a subculture you are familiar with

• Try to identify its ideologies (ideology tends to refer to the way in which people think about the world and their ideal concept of how to live in the world), values and beliefs…you may want to think about how they respond to these topics:

• ‘fitting in with group/being individual’• brand names and fashion• other subcultures/ genres/ styles• previous versions of their style/genre

What are the values of a subculture?

Link to values… how the subculture view:

• Conformity and rebellion• Attitude to capitalism and consumerism• ‘Tribal’ rivalry• Traditional or ‘neophile’ (a person who loves novelty, one

who likes trends; person who accept the future enthusiastically and enjoys changes and evolution)

• Ideology in 1950s and 1960's – peace, Rebellion against parents, Radicalism -reactions against the post war

• Many groups are involved in protest and resistance against the mainstream…

• Teens will often move between subcultures, and older youths mix and match styles/values from a mix of subcultures

• Or that adults can appear to conform for most of the working week, but re-enter the subculture at specific time (weekend, festivals etc.)

Subculture

• In the 21st century the ‘dominant meaning systems’ (that define the mainstream) are crumbling.

• “There is no mainstream. There are many streams.” Mainstream is in perpetual flux, rapaciously absorbing alternative culture at such a fast rate that the notion of a mainstream becomes obsolete.

• So if there is no mainstream then there is nothing for the teens to react against – instead they are driven by other motives; and these must be understood on their own terms, individual terms

1950’s Teddies (Teds/Teddy Boys)

• Anti-establishment, some of the original juvenile delinquents • Their uniform - drainpipe trousers, drape Edwardian jackets

with velvet collars, string ties or slim-jims and DA (ducks arse) haircuts and sideburns

• They may have been a minority in Britian but he effect they had was huge (espceially the clothing)

• Music - introduction of Rock n’Roll (Bill Haley and the Comets (film - Rock around the clock) and Elvis Presley)

• "Kids heard the sound of Bill Haley and were blown away by it. There has never been a record like Rock Around The Clock for pulling almost a whole generation together. It was like a revolution in music. Once that record came out, nothing would be the same again. It provided kids with the tools to set themselves apart from the older generation."

1950’s Teddies (Teds/Teddy Boys)

1960’s Mods

•Mod (originally modernist to describe modern jazz musicians and fans) is a subculture that originated in London in the late 1950s and peaked in the early to mid 1960s

•Uniform hard to describe as they were prone to continuous revitalisation

•As psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular in the UK, 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

1960’s Mods

1960’s Skinheads

•A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the UK in the 1960s

•Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian (specifically Jamaican) rude boys and British mods in terms of fashion, music and lifetsyle

•Originally, the skinhead subculture was primarily based on those elements, not politics or race

•Since then, however, attitudes toward race and politics have become factors by which some skinheads align themselves. The political spectrum within the skinhead scene ranges from the to the although many skinheads are apolitical. Fashion-wise, skinheads range from a clean-cut 1960s mod-influenced style to less-strict punk and hardcore - influenced styles.

1960’s Skinheads

Early 1970’s Punks

• Emerged from USA, UK and Australia

• Subculture based around punk rock

• The punk subculture is centered around listening to recordings or live concerts of a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock, usually shortened to punk.

• Punk-related ideologies are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. Common punk viewpoints include anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non- conformity, direct action and not selling out

Early 1970’s Punks

The Cultural Revolution1950’s - 1960’s

Lesson Aims:To understand how youth culture ‘came

about’To understand the impact this had on

the youth of today

The Cultural Revolution

• What had just happened before the 1950’s?• Britain was entering a period of increased

freedom and affluence• Many of the old social cultural structures

began to be challenged, especially by the young

• What do you think changed and how might this have changed the way in which the British lived?

The Cultural Revolution

– Rationing was coming to an end– The American way of life had started to become key to the

aspirations of the British public (both culture and material goods) (deregulation of broadcasting in 1954= introduction of Commercial TV)

– Increased availability of cheap colour magazines brought a proliferation of advertising for luxury commodities, much of it originating in America

– A world wide economic boom (postwar regeneration schemes)– Labour was defeated by the Conservatives at the 1951

General Election. This change in government marked a shift from state control to increased individual freedom the Conservative election slogan promised to ’Set the People Free’.

– Youth given more freedom through the deregulation and commercialisation of society

America’s Influence

• Whether you lived in London, Glasgow, Cardiff or even Wolverhampton, to be young in the mid-1950's usually meant that you consumed almost anything that had 'made in America'

• American culture was viewed by some, as a symptom of cultural degeneration

• However Hollywood movies, commercial tv, glossy mags and consumer goods proved an instant hit with British consumers

• To the average Briton it offered a rich and desirable future.

• Cultural imperialism – Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting the culture of one society into another (America influence on Britain post-war) -

The Cultural Revolution

• Massive increases in the production and availability of consumer goods stimulated mass consumption.

• People expected to have goods such as televisions, refrigerators, music systems and cars as a basic requirement. Before the war these had been luxury items available only to the most privileged sections of society.

• Car ownership rose by 250% between 1951 and 1961, and between 1955 and 1960 average weekly earnings rose by 34%, while the cost of most technological consumer items fell in real terms. In the 1950s consumers had more money to spend on goods, and more goods from which to choose.

The Cultural Revolution

• By the 1960s consumption had become less connected with utilitarian needs, and more to do with status and comfort (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs)

• The era of the ‘lifestyle’ had begun, and specialist retailers began to spring up, providing outlets where people could buy into a new identity based around design or fashion.

• Teenagers became a recognised social group, and as they in turn became more affluent, they demanded goods that could differentiate them from the adult world and express their group identity.

• Manufacturers were only too happy to meet this demand, and ephemeral products, often reflecting an increasing interest in fashion and pop music, began to be developed and sold.

• As youth culture became more dominant, these attitudes rapidly spread among other social groups, and for many people their consumption choices began to underpin their personal identity.

Social Mobility

• As a result of the state-funded education system, many children from working class families had gone on to study at college and university.

• Higher education, together with increased affluence, helped to create an increase in social mobility, and with it a blurring of the old class-based distinctions between High Culture and Mass Culture.

• Establishment values began to be questioned, and sometimes even ridiculed, in television and radio shows, satirical magazines and films.

• Many of the cultural conventions that had seemed so enduring only twenty years earlier began to crumble, and new cultural forms such as cinema and pop music began to be treated with the same degree of seriousness as High Culture. Pop design embraced the kitsch and throwaway in attempts to throw-off the worthy restrictions of ‘good design’ and its modernist ideology. Pop Art took mass media and everyday life as its subject matter, while simultaneously fuelling advertising and fashion with its imagery

Social Mobility

• Affluence, social mobility and the advent of the mass media, combined with a government that placed individual freedom at the heart of its agenda, had transformed British society.

• There was general feeling of optimism, but also a sense of uncertainty. New freedoms and liberties had been gained, but as a result society had become more fragmented and less predictable.

Hollywood Movies

• Rebel Without a Cause (1955 starring James Dean) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrmDwvIjE0

• The Wild One (1953 starring Marlon Brando) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUPh7XWoq7Q

• The Happy Days - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NxGO2lx-A0