Sub culture - The meaning of style

Sub culture - The meaning of style

The lecturer was away who was supposed to present there opinions on sub culture but Richard played us a cool  film  that provided an insightful look into subculture. 

I found the video really interesting and it sparked lots of thoughts that could provide lots of further investigation from stemming from my initial thoughts on subculture.

Subcultures come from a rejection & Rebellion on society, been anti mainstream and going against the grain is a main interpretation I get. 

One example of this against the typical mainstream is the switch up of styles that youth culture presented, middle class youths used to dress very casual, and the working class dressed smart.

This gave birth to the "teddy boy" a working class individual that dressed smart with there neat hair cuts and suit clothing's. 

The teddy boy style then developed into the term MOD, they saw themselves as modernists and had strong rivalries with the rockers which resulted in lots of violent clashes and the media portraying youth culture as a whole excuse to be violent. 

Looking into the media and how they change something from been an underground small cult to something mainstream and change the whole concept behind the subculture to there own invention of the social groups is something I want to look into. This presentation of youth culture been a violent groups of individuals made everyone else follow the Mod culture the media presented resulted in a violent reinterpretation of the Mod subculture nationwide. 

Another example of how the media can ruin and re-invent a subculture into a negative light is shown through the  journey of the skinhead. Originating from elements of rock and mod sub cultures this sub culture was originally a  group of people that grew from lower class council estates from the multicultural friendships formed between black and white societies. 

Both black and white people switched roles when it came to fashion and music, the whites were listening to soul music and and the blacks were adapting that Mod style of neatness through a smart appearance achieved through trousers and smart fred perry shirts. A typical aesthetic that presents the skinhead. 

Music was what brought these two cultures together, the friendliness in clubs was achieved alongside relaxed atmospheres until the media ruined it al again and portrayed skinheads as racists when the National Front started to adapt the dress style/asthetic of the "skinhead"

Again overnight the media killed a perfectly calm subculture and made it into a racist epidemic dividing society.

Thoughts to take forward and maybe personally investigate
My thoughts on subculture are that its an obvious rebellion against the mainstream, but its been taken that far now that been "anti mainstream" is now just mainstream. So people trying to be "original" are just been sheep to the rest of society, people feel like they need to present themselves into a unique subculture to stand out and be popular. Its getting to a ridiculous point now were people are just doing anything to become notices, be it social media, fashion or stupid viral trends like "ice bucket challenges". Its getting to a point were new media is becoming a vessel of lots of different "sub cultures". 

An interesting thought to consider for future development is how the merging of elements from different cultures and societies can produce sub-cultures as this seems to be an obvious trend. 

Music influenced a lot of sub cultures, look into how music influences art & design movements. 

How material objects & fashion can communicate a subculture, like the vespa and Fred Perry shirt represents Mods. Or how brands like Adidas, Fila & Ellese have obvious links with the birth of casual culture & football violence. 

There was obvious links in all these subcultures with drugs. The rave scene, hippy cultures, and casual culture all has links with drugs so I think it would be interesting to see how drugs also influence art & design movements and how it inspires a certain style or aesthetic. Theres a few films that represent real life events of the journey of subcultures like Rise of the foot soldier, This is England, and CASS which particularly touches on the 70s and the Thatcher period of reign. It presents the obvious elements of rebellion against society.