Anthropology: Youth Culture as Expressed by Green Day - Term Paper Example

Anthropology – Youth Culture as expressed by Green Day The music of Green Day has come to represent an entire subculture of young people with a similar lifestyle outlook that exists somewhat between and beyond other groups. The concept of a subculture grows out of the attempts of the ‘ruling class’ or those with money and power to force a willing consent of the lower classes. In order to maintain the upper hand, this “willing consent of the subordinate class” has to be continuously re-won and reinforced by the dominant class through ‘Ideological State Apparatuses’ (ISAs) such as “religion, patriarchy, marriage, educational systems and the like.”1 Because each individual is born as a subject of a particular form of ideology, believing he is acting on his own freely formed or freely recognized ideas, he inadvertently reinforces the practices and rituals of the ISAs.2 This circle of activity is called “interpellation” and demonstrates how “ideology is not a static set of ideas imposed upon the subordinate by the dominant classes, but rather a dynamic process constantly reproduced and reconstituted in practice.”3 However, in order to work, interpellation requires the individual to respond to the hail of a particular ideology, thereby becoming its subject and participating in its practices. Bad subjects of the realm who do not recognize, accept or maintain the dominant discourse are subjected to societal ridicule, obsequy or ostracism. When enough individuals are subjected to this type of ridicule, obsequy or ostracism, they begin to group together, forming a subculture with a common voice of some sort. For one adolescent subculture, that voice emerged in the 1990s as a band called Green Day. To understand how Green Day helps to define an entire subculture, it is first necessary to understand what the subculture might be reacting against. From this point, an examination into where the band is different from and similar to other musical genres coupled with an analysis of the band’s message eventually reveals the types of individuals who feel connected through this music. Subcultures are groups that operate in some form of opposition to the greater culture. Louis Althusser suggested all aspects of society, regardless of class or political affiliation influence the various ideologies of a given time. In 1969, he wrote: “rather than a strict relationship between ideology and the economic base of society, where one class imposes its values on another, ideology is a dynamic set of practices in which all groups and classes participate.”4 Within Althusser’s theory, the concept of the phenomenal world is a “product of cultural forces and ideology, and is based on our perceptions, but these perceptions are created by hegemonic institutions and values. Those in power perpetrate the necessary consent for their dominance through interpolation.”5 Building off of this idea, Gramsci’s stance held that there is a constant struggle between the classes in which those of the subculture are continuously realizing the dichotomies between what they’ve been told and what they’ve experienced. As a result, they must be constantly coerced into falling in line through a series of reinforcements that remain as flexible as forms of resistance. One of the major tools used in the modern age to reinforce this hegemonic worldview is, surprisingly, the advent of new technologies that foster greater levels of communication even as they serve to isolate and separate us. Technology is well known to provide innumerable ways in which various people of all walks of life and from just about any point on the planet might be able to communicate with others. For this reason, it is often assumed that issues of race and discrimination will seen be put to an end because the world has been finally equalized. However, this is far from the truth. Rather than bringing people together, technology has increased levels of alienation and increased incorporation. In his article on “Technology and Alienation”, Wim Bollen sets forth the concept of alienation as “an instrument of both analysis and evaluation in the sphere of human existence, denoting a state of disharmony. This disharmony is not to be considered as a split or separation out of an essential unity, but as a mutual conflict between two components of human existence.”6 An example of this might be navigating the separation between man and nature. However, in the case of today’s technology, the separation is much more complicated because there is no ‘natural’ relationship between man and machine and therefore no ‘returning’ to a state of completeness. Instead, we are faced with finding a means of coping with a complex duality for which we are unprepared. It is this duality of spirit and mind along with the realization of manipulation on the part of every element of society – religion, parenting, media, etc. – that becomes the subject of much of Green Day’s lyrics while the band’s musical style reaches out to those already disenfranchised from the dominant group. According to Erlewine,7 Green Day’s music is generally classified as punk-pop. Not fitting comfortably into any specific pre-existing genre, the band has instead managed to identify an entire subgroup of listeners who were not finding the voice they needed. Punk was too hard but pop, despite its engaging lyrics and catchy musical phrases, was too soft to adequately express the intense emotions of the teenage rebel. “Punk came into its own in England in the late ‘70s as a savage reaction to polished, tired mainstream rock and pop. More than a musical revolution, punk was a full-blown assault on the soured, restrictive social and political conventions that lingered in England following World War II.”8 Early punk rock bands included the Stooges, the MC5 and the Velvet Underground, all characterized by loud, pounding beats; harsh sounds and often extended improvisations. Although the punk movement was seen to gain its popularity primarily in England, many of these musical pioneers originated from the Lower East Side in New York, only finding their fame on the other side of the Atlantic. “Meanwhile, faster, rawer, and bitterly radio-hostile acts like Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys were taking wing on the West Coast, even as the more expansive X (from Los Angeles) and the legendary Clash (from the U.K.) broadened the definition of what Punk could be.”9 This pumping, pounding rhythm and harsh denunciation of the politically correct appealed to all those who felt disenfranchised by the failed promises of the enlightened new era, particularly the teenage crowds who were also coping with angst at parents, schools and other authority figures that continuously presented them with contradictions and disappointments. Pop music, on the other hand, is characterized primarily by its broad appeal across numerous populations. “It is a broad term normally used for the softer, even more teenage-oriented sounds that emerged as Rock ‘n’ Roll waned in the early 1960s. It is often contrasted with the tougher or more serious-minded Rock.”10 Typically characterized by softer tones, crooning melodies and comforting lyrics that apply themselves to questions of teenage concern, pop music gains its name precisely because of this broad popularity across generations and cultures yet still tends to appeal more to the same group of individuals that enjoy punk rock. As punk music developed, more popular musical phrases and styles were incorporated into the style as a means of more accurately capturing the voice of this new subculture, finally pushing punk music to the top of America’s music charts in the 1990s, primarily as a result of the efforts of Green Day and Rancid, another punk-pop group coming out of Berkeley.11 As a whole, Green Day’s rock opera album American Idiot depicts the story of a young teenager struggling with issues of individual identity and rebellion against a status quo much different from that one might expect. In his search for identity, the main character, Jesus of Suburbia, is emblematic of the postmodern culture of alienation and isolation. As his story is told, it becomes clear that the main character of the story, Jesus, has grown up in a single-parent household as a latch-key child who sees his mother only occassionally and often in the company of a different man. Unhappy and alone, with no family group to call his own and having grown on a steady diet of prime time television, junk food and cultural fear of the outdoors, he joins with numerous other adolescents attempting to raise themselves as they meet at the local convenience store each night. The album brings forward the emotions and viewpoints of these children as they experience anger, rejection, hopelessness, boredom, impatience, isolation and disconnection. While it is not expressly stated within the album, Jesus emerges as the protagonist of the album through the album’s content as he attempts to follow Saint Jimmy, or perhaps becomes Saint Jimmy upon his move to the city. While Jesus of Suburbia is introduced as a solid, corporal individual, little is known about him or the Saint Jimmy that he follows, including just who Saint Jimmy might be. This ambiguous character could be Jesus adopting an alternate persona as a form of disguise, an alternate personality of Jesus’ in terms of multiple personality disorder or a completely separate living individual known to Jesus through his group of friends. This confusion is added to through the inclusion of a hand-written diary of Jimmy in the album’s cover art as well as how he ‘appears’ in the various music videos produced for the individual tracks. The confusion regarding this identity is deliberate on the part of Green Day as an extension of the loss of identity that can be found in the postmodern world. This character confusion can also be found in Jesus’ love affair with a girl who remains unnamed throughout the story, finally identified only as ‘Whatsername’ in the final track, either as an indication of the unimportance of individuality within this world (it is not important that she carries a name) or as a statement of the dissociation experienced by Jesus as he lives within it (it is not important that he knows her name). Chronologically, the album begins with Jesus of Suburbia recognizing the inherent evils of his community and not wanting to take part in the idiocy of this world. Struggling to discover who he is himself, Jesus can be seen throughout the ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ track trying to find his location within the suburban lifestyle he has grown up in, but finding it impossible to discover meaning in this existance, finally leaving home for the big city. Green Day depicts the major picture for a large number of American teenagers in the beginning of this track. This part presents the teenager’s life, the age in which all teenagers reach a turning point, trying to establish himself/herself somewhere in this chaotic world. They need the freedom to do what they want, make a concrete decision and follow what they truly believe. The song directly addresses information about the other side of teenagers that their parents do not know or wish to discover and implies how the family and this society have failed to address the needs of the many teenagers living alone in suburban locations, separated and isolated from their peers, their interests and even their families as parents remain out working or otherwise engaged for much of their time. As Jesus travels away from home, he either becomes Saint Jimmy or follows the teachings of Saint Jimmy, whose doctrine is to believe in nothing but yourself. Part of t he ambiguity of the character of Saint Jimmy is brought into play as the girl he falls in love with continues to refer to him only as ‘Jimmy.’ This seems to suggest Jesus’ complication with the Jimmy character and lends credence to the concept of Saint Jimmy actually being a part of Jesus in some forms. However, it can also suggest the tremendous interchangeability of individuals in a world in which all teenagers are raised to be the same sort of mindless automaton regardless of their internal inclinations or abilities. Jesus might as well be Jimmy if that’s the only name the girl can remember. Just as it isn’t important that he remembers her name in the end, it was never important that she really knew his. Through this sort of interaction, Green Day reflects there is nothing in this uncaring community that teenagers are able to base their hopes upon, except themselves, again emphasizing the primary driving force of this subculture. The decline in religion as well as the loss of the family has convinced them to rely on themselves and not to trust the dreams of those who pray for them. Toward the end of his quest, Saint Jimmy or Jesus commits suicide. This is again an ambiguous point as it again throws doubt as to the identity of Jimmy. While hints have been given throughout that perhaps Jimmy and Jesus exist in the same body, either through deliberate means or mental imbalance, Jesus seems to still be alive at the end of the album while it is known that Jimmy is dead. Again reflecting the confusion and complication of the postmodern world and the complexity of this subculture’s world view. If Jimmy is another individual, it is possible that he literally committed suicide and therefore is able to offer no answers or provide any kind of direction for the directionless group and highlighting the need for each individual within the group to find their own way rather than depending upon the guidance or wisdom of others. If, on the other hand, Jimmy is merely a part of Jesus’ personality, either as deliberately invented persona or as a result of multiple personality disorder, it signifies that some significant portion of Jesus has died – perhaps that part of him that had been struggling against his forced training and conditioning to be part of the postmodern ‘machine’ of humanity. Jimmy would have been that portion of him that stood out as being something different and separate from the rest. Finally, Jesus’ girlfriend, the figure whose hand is pictured on the front of the album cover holding a heart-shaped grenade but whose name he can’t remember and perhaps never knew, breaks up with him. This movement gives credence to the idea that Jimmy may have been an important element of Jesus’ personality and, when he ‘dies’ within Jesus, the girlfriend finds she is no longer attracted to the type of automated personality that is left behind. Jesus’ heart, his emotions and his individuality have exploded leaving nothing behind, enabling him to become just the kind of empty personality he was conditioned to be throughout his childhood and, in this defeat, he moves outside of the group. Through the music of Green Day, an entire subculture is defined as being the isolated adolescent suburbanite living in an uninspiring box while their parents remain too distracted to fully comprehend what is going on. Years spent within this environment have given these individuals the time to understand the various manipulations of the dominant culture in pidgeon-holing individuals, regardless of individual tastes, desires or abilities, into a common confined cultural ideal. They have also had the opportunity to examine the consequences of adherence to such confinement as they see the distracted parents and the fragmented families. Particularly in their rock opera American Idiot, Green Day emerges as the voice of this growing dissatisfaction with the established status quo and aimless search for a system that makes sense. While they don’t provide any ready answers, and indeed seem to suggest that, despite the greatest of struggles, one is doomed to fall into line eventually regardless, the band serves to bring the group together in a way that attempts to mend some of the severed connections with society their audience had individually experienced. References Bollen, Wim. (2004). Technology and Alienation. Paris: 4S & EASST Conference. Accessed April 5, 2008 from Erlewine, S. (2004). “American Idiot.” All Music. Accessed April 5, 2008 from Fiske, J. (1998). “Culture, Ideology and Interpellation.” Literary theory: An Anthology. Eds. J. Rivkin and M. Ryan. Maiden: Blackwell Publishers: pp. 305-311. Gray, Jennifer B. (2005). “Althusser, Ideology, and Theoretical Foundations: Theory and Communication.” The Journal of New Media and Culture. Vol. 3, N. 1. Hardy, P. and Laing, D. (1990). The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music. London: Faber and Faber. Muze. (2001). “Punk Music Videos on Rhapsody Online.” Rhapsody Online. Available April 5, 2008 from Read More