Sub Culture Definition

Subculture Definition

As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majority, "which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a 'subculture' which actively sought a minority style ... and interpreted it in accordance with subversive values". In his 1979 book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige argued that a subculture is a subversion to normalcy. He wrote that subcultures can be perceived as negative due to their nature of criticism to the dominant societal standard. Hebdige argued that subcultures bring together like-minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity.

In 1995, Sarah Thornton, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu, described "subcultural capital" as the cultural knowledge and commodities acquired by members of a subculture, raising their status and helping differentiate themselves from members of other groups. In 2007, Ken Gelder proposed to distinguish subcultures from countercultures based on the level of immersion in society. Gelder further proposed six key ways in which subcultures can be identified through their:

often negative relations to work (as 'idle', 'parasitic', at play or at leisure, etc.);

negative or ambivalent relation to class (since subcultures are not 'class-conscious' and don't conform to traditional class definitions);

association with territory (the 'street', the 'hood', the club, etc.), rather than property;

movement out of the home and into non-domestic forms of belonging (i.e. social groups other than the family);

stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration (with some exceptions);

refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and massification.

Members of the seminal punk rock band Ramones wearing some fashion symbols of the punk subculture such as Converse sneakers, solid black leather jackets, and blue jeans.

The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of subcultures, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. According to Dick Hebdige, members of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, mannerisms, and argot.

Subcultures can exist at all levels of organizations, highlighting the fact that there are multiple cultures or value combinations usually evident in any one organization that can complement but also compete with the overall organisational culture. In some instances, subcultures have been legislated against, and their activities regulated or curtailed. Youth subcultures have been described as a moral problem that ought to be handled by the guardians of society within the post-war consensus.British youths in the post-war era were labeled as troublemakers by members of the dominant culture.

It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of Cool, which remains valuable in the selling of any product.This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society.

Potato chip packages featuring hip hop sub-cultural designs in a case of mainstream commercial cultural merging

Music-based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process, and so what may be considered a subculture at one stage in its history—such as jazz, goth, punk, hip hop and rave cultures—may represent mainstream taste within a short period of time.Some subcultures reject or modify the importance of style, stressing membership through the adoption of an ideology which may be much more

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