Research: Subcultures and music videos by Jemar

What are subcultures?

Subcultures are a group of people who are brought together through initial interest whom have the same common values and taste rather than mainstream thoughts and values. Subcultures are also known as a group of people who are positioned outside the mainstream culture.

Some subcultures are based on general stereotypes such as skinheads being white, bald, white males.

Some cultures are:

·         Bikers

·         Punks

·         Rockers

·         Skinheads

 

Subcultures are generally categories in several points

Conformity and rebellion

• ·         They do not like conformity, they prefer to rebel against common values and systems.

Attitude to capitalism and consumerism

• ·         They don’t follow capitalism, they follow their own set of rules and behaviour conduct put in place.
• ·         Tend to be consumerist however, consume goods which tend to be relevant to their lifestyles.

Tribal/gang rivalry with other groups in society.

• ·         Don’t tend to mix with other groups as they don’t like it.
• ·         Stereotype of disliking certain groups of people/races.

Traditional ideas or stereotype

• ·         Have traditional beliefs of their own in the way they should live their lives.
• ·         True subculture followers, do not take upon ideas of stereotypes.

Music Interest

• ·         Niche, depends solely on the subculture group. For example, Rockers subculture will listen to rock music.

What did McCracken say?

·         Mainstream cultures and subcultures just go to show that the post-modern world is full of diversity

·         Looking at the different values and ideologies of subcultures, we are unable to say they all come from one culture.

The Birmingham School

·         It assumes that all subcultures come from one subculture and is the result of reaction and rejection to the mainstream culture.

What did Hebdige say?

·         Subcultures are groups which form a resistance against the mainstream culture. Hebdige believes that if you resist then it becomes a culture.

·         Popular music – social background can lead to different readings of the same song. People are not part of one mass culture.

Subcultures of music

·         Punk

·         Rock

·         Glam Rock

·         Alternative

·         Dubset

Subcultures and historical times in relation to music:

Many people of modern day argue that cultural music taste all depend on the historical time and structure of social economic and political change. For example, rock may have been very popular in the early 90’s but nowadays we can all say the likes of pop, hip-hi, rap have taken over to form a more mainstream cultural genre.

·         1950’s Rock n rollers, the beatniks and teddy boys.

·         1960’s Surfers, rude boys, mods, hippies and bikers.

·         1970’s skinheads, soul boys, Rasta’s, glam rockers and punk.

·         1980’s Heavy metal, hip hop

·         1990’s Artistic/Distinctive blends of music and fashion have becoming an recognizable feature of the cultural landscape.

The industry and target audience.

The music industry finds shows such as the X Factor to recruit future stars. This is the development process, where stars are created to meet the audience’s needs and desires. The audience are also given a choice of who they like and what they choose to consume as they are giving the powers to vote off certain ‘’potential stars’’. The music industry will then change and implement the stars star image then promote and market the winners to the audience in hope to make money from them. A good example of this is JLS as they were formed together as the industry knew they’d make it big and look at them now.

·         Constructed to appeal to different markets with specific values and taste.

Before

After

Current day in relation to Hebdige

·         Hebdige believes consumer music differs from person to person due to everyone having a different individual taste.

·         Social background is a big influence on how different we interpret the same song.

Current day in relation to Dyer’s theory

Richard Dyer believes in order to become a star, you will first need to become a commodity, someone that people want to buy. Stars represent a shared cultural attitudes and values. They will promote that to the audience and if liked the audience will then feel attached and apart of the star. This is when the rise to stardom slowly begins as fans will often imitate stars performance, behavior and style in order to get closer to them.

·         Stars are constructed, artificial images

·         Image differs from others (USP)

 before

After

One direction are a prime example of this as they were formed on the X factor show where although not winning, they developed a healthy fan base where the fans mostly teenage girls instantly adopted to their shared cultural values and attitudes as they were seen as normal and natural. Now there brand has been established and have been manufactured to make money.

Conclusion

From my evaluation of all the different subcultures and what forms a subculture, I believe I will just aim to target a mainstream culture as this will give my star more exposure due to sub-cultures having more of an niche target audience. In addition, targeting a mainstream culture will allow me to look for all the flaws about my star as I can then implement him/her in order to meet the needs of the audience and appeal to them.