Lesson 9 – Subcultures and
Comic Books
Robert Wonser
Variations within a Culture
• The dominant culture refers to the values,
norms, and practices of the group within society
that is most powerful in terms of wealth,
prestige, status, and influence.
• A subculture is a group within society that is
differentiated by its distinctive values, norms,
and lifestyle.
• A counterculture is a group within society that
openly rejects and/or actively opposes society’s
values and norms.
Subcultures Specifically
• Prefix ‘sub’ is telling; implies subaltern or
subterranean, below
• Commonalities:
1) Groups studied as subcultures are often
positioned by themselves or others as
deviant or debased
2) Labeled as subculture implies lower down
the social ladder due to social differences
of class, race, ethnicity and age.
Preconditions for the Emergence of
Subcultures
• Youth is a social construct, adolescence and teenagers
are new ideas
• Youth – a stage of life defined as entailing a
“psychosocial moratorium” from adult responsibilities and
thus enables experimentation with identity—a product of
the economic development and affluence of Western
societies in the twentieth century
• Made possible because of extended higher ed,
postponement of work, birth control  Youth as an “inbetween” phase of the life cycle free of most adult
responsibilities and free of many (but not all) child
restrictions
Only in Context
• Could only emerge in the specific context in which they did:
• First, a dominant, mass culture had to exist to rebel against
• This dominant culture was a product of middle class post-war
affluence and many subcultures are products of the declining
middle class and the identity crisis that ensues afterward
• Intrinsically linked with our consumerist society; eventually it
is exposed as vapid and unable to satiate individual desires
for identity fulfillment  how unique are you when you like
what everyone else likes?
• Where to turn? Subcultures. They offer identity; most
importantly, authentic identity partially defined in terms of its
opposition to the mainstream culture’s values and products.
• In this respect identity formation is linked to consumption.
• Subcultures attempt to provide an authentic identity for its
adherents in the face of an increasingly vapid society
‘The Other’ to who?
• To middle class culture.
• Identity was forged through lifestyle. The middle class
lifestyle used to be available to many people, as it
shrank it left a void where youth could no longer expect a
middle class lifestyle as jobs moved overseas and
neoliberal policies take hold.
• Many subcultures’ find new values or expressions
against this unobtainable culture.
• Gap between the expectations created by an
individualistic culture and the reality of a declining middle
class is especially acute for the younger generations
Punk
• The term ‘punk’ was used because it “seemed to
sum up the thread that connected everything we
liked—drunk, obnoxious, smart but not
pretentious, absurd, funny, ironic, and things that
appealed to the darker side.” – Legs McNeil
• Emerged during recession in NYC and after
neoliberal (theory that champions privatization
and condemns state intervention in the free
market) policies decimated the city
• Emergence of punk as a response to the demise
of rock and the failure of sixties utopianism
Carinvalesque Punk
• Punk rockers took the carnival spectacle even further
• The ritualistic violation of social symbols and the glorification of
indecency part and parcel of their stage acts.
• Like carnival jesters, punk rockers were “lords of misrule” celebrating
everything viewed as unconventional and vulgar, and parodying social
norms through their dress, language, and overall demeanor; the
carnivalesque elements were intentionally explicit in punk rock.
• Punks aimed to confuse, parody, satirize the mainstream, and to glorify
vulgarity, in much the same way as did commedia dell’arte characters in
public squares, and as did jesters or clowns at carnival time.
• Rage, horror and comedy were united in punk and continue to be part of
some genres of pop culture
• Sex Pistols – “Fuck Forever!” referring to sex as an animal act, vomited
onstage, wore garbage bags held together with safety pins, urination,
defecation, drunkenness and so on.
• Profane rituals and theatrical put-downs of sacred images that are
understood as authoritarian and rigidly moral.
• Sex Pistols made fun of the British monarchy, and government, the
human body, multinational corporations, and other forms of rock.
The Irony and Resurgence of Punk
• Punk was seen as authentic in its
opposition to mainstream music and
society  this was precisely how it was
later co-opted and marketed as a form of
rebellion
• Be different, buy
this!
Style
• Subcultures take on a spectacular form by
appropriating commodities and using them in
innovative and unintended ways that assign
them new, subversive meanings in the process
of creating style.
• Subculture participants still seek identity through
their subcultures based on authenticity and
difference from an imagined “mainstream” but a
post-fordist view of capitalism blurs the boundary
between subculture and popular culture
increasingly threatening these identities.
• How do punks manage this crisis of identity?
Different Punk Identities
Straight Edge
• Hardcore had a lot in common with the conservative
political climate of the 1980s from which it emerged
(cynical and antisocial).
– “just say no”
• The death of idealism
• Sobriety and abstinence as nonconformity
• DYI allowed the transition from only being a spectator to
full participant
• Highly fundamental in their approach
• Like fundamentalism, straightedge strongly appears to
doctrinaire young men who think in binary categories
and have little tolerance for ambiguity
Heavy Metal
• Emerged amid deindustrialization during the 70s and 80s
• Contributed to the polarization of social classes but also
has been experienced as a crisis in masculinity.
• Job losses and downward mobility caused by
deindustrialization have emasculated working-class men
by displacing notions of the “breadwinner ethic” that was
romanticized during the 50s and 60s.
• Coincided with other societal changes: increased women
in the workforce and visibility of the feminist movement.
• Many men interpreted this as a threat to their privileged
position
• In recent decades these “angry white males” directed
their anger towards relatively powerless groups like
racial minorities, women, immigrants and gays rather
than at corporations and the wealthy
Working Class Masculinity
• Fit into working class culture that had an ongoing tradition of
rebelliousness and a deep mistrust of middle class ideology of
meritocracy and deferred gratification
• Deeply contradictory subculture; pride in rebelliousness but
otherwise adhered to very conventional ideas about gender,
race and sexuality
• Used to be somewhat functional: the socialization into a
rebellious lifestyle of working class boys ensured failure in the
school system and lack of social mobility while their
investment in masculinity prepared them for manual labor.
Not functional when the manufacturing jobs have left the
economy
• Themes of power alienation and violence
• In its extreme image consciousness, vulgar materialism and
individualistic ideology, glam metal was a perfect complement
ot Reagan’s America.
Reification in Heavy Metal Music
• To reify – to make real
• In this case, the oppression felt by societal
changes that were hard to identify the
source were reified into 3 themes:
– Power as demonic or supernatural
– Displacement of power into ancient mythology
and history
– Fetishism of commodities and spectacles that
signify power
Indie Music
• Encouraged by the internet
• In some ways the democratization began with
‘grunge’ music, epitomized by Nirvana.
– Simplistic, easy to play yet also memorable
• Pop music as of late has followed this trend of
do-it-yourself (DIY).
• The current fragmentation and uncertain future
of pop culture is a key topic in contemporary pop
culture studies.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Culmination of the socially outrage yet cynically resigned
structure of feeling.
• “entire song is made up of contradictory ideas” – Cobain
• Revolution might be necessary but not likely given his
peers consumer-induced apathy (“here we are
now/entertain us”)
• Represented the sound of the middle class declining and
resigning …
• Apathy was probably founded: first generation to
experience a lower standard of living than their parents
and had developed an ironic style of consuming popular
culture as a consequence of prolonged exposure to
media and advertising.