Formation of Youth Subcultures - Essay Example

Many scholars consider music as a major contributor in developing and creating youth subcultures. The theorising about subcultures itself has a habitof strongly anchoring itself in music and youth. Resistance against the dominant culture, resistance against parental dominance, resistance against hegemony, wish for homology, and wish to win back the community which was dislocated by urbanisation are cited as the reasons, to name a few, behind formation of youth subcultures. Gelder (2005, pp.1) has defined subcultures as "groups of people that are in some way represented as non-normative and/or marginal through their particular interests and practices, through what they are, what they do and where they do it". It was Bennett (2000, pp.15) who described youth as a "culture or subculture in its own right". Laughey (2006, pp.29 )has observed that "teenagers used (these) popular arts to search for styles that not only afforded surface but also substantial meaning for their subordinate lives." Here, the usage of the word, 'subordinate' amply represents the common psyche of the age group defined as youth. Laughey (2006, pp.1) poetically hs stated that " music is very often a product of its time -both a reflection of the 'here and now' and a 'recaller' of memories". He (2006, pp.1) also asserts that "music and youth have a special relationship". Laughey (2006, pp.5) has talked about two narrative contexts for music tastes; one is embedded in the family memories and the other in peer group contexts. The youth subculture associates itself with music basically through the here and now element. In a life which is ruled by the dictates of grown ups, thus the youth creates a feeling that they are ahead of all others at least in some aspects like, fashion, which includes popular music. Bennett (2006, pp.106) has said that "pluralistic and shifting sensibilities of style have increasingly characterized youth culture since the post-Second World War period' and theorised them as " temporal gatherings characterized by fluid boundaries and floating memberships". But this temporary nature itself has imparted the youth subculture its very dynamics. Gelder (2005, pp.433) wonders why music often forms the fabric of subcultures as " musica tastes are generally eclectic, more a question of multiple affiliations than any single kind of identification, subcultural or otherwise." But the history of youth subcultures show that musical tastes can be a sign of identification for youth subcultures. A subculture is often distinguished from the broad term, culture, significantly through a new fashion, association with specific musical forms and/or political standpoints. A subculture is also distinct with a strong bonding and tribal mentality among its members. Punks, Ravers, Metalheads, Goths, Gangstas, Emo and Indie are the major youth subcultures that have evolved along a common thread, namely, music. Similarly, Bennett has quoted Cohen (1972) arguing that youth subcultures attempted a 'magical recovery' of community following the breakup of traditional working class neighbourhoods during the 1950s and the relocation of families to 'new towns' and modern housing estates" (Bennett, 2006, pp.106). Youth subculture as a community builder needed an adhesive beyond class, race and other social factors. And this adhesive was, to be sure, music. The punk subculture, which appeared in 1970s, had its identity asserted through music, which included rock n roll and also some other music genres. Members of the punk subculture had a routine of listening to a thunderous and loud version of rock and roll called punk rock. Punk bands performed for the members while the audience also often participated in the music charecterised by shouting and screaming. Punks were thought to be basically having lineages to the left wing and progressive ideologies. The ideologies embedded in punk can rather be more correctly described as promoting individual freedom and propagating anti-establishment views. But the punk viewpoints also ranged from nihilism to socialism. Gelder (2005, pp.433) has observed, "since music is both an industrial and commercial field of production, tastes are often shaped in an executive way from top down-whereas the conventional model of subcultural identification 'charts the deployment of tastes from below." But this was another amazing aspect of youth culture which developed an important place for the listener which was as important as that occupied by the performer as well as the industry that brought it to the listener. So the relation of music to youth subculture was both topdown and down to top at the same time. Different youth subcultures have been, through decades, adopting the term, raver, to represent their subcultures since the'1960s. But raver is basically a term that describes regular partygoers. Music performances that continued from dusk to dawn were also known as raves. The "rave culture" spread worldwide by the mid 1990s. The music played at raves came to be categorized as trance, dance, hardcore, industrial, techno, psychedelic trance, jungle, dubstep and'happy hardcore. Thornton (1995, pp.3) has noted, "the sense of place afforded by these events is such that regular attenders take on the name of the spaces they frequent, becoming 'clubbers' and 'ravers'". Thornton (1995, pp.3) also has said that " taking part in club cultures, builds, in turn further affinities, socializing participants into a knowledge of (and frequently a belief in ) the likes and dislikes, meanings and values of the culture." So this can be considered as one way in which music builds youth subculture. Metalhead'is another youth subculture, which mostly cherishes on heavy music. This group was often criticized as heavily masculine also. The long hair, leather jackets and band patches are the identification of a metalhead. Thornton (1995, pp.5) has often reminded the critics " the mainstream stands in for the masses" and "youthful clubber and raver ideologies are almost as anti-mass culture as the artworld". Youth, in any time in history, is the group most haunted by the search for identity and it is the anti-mass culture imparted by being wedded to a specific genre of music and its paraphernalia that partially fulfills the need for identity for youth. And the metal head music as well as fashions linked to that have changed over decades to renew this passion for new identity. The gothic youth culture emerged in mid-eighties. Though gothic style had black colour as its identity and horror music as its forte, the ideology of Goths were based on non-voilence and sadness over social evils. Hip hop'was another subcultural movement'which was directly opposed to social oppression and stood for individual freedom. The'youth hailing from African American, Afro-caribbean and Latin American communities made hip hop their expression and protest against injustices. Emo emerged as a new youth subculture and music genre in 1980s and gained big popularity in 2000s. Indie rock followed with large number of youth followers in UK and US. All these music genres were initially feared and criticized by the mainstream society as wild passions of deviant youth but later on they were absorbed my the same masses. Laughey(2006, pp.30) has quoted Sue Wise(Wise, 1990, pp.396) as recalling "that Elvis' rise to fame was inextricably linked with the moral panic surrounding the behaviour of women and girls at his live performances." Bennett, A (2006) Subcultures or neotribes' Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste, Chapter 12, " The popular music studies reader", London: Routledge. Bennett, A (2000) "youth cultures and popular music", London: Macmillan' Laughey, D. (2006) "music and youth culture", Edinburgh: Edinburgh university press' Thornton, S (1995) clubcultures: music, media and subcultural capital. Cambridge, Polity' Hebdige, D (1979) subculture: the meaning of style. Routledge Gelder, Ken, (2005), The subcultures reader, London: Routledge. Read More