subcultures

Freak Nation: A Field Guide to 101 of the Most Odd, Extreme, and Outrageous American Subcultures

gwen — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0000

As the subheading states, Freak Nation is truly a field guide to American subcultures. Its format presents each group as if it were a species of bird in a bird-watching guide. For instance, you can learn where they are typically found, what their most distinctive trait is, and how to recognize one in “the wild.” Much of this humorous book plays upon stereotypes and pokes generous fun at these subcultures and what makes them so, well, fascinating.

The subcultures are divided into the following categories: collectibles, fashion, art, food and drink, lifestyles, music, sports and games, pastimes and careers, politics, sex, society, and technology. It’s a bit difficult to determine what criteria the author used in selecting these categories and deciding whish group should be placed in each. I would argue that a great many of them would fall under the general heading of lifestyle. The entire “food and drink” section, for example, certainly qualifies as a lifestyle (i.e., vegans, macrobioticists, etc.). “Pastimes and careers” is another general heading that could include all of the sports players and fans, as well as the tattoo artists and slam poets. Qualms about categorizations aside, a great many of Stevens’ vivid descriptions had me guffawing and thinking of friends and acquaintances that perfectly fit into the various stereotypes.

Although many of these groups were already familiar to me, there were a few that were completely new or foreign to me. For instance, I had never heard of Bilderbergers, or major political and business figures from the U.S. and Europe that meet for an annual hush-hush conference. I was also unfamiliar with Bennies, who are apparently people that spend their summers at New Jersey beaches. The name BENNY is an acronym of the places from which these people hail: Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, and New York. Even if you do already know all about these various subcultures and groups, this book still makes for a fun, tongue-in-cheek guide to some of the more extreme and adventurous members of our society.

Written by: Shana Mattson, February 26th 2011

Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture and Social Crisis

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:01:00 +0000

By Ryan Moore

New York University Press

Punk, hardcore, and alternative rock music scenes have been for years the almost exclusive realm of teenagers and youth in their twenties. Not only have they been areas of creative expression, but such subcultures have given young people a place to challenge beauty standards, political boundaries, and cultural norms.

In Sells Like Teen Spirit, author Ryan Moore documents the music scenes of the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as their evolutions today. From metal to Riot Grrrl, Moore talks about the players and the stories that made youth music cultures what they were during these times. Moore also delves into the sociopolitical moment to relate how the dominant cultural debates directly and indirectly shaped youth music cultures. Generations-old struggles, such as sexism, also played prominently in many subcultures.

Most notable in this book, Moore explores an interesting subtext in youth music cultures that other writers in the midst of feminist research and study on race further explore. Namely, a wave of "post" approaches ("post-racial," "post-feminist") take a role in youth culture that, in spite of pretensions to the contrary, only replicates and supports traditional roles and power in white, patriarchal American society. For instance, the alternative fashion model Suicide Girls trend of a few years ago presents women from youth subcultures (e.g., punk and goth) as different, empowered female pin-ups. Such images intended to impart a view of women as self-assured, independent, sexually liberated creatures; however, the essential conversation of this image—women fitting into a male perception of beauty presented primarily as objects for male consumption—remains intact.

Men, in virtually all alternative youth music cultures, assume a position that fundamentally affirms the patriarchal position: strong, individualistic characters navigating a world in which white male hegemony is crumbling amid globalization. Moore points out the revival of swing, ska and rockabilly imagery harkens back to times in which men were the makers of their fortunes whereas today corporate power and economic uncertainty dimmed hopes and dreams of millions.

Yet many outgrowths of youth music subcultures offered refreshing challenges to the worlds in which young people grew up. Bands like Bikini Kill and the women’s zine scene are explored in Sells Like Teen Spirit, to give another perspective of young people committed to challenging power, as others before them, through their talents and passion.

Though not as expansive as similarly themed books like There’s A Riot Going On or Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, for those interested in intersections of youth culture, music, and politics, Sells Like Teen Spirit is a good text to understand or reminisce about music subcultures that were special, though could not overcome the conundrum that stymied subcultures before them: how to use the youth music subculture make substantive political, cultural, and social change.

Written by: Ernesto Aguilar, August 15th 2010

Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:23:00 +0000

By Keanan Duffty, Paul Gorman

Rizzoli

I have always been interested in the fashion of subcultures. I've been stenciling my clothes, painting stuff on them, adding studs and strategic rips, sewing random things together and pillaging thrift stores since I was a freshman in high school—which is why designer Keanan Duffty's book Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style originally caught my eye. A style guide with a chick wearing chucks and fishnets on the cover seemed awesome!

Duffty himself has also been embellishing clothes since he was a child and, like most subculture fashionistas, was inspired by the music, particularly The Sex Pistols and David Bowie. His book reads like part autobiography, part look-book catalog, part intro to modern fashion history, and part helpful style guide.

I'd never heard of Duffty before, so his life was a somewhat interesting read, but I did not find myself impressed with the photos of his work included in the book. I'm not sure if it's just that the collection included is mostly from his later years, but to me his style was less "Rebel Rebel" and more mall punk, easily found at your nearest Kohl's. Duffty does include inspiration and scant ways for the reader to embellish and make their own clothing creations, though, so one could simply use his ideas as a springboard and go from there.

I also wasn't too impressed with the fashion history aspect of the book. While a lot of facts were interesting, such as the entire history of the jean pants, some facts were blatantly untrue: No, the Beats were not called the Beats as short for 'deadbeat,' and no, the hippie scene did not spring from the Carnaby Street Mod scene (it had been going on slightly earlier—and in America). There were just so many errors that even I, a somewhat average reader, picked up on that it made me question some of Duffty's more plausible bits of trivia.

Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style could be a good coffee table book, as it's rather large and, again, some of the illustrations are really nice, but I wouldn't pull it out to impress the FIT grads—or sit down and read it again.

Written by: Jen Klee, September 30th 2009