Subculture

The singular subculture of the Cuban punk.

The term subculture is used in sociology and anthropology to define a group of people with a distinctive set of behaviors and beliefs that sets them apart from the dominant culture of which they are a part.

A subculture can be formed by the age, ethnic group, or gender of its members. The qualities that determine that a subculture appears can be aesthetic, political, sexual or a combination of them, subcultures are often defined by their opposition to the values of the dominant culture to which they belong, although this definition is not universally accepted, since there is not always an opposition between subculture and culture in a radical way.

Features

A subculture is often associated with people of all ages and social classes who have common preferences in entertainment, in the meaning of certain symbols used and in the use of social media, behavior, idiosyncrasies and language among others not so noticeable. In this sense, it is also said that corporations, sects and many other groups or segments of society can be observed and studied as subcultures.

For Dick Hebdige all subcultures experience the same trajectory. In this model, subcultures are initially formed through common resistance. Mainstream society often sees these groups as radical, raising fear, skepticism and anxiety in their response. In a way, this gives more power to the resistance of the subculture, but only momentarily, because eventually capitalist society finds a way to commodify the style and music of the subculture. Before long, elements of the subculture are available to the mainstream. In this way, what was previously subversive, rebellious and radical is now contained. For this reason, it often happens that the moment the dominant society begins to recognize a subculture is the moment the subculture's power of resistance begins to die. If the subculture is characterized by systematic opposition to the dominant culture, then it can be described as a counterculture.

It is important to note that there is no agreed definition by sociologists of a subculture. Subcultural theorists continue to expand and alter the definition of subcultures, as they investigate more subcultural groups and incorporate sociological theories of deviance into the subcultural framework. Therefore, the definition of subculture is controversial. Some theorists even believe that the concept has outlived its usefulness. However, a working definition is necessary for an introductory understanding of subcultures and subcultural theory. Therefore, the characteristics of subcultures described below incorporate concepts and theories from leading subcultural scholars, but in no way constitute a "checklist" definitive to determine what "counts" as a subculture and what not.

Origin of the term

Otakus are a subculture with some clothing, musical taste and language

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a subculture, as far as sociological and cultural anthropology is concerned, as "an identifiable subgroup within a society or group of people, especially one characterized by beliefs or interests that differ from those of the largest group; the distinctive ideas, practices, or way of life of such a subgroup".

Subcultural theory was first developed by sociology scholars at the Chicago School in the 1920s. The Chicago School explored the existence of "deviant" and discussed deviance as a product of social problems within society. The Birmingham School added to subcultural theory, investigating the ways in which individuals joined groups that engaged in collective forms of deviance, called subcultures. For contemporary theorists, the concept itself is controversial and some align with a "post-subculture" which suggests that the subculture no longer describes collective activities. Sociologists continue to study subcultures to discover why subcultures form, why members of different subcultures choose to engage in deviant group behavior, and what subcultural activity can tell us about society as a whole.

As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majority, "which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a subculture which actively sought out a minority style... and interpreted it in accordance with subversive values".

The Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham emerged in the mid-1960s with the aim of explaining the rise of youth subcultures, such as Teddy Boys, Mods, Skinheads and Rockers, in the Greater Post WWII Britain. There, a group of sociologists led by Richard Hoggart set out to examine the various aspects of subcultural working-class youth.

Previous research by Hoggart and Raymond Williams catapulted Birmingham Subcultural Studies into a more focused genre, and through this, they developed several informal hypotheses that remained at the center of their work until the closure of the school in 2002. First, the CCCS scholars viewed the subcultures as undeniably class-based, as they reported that the majority of subculture members they investigated appeared to be lower-middle-class, young white males. Furthermore, they suggested that what brought members of the different subcultures together was a collective desire to "perform" in resistance to dominant hegemonic cultural values. Frustrated by the socioeconomic obstacles to achieving a better standard of living, working-class youth later coalesced by virtue of their marginalization and resistance to the class structure. Finally, the researchers stated that such resistance was most clearly manifested in the spectacular styles and rituals of the group members. However, the Birmingham School saw the subcultural symbolic rejection of the dominant bourgeois lifestyle as illusory. In fact, scholars have gone so far as to say that not only does symbolic subcultural resistance have little or no impact on actual change, but may actually work to reinforce their low status in society.

Despite the many significant contributions of the Birmingham School to subcultural studies, the CCCS faces significant criticism. In particular, many sociologists have criticized Centro for its overemphasis on resistance, class, and style, as well as its underrepresentation of any female or queer subculture. Perhaps the most important limitation of the findings and approaches adopted is their lack of ethnographic research methods. Rather than approach members of different subcultures, CCCS theorists conducted their research through semiotic analyzes of style from afar, potentially misinterpreting (or overemphasizing) someone's style and practices.

Expanding on the work done by the Chicago School, scholars at the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) further explored the concept of deviance by highlighting the implicit connections between culture and hegemony. Dick Hebdige argues that because subcultures arise from deviance, they generally consist of working-class cultures and individuals. Essentially, social groups deal with their status issues by creating a new subculture and establishing new norms that do not conform to the norms of the dominant culture. These new norms contain ideological meanings and have symbolic forms of resistance. Furthermore, subcultures often take objects and styles from the dominant culture and appropriate them to convey new meaning. In his 1979 book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige argues that the styles of post-war British working class youth subcultures challenge dominant ideology, hegemony and social normalization through symbolic forms of resistance developing a sense of identity. According to Hebdige, the members of a subculture, when validating their belonging to it, must have certain peculiarities such as style, clothing, language and/or the way of relating. The style is built through a combination of clothes, music, dance, makeup and drugs. Hebdige emphasizes the historical, socioeconomic, class, racial, and mass media contexts of each subculture. For example, Hebdige argues that there is a common theme underlying the white punk and black reggae subcultures; both reject British national symbolism. Although they are apparently unrelated, Hebdige demonstrates this point by highlighting the similarities in their styles.

Urban tribes

An «urban tribe» is a group of people, especially young people, who dress in a similar or the same way, have common habits and meeting places and who behave according to the ideologies of a subculture, which originates and develops in the environment of a city or urban area.

Some critics and analysts say that the phenomenon of urban tribes is nothing more than the search of young people for that long-awaited identity. When a young person joins a society that has the same tendencies and thoughts as him, he will feel identified with both the group and its symbols.

Examples of some urban tribes

Tribu	Year	Origin	Popularity	Declive	Musical style
Buchifresa	2020	Mexico Mexico	2020 - Present		armed
Alucines	2021	Mexico Mexico	2021 - Presente		altered corrigendum
Geek	1980s	United States	1990 - Present
Hacker	1980s	United States	1990 - Present
Gamer	1980s	United States	1990 - Present
Emo	2004	United States	2005 - 2010	2011	Emocore
Otaku	1985	JapanJapan	2005 - Present
Flogger	2005	Argentina	2007 - 2010	2011	hallucinations - Techno
Hipster	2008	United States	2010 - 2017		Indie pop
Swagger	2010	United States	2013 - Presente	Trap - Regatta
Raver	1990	United KingdomUnited Kingdom		Tekno, acidcore
Cumbieros	Twenty-first century	Argentina
Pigs	1970	Spain
Rapists	1970	New York

Subcultures based on sexual and gender identity

The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s led to a countercultural rejection of established sexual and gender norms in the West, particularly in urban areas of Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and white South Africa. A more permissive social environment in these areas led to the proliferation of sexual subcultures—cultural expressions of non-normative sexualities. As in other subcultures, sexual subcultures have adopted certain fashion styles and mannerisms to distinguish themselves from mainstream Western culture.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people express themselves through LGBT culture, considered the largest sexual subculture of the 20th and 21st centuries. With the increasing acceptance of homosexuality since the turn of the 21st century, including its expressions in fashion, music and the By design, gay culture can no longer be considered a subculture in many parts of the world, although some aspects of gay culture such as leather, bears, or chubs are considered subcultures within the gay movement itself. The butch and femme identities or roles among some lesbians also spawn their own subculture with stereotypical attire, such as drag kings. By the late 1980s, the queer movement can be considered a subculture that broadly encompasses those who reject normativity in sexual behavior and who celebrate visibility and activism. The broad movement coincided with growing academic interest in queer studies and queer theory.

Aspects of sexual subcultures can vary along other cultural lines. For example, in the United States, down-low is an English slang term that is used specifically within the African-American community to refer to black men who generally identify as heterosexual but actively seek dating and sexual relations with other men, practice homosexual cancano, and often adopt specific hip hop attire during these activities. They avoid sharing this information even if they have female sexual partners, are married to a woman, or are single.

Discrimination

More information: Hate Crime and Hate Group

Discrimination-based abuse and violence are often directed towards one or more people depending on their culture or subculture. In 2013, the Greater Manchester Police) in the United Kingdom began to classify attacks against subcultures such as goths, emos, punks or metalheads as hate crimes, in the same way that they register abuses against people because of their religion, race, diversity functional, sexual orientation, or transgender or transsexual identity. The making of this decision was caused by the murder of Sophie Lancaster and the beating of her boyfriend in 2007, both of whom were attacked for being gothic. In 2012, human rights activists They denounced the murders of emo people in Iraq, which ranged from at least 6 to as many as 70 teenage boys kidnapped, tortured, and killed in Baghdad and other places in Iraq, caused by being targeted for dressing in a westernized emo style.

Importance of subcultures in social networks

Brady Robards and Andy Bennett, said in a 2011 study that the expression of identity on the Internet has been interpreted as a display of subcultural qualities. However, they argue that this expression is more linked to neotribalism than to what is normally classified as a subculture. Social networks are quickly becoming the most used form of communication for the distribution of information and news, as they offer a way to connect with people with similar lifestyles, professions or hobbies. According to a co-founder and executive creative strategist at RE-UP, as technology has become a "life force," the study of the manifestation of different subcultures on social media has become a focus. of great controversy and interest for brands. In this way, we observe a growing interest among producers and companies in incorporating the different aspects that make up the various subcultures in branding strategies, in order to appeal to said collective identities and thus win new consumers. This phenomenon is seen above all in social networks specialized in the generation of content by users, such as YouTube.

One of the ways that subcultures capitalize, becoming a source of income can be gleaned from the words of networking expert Scott Huntington: "It is common to assume that subcultures are not a significant market for most companies. However, online shopping apps have made significant strides. Let's consider Etsy, for example. It only allows vendors to sell handmade or vintage items, both of which can be considered a rather 'hipster' subculture. However, on-site retailers earned nearly $900 million in sales".