"Subculture and Style"
Helen Clarke
Subculture- a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong
Skateboarding Subculture:
'Dogtown and Z Boys' Film (2001)
- Documentary film mixes original footage and recent interviews
- History of skateboarding evolves
- Reincorporation of spaces to use for Skateboarding
Skater Peggy Oki
- No difference between boys and girls dress- practicality and comfort
Ian Borden 'Performing the City' Book
- 'Political' use of found terrains in the city
- Redefining and resisting the way that urban areas have been planned and laid out
- Use of handrail which is a safety feature has been used as a way of making dangerous fun
Southbank Closure Threat to Skateboarding
- Has been around since the 1970's but is threatened to be turned into shops
- Petition which resulted in delaying the redevelopment
- Proposal for an alternative space but this has been criticised
"It is utterly contrived"
- Henry Edwards- Wood, spokesman of the Long Live Southbank Camapign
- Subculture becomes a replacement for the family you are born into
- How young people redefine themselves away from the family
"Skateboarders do not so much temporary escape from the routinised world of school, family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life
- Borden (2001)
- A method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency without using the traditional manners of traversing the city.
Jump London (2005) Documentary Film
- Acting as an interruption to other people's everyday activity
- Performance element used as an act of rebellion
Graffiti:
The Graffiti Subculture by Nancy McDonald
- Presenting the act as an escapism towards being pigeon-holed by your identity due to the anonymity as it is not necessarily connected to you
- Allows you to transcend racial divisions
- This doesn't apply to women
Females in Subculture:
Miss Van
- Sexually exaggerated flags her up as a female graffiti writer
- Doesn't play down her female identity and does the opposite
Swoon
- Working with areas of deprived city
- Graffiti is used as a form of urban regeneration in slum areas- decorating it and making it their own
- Being female makes it feel objectified and patronised
Angela McRobbie and Jenny Garber
- Original subcultures have made females invisible as a lot of it is masculine
- In some postmodern cultures, females have become overtly feminine, like Lolitas
- Sexual suspicion surrounding women in subcultures
Motorbike Girl
- Suggests sexual deviance which is a fantasy not reflective of most conventional real life femininity at the time
- As Hells Angels, women would ride pillion and would be usually a girlfriend or mama figure. They were not part of the camaraderie
Mod Girl
- Masculine dress coming from working class teenager subculture
'Quadrophenia Film' (1979)
- Tension between mods and rockers
- Disaffected youth- alienation from normal family and substitution of friends as family
- Hierarchy of subcultures and levels of belonging- people who dress like it or people who live it
Hippy Girl
- Cliche of the Hippy Girl
- Middle class girl who has room to explore and go to university before family
- Space for leisure without work
- Bad Hippy/ Good Hippy - Peace and Love flower power girl juxtaposed by those involved in Drugs
Riot Grrrl Movement
- Feminist Subculture from mid- 1990s onwards around New York
- Political movements they were involved in and support network attached to issues that were specifically towards Females
- Fanzines attached to the groups and experience of being involved- DIY Nature of the music scene
- Influenced by some of the late 70's- Early 80's punk bands
- Name of the movement comes from a phrase used by Jen Smith, using the double or triple 'r' taking back the derogatory term
What makes a true Subculture?
- Women publish this town music
- Aesthetic references punk music from the 70's
- Dada movement- taking elements from previous movements to create and influence the next generation
- Leaked into the grunge scene but this is style without the subculture
- Distorted into pop by the Spice Girls using the term 'Girl Power'
Spice Girls
- Cartoon values with no values offered
- Using visual types for someone to relate to one of them
- There is no empowerment for young women and gives no voice reducing them to nothing
"Subculture: The Meaning of Style" Book by Dick Hebdige
The importance of subcultural activity
- Represents noise instead of sound
- Questions the value of the parent culture
- Bad representation within the media as this is how they are marketed and distorts the phenomena
The Commodity Form
- Dress styles and music are turned into mass objects as they become part of the designs so it negates the original purpose- Become mainstream to make money
- Non political threat which will not disturb traditional value therefore making the subculture domesticated and takes away from the original values
- Zandra Rhodes Safety Pin- mark of the end of the subculture as it is turned into 'high class/mainstream' piece of fashion
- 21st demonisation of hoodies- style has a double response as it is celebrated as well as ridiculed
Edwardian Style Bricolage
- Working class Teddy Boys which has trickled down from the Saville Row Upper class style
- Escape from the claustrophobia of the family into the streets
- Girls would be dressing the same but they were not present on the streets as they were not granted that freedom
- 'The Teds' documentary by Chris Steele-Perkins (1979) - Spans 3 decades worth of the culture. How people hang onto the culture after beyond youth
Skinhead Culture
- Separates Skinheads who were racist against those who grew up alongside other cultures
'This is England' (2006) by Shane Meadows
- Influenced by 'Skins' (1980's) book by Gavin Watson
- Establishing himself within the estate
- become his surrogate family documenting how he becomes within this group
- Explores the political influence of the Skinhead Culture through the character of Combo
- The subordination of Milky as 'other' by Combo due to race
Post Subcultures
- Becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint Subcultures as global society updates itself rapidly
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