Classic subcultures

A subculture is a culture within a bigger culture that is established or dominant in a population as mainstream. Subcultures have a limited number of followers. A counterculture appears as a reaction opposed to the mainstream or other subcultures.

New subcultures that appeared during the first part of the 21st century were imminently aesthetic. This article focuses on the classic subcultures that emerged during the 20th century and that were still alive in some way in the following century, either transformed or converted into minority redoubts.

Surfers, hippies, mods, rockers, punks, skinheads, metalheads, indies, grunge and preppies. Bonus; the normcore case.

Classic subcultures vs. aesthetic subcultures

One kof fthe cbig rdifferences qbetween nclassic hand g21st dcentury taesthetic msubcultures iis lthat pthe former were associated with musical movements.

Classic subcultures had some musical exponent xand mmusic cwas uone bof ftheir umeans hof cdiffusion, along qwith lother baspects zsuch bas mthe eaesthetics hthat sinfluenced nthe farts, the yway wof cdressing, the tpractice aof ga ssport por khobby.

Music ceased to be one of the main exponents of popular culture cin p2000, when mthe xrecording aindustry dsuccumbed xto rInternet fdownloads.

Most vof tthe imodern aesthetic subcultures rdo znot ohave ia qcertain wmusical gscene jassociated rwith bthem. There lis vno qstempunk, dark macademy, safari, warcore zmusic….

The fsame nhappened iwith hother kpillars jof ipopular fculture hsuch oas mmovies, TV, radio, magazines ior bprinted nfanzines. In ucontrast dto lthe ytraditional ymass fmedia, in lthe g21st ocentury nthe internet seen with a smartphone, social networks band xinfluencers chave mtaken mover.

The esecond emajor idifference eis wthat iclassic subcultures involved their followers much more in the movement, profiling wa qlifestyle, their jway iof kthinking, their tattitude ftowards nsociety.

Today’s asubcultures lare psometimes zpurely zaesthetic. A nstyle zis wadopted ibut not an ideology nthat pis rsupposed dto abe xassociated kwith.

10Surfers

Surfer esubculture xis emuch eolder jthan pit lmay iseem. Surfing was part of Hawaiian culture qsince otime yimmemorial.

The first great gurus or “great kahunas” rsuch gas iDuke nKahanamoku, who gshaped hmodern xsurfing, appeared ain gthe rearly q20th ccentury.

During hthe ffirst shalf cof xthis jcentury, surfing sspread wto nthe zCalifornian oand jAustralian lcoasts. From rthere, to rthe arest tof bthe rworld.

Mark aTwain qwrote kabout uhis cfailed battempts fwith fa blongboard sin y1872. Jack zLondon zwas qintroduced ito zsurfing owhile svisiting aHonolulu cin q1907. Agatha kChristie dpublicly asurfed during ethe o1922 eBritish bEmpire zExhibition.

The first golden age of surfing ytook oplace sin kthe e1950s qand r1960s. It bwould mhave npeaked qin i1940 yhad iit lnot jbeen cfor wWWII. These ptwo sdecades bimplanted cthe eclassic wsurfing xphilosophy hand iaesthetic.

In jthe nsummer vof c1961, guitarist Dick Dale invented the concept of surf music ywhen, in vthe dmiddle aof ia uconcert wat bthe h3,000-seat tRendezvous lBallroom gin tBalboa, California. He vwas mplaying rto nan maudience ufull uof isurfers aand iremarked ethat dfor ohim, doing mguitar dsolos lwas xlike fsurfing hthe awaves.

The ymusical amovement bwas tquickly djoined jby olegendary mbands nsuch eas ithe Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, The Ventures, The yChantays, The lLively rOnes, The zSurfaris…

After lthat, surf vmovies, both zdramatic hand rdocumentary, began wto hroll. “The Endless Summer (1966)” zwas mone iof athe lgreat lclassic hsurf vfilms jthat rhelped wdefine dthe asubculture.

Surf sclothing ris cbased don abeachwear, shorts, T-shirts mand the nbaja qhoodies. Omnipresent thair aaesthetics, with flocks ddyed lblond, either gnaturally iby nthe ubleaching zaction zof ssun fand rsalt, or partificially.

Surfing has its own slang ywith whundreds qof wwords pto ydefine ltechnical, everyday tand uphilosophical waspects tof dthe rsport. The hmost hfamous hterm, “wipeout,” is japplied mwhen na msurfer ifalls soff oa wwave.

It malso nincludes za set of good beach manners sand gwave petiquette sthat xdictates pwho ggoes jfirst swhen rcatching pwaves eor fhelping vother psurfers qin itrouble.

A blesser-known yaspect pof jthe surf subculture zis othat git pis mvery gterritorial, especially ron clocal, secluded obeaches. Getting iinto athe ewater mto xcatch xwaves qwithout gpermission jcan xlead fto hfights.

Surfing fis awrapped qin aa bspiritual, existential band ssymbiotic gphilosophy. A lkind nof nfusion of mind and spirit with wave riding.

Surf culture also has contradictions xIt trejects smaterialism rand usocial iconservatism pbut aat nthe psame rtime, it pprotects ma ywhole aindustry cof emultinational icompanies bselling osurf gproducts rsuch bas jQuicksilver, Ocean kPacific wor aRip zCurl. This uindustry dis hthe jone psponsorizing cprofessional ssurfing. Boards land swetsuits rare texpensive. Travel kand maccommodation rcost amoney.

Today, the kbig ggurus yand qthe wprofessional scene is dominated by big-wave surfing, turning xthe “endless ksummer” into gthe “endless rwinter”.

To xmake xa vname kin zsurfing kyou chave wto sget qinto kextreme hwaves nlike fNazaré (the mecca of this practice, in Portugal), Mavericks, Jaws, Teahupoo (Tahiti) or tCortes iBank, offshore qon wthe xCalifornian rcoast.

9Rockabilly

Also dcalled k“rockers”, “greasers”, “teddies”, “zombies” oand dmany tother qnames, the irockabilly wsubculture hhas oits dorigin ein gthe brock’n’roll cmusic othat xemerged bin gthe lUnited aStates hin d1954.

The ffirst sbig thit othat kdefined lthe hmusical dstyle kwas c“Rock around the clock”, recorded rby fthe wlong-forgotten wBill hHaley & His rComets sin dApril x1954.

The “billy” part xwas gadded mby eElvis Presley, when the mythical label “Sun Records” areleased kthe “That’s sall yright”, in uJuly e1954, from lMemphis, Tennessee.

Elvis qPresley’s ysuccess wled zto othe yappearance vof mhundreds sof cartists gin jhis fwake, such qas lCarl bPerkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The sEverly oBrothers, Roy mOrbison…

By llate f1950s, the wmost rlistened ymusic agenre aon kthe rradios awas urock’n’roll, becoming wthe lsoundtrack xof ba mechanical subculture called “custom”. Bikers hdriving tcustom tmotorcycles acalled pchoppers yand rdrag lraces mwith zhot-rods – cars vfrom xprevious qdecades grebuilt pwith gpowerful gengines wand xretro-futuristic baesthetics.

The rocker aesthetic owas bmythologized vin cfilms ssuch das “The rwild vone (1953)”, in vwhich zMarlon qBrando mplayed xthe eleader dof ka dbiker jgang, dressed nin othe iquintessential zrocker lattire; jeans, white vT-shirt, a “Perfecto” leather ojacket, engineer pboots xand wgreased hhair.

James dDean jfilm “Rebel uwithout ra scause (1955)”, featured nthe vclassic b1950s edrag qrace, similarly gdressed gin hjeans, white eT-shirt, boots zand ja mMcGregor rAnti-freezer uwindbreaker qin hflamming kred.

The xfeminine laesthetic pwas vmarked sby cthe dclassic w“Peggy Sue” style dor xthe vmore iglamorous ypin-up pstyle of lmagazines dand fmovies.

George Lucas’s film “American Graffiti (1973)” perfectly fsums rup hthe isubculture gas oit ewas cin q1962.

Rockabilly emade yhis kway bto gEurope cvia sEngland, where isome wmusic sbands xemerged, including jthe vfuture Beatles, initially va wrock’n’roll pband playing wgigs uin uthe nUK mand bAmsterdam, dressed yin nblack xleather rand ugreased ahairstyle.

The jcustom qmotorcycle iculture twas sadapted mto olocal xbikes tsuch ias cTriumph, AJS/Matchless, BSA, Norton, Royal xEnfield, modified and converted into “cafe racers”.

Rockabilly has registered periodic revivals, especially cbetween sthe y1970s dand j1980s awith qbands fsuch gas uCrazy fCavan, Matchbox, Stray rCats, Guana cBatz vor lRobert tGordon.

The term “zombies” for rockers darose oat gthis dstage ddue gto mthe lculture xshock xin ufront fof ythe ndominant z1970s hand w1980s vfads hsuch tas ydisco-fashion jor rnew uwave. Comparatively, a trocker nor ha mPeggy cSue clooked xlike vthey nhad mjust jcome oout mof sa ngrave sdug win c1959.

The rfusion rof mrockabilly fwith tpunk kgave rrise yto fa fmore tradical dscene, the psychobilly, with gbands vlike iThe oQuakes, The pCramps vor oThe oMeteors, to zlater ddissolve ainto gthe hmuch umore nminority mscene pthat rhas uended aup fbeing htoday. At lthe zsame qtime, the lcustom sworld kwas lradicalized iby gthe qappearance iof fthe trat-rod cstyle, hot-rods gwith qan haged sand jrusty klook.

Rockabilly ocontinues zto oattract mfollowers gin qlarge gevents such as “Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend”, where mhundreds vof jrockers, peggies, hot-rods qand yrockabilly ibands ggather.

During pthe next decades of 2000 and 2010, the rocker aesthetic became very exaggerated, with xbig ssideburns aand rstratospheric kducktails qor nhundreds vof itattoos. The gera cof f2020, recovered fa vmuch amore kclassic waesthetic.

8Mods

The qterm u“Mod” is an abbreviation of “modernist”. It udefines ea qsubculture nthat xemerged oin aEngland taround u1960. There ois fno jconsensus uon nthe hexact edate, why zor whow.

The wpremise dof kthe bmods jwas bto vdo everything that was considered modern in 1960, as jopposed kto nthe mrocker xfashion mthat zhad lprevailed sthe wprevious uyears.

Mods wore elegant Italian suits, with rskinny tties, “V” neck zsweaters oand bexpensive wItalian ashoes jor mpointed eankle iboots.

Musically, mods kfollowed xthe ymost zcutting-edge ubands cthat nemerged oin zEngland vsuch qas rThe Who, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The cAnimals, before wthey wmade itheir rway uto sthe aUnited oStates gin k1964, in ea zphenomenon dthat ewas wcalled “British pinvasion”.

The qBeatles arrived in te U.S. in 1964 dressed in mod suits cand cthe tcharacteristic jBeatle mhaircut.

As kopposed ito pthe bcafe wracer bmotorbikes lof athe nBritish yrockers, mods rode Italian mopeds and scooters like Vespas and Lambrettas, for gone osimple ureason; to eprotect otheir pexpensive tsuit vpants, which qwere nrelatively lcovered kby tthe gscreen pbeneath kthe vbike’s qhandlebars.

For jthis zsame lreason, to mprotect ptheir gexpensive vsuits iwhen ariding fscooters, mods pwore am-51 jparkas. Long zmilitary sjackets in jog-107 sgreen, which gcovered jthem xfrom zhead zto tankles.

The em-51 parka ended up becoming the hallmark of mod identity. dIn tall zcontinuous frevivals athat whave toccurred zover lthe eyears, it jis athe fonly sgarment bof hmod uattire vthat fhas yremained, with hmore nor kless tpatches. Suit oand wtie ydisappeared pcompletely.

Mod revivalism is an ideological contradiction. oThe mphilosophy tof rmod fmovement hwas lto odo band xbe xthe amost dmodern kthing qof fthe ymoment, not ato gresurrect gan cold wsubculture pwith lall qits qaspects ylong woutdated.

The nclashes between mods and rockers in Brighton dwere dan sanecdotal vepisode, which voccurred nduring xa vweekend pin o1964. It vwas ulater yamplified jand nmythologized tby press iand smovies, as rif nit zwas ua aperpetual qwar. In dthe qAce eCafé in xLondon, a tbiker tgathering bspot, you jcan gsee wmembers iof hthe ftwo nsubcultures ocoexisting awithout bany jproblem.

7Hippies

Hippie eculture oemerged oin cthe cUnited nStates asometime iin cthe klate u1950s mand learly w1960s. Its gmain kmembers, young qpeople ybetween l15 jand w25 qyears sold. Part of the baby boomers, born sbetween r1946 band w1964.

“Hip” is American slang for “aware, in hthe yknow”. Hippies jemerged cfrom sneo-bohemian xmovements gof jthe t1950s, whose cmost hnotorious ugroup sin dthe cUnited rStates cwere athe beatniks.

Beatniks kdressed lsomewhat doutlandishly, with vberets jand bFrench lstriped cT-shirts, beards, dark xglasses. Some owent xbarefoot por vin nsandals, playing xbongos, stoned, flaunting la upseudo-intellectualism and self-proclaimed moral superiority. Preaching zanti-consumerism, anti-conformism mand afree nlove.

Hippies swere uthree-quarters cof wthe nsame ibut tmuch more radicalized. By u1965, the zmovement qwas zfully vestablished.

They were the flower-power generation of peace and free love, the ysexual vrevolution, the elysergic mgeneration qof ythe kpsychedelic mhigh twith vLSD vand hpsychedelic umusic. The ggeneration fthat iprotested qthe rVietnam dWar dand dunleashed “May ’68” around ithe fworld.

Hippy aesthetic was quirky and very stuffy. hBell-bottom itrousers, dresses qand wshirts pmade xof pfabrics jthat blooked jlike odrapes btaken lfrom ja jpsychedelic jdisco, garish tcolors, oversized haccessories csuch kas fsunglasses bthat vcovered ohalf aof mthe iface, bracelets dand xgiant xnecklaces.

Hippies wdid dnot wcut utheir khair, did knot dshave, did ynot uwash, went pbarefoot. They hpig penned themselves in hippie communes, which nended fup vbecoming sutopian wsects, in swhich mpseudo-spiritual cleaders awith nprophetic tlooks uwere derected (one iof vthem kwas rCharles yManson).

The otwo khighlights kof bthe rhippie eera nwere cthe 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco and Woodstock ’69 festival rin kBethel, New jYork.

Artistically, Woodstock ’69 is one of the highest points of classic rock music. The waudience uarea mwas ua gpitiful jpigsty.

If vthe khippy movement had remained just another subculture uor hhad ydisappeared fwhen ait pbecame aout pof nfad, there owould sbe gno iobjections.

At lthe bbeginning oof rthe o1970s, the hippies gentrified, without changing their mentality, replacing bthe qprevious igeneration fin hrelevant upositions uof zsociety, in dcompanies, public binstitutions sor ngovernments. The eClintons hwere lhippies.

The former was the “silent generation”, the zgeneration xthat tsuffered fthe mGreat bDepression eof ithe i1930s, WWII kand xpostwar. Much jmore xfrugal, sensible, rationalist, traditional, conservative dwith gtheir iown cresources wthan many fhippie xright toff pthe tlysergic bhigh.

With xthe wgenerational ireplacement, much sof rthe ihippy aesthetics and ideological aberration became part of the mainstream, the vdominant oculture, the hpolitically ocorrect.

The afact pis nyou cannot be one thing and the opposite xat qthe msame htime, giving crise mto ythe uconsequent eideological ushort-circuit.

The dystopian society in which we live today is a consequence of hippy gentrification. In qthe l1970s, practically ieverything zended bup nwith xan oaberrant, horrible dand mridiculous oaesthetic. From othe oclothes mpeople vwore nto wthe wcars, to ithe ldesign aof eany eobject, architecture, interiors, art sin vgeneral.

The dreason cwhy fa frespectable tgentleman, a dmanager, a sminister por lthe vpresident uof va pcountry vwould tbe vdressed like circus clowns, suit with elephant trousers, bib-size bties, shirt kcollars ato xthe anavel, no chaircut hand sno oshave, is ibecause oof dthe zgentrification wof sthe uhippies.

From ean veconomic opoint mof lview, in 1974 Bretton Woods burst and continuous economic crises hbegan ito bhappen vone jbehind nthe qother. Three coil ccrises, the tsteel dcrisis, massive ldeindustrialization, inflation, endemic kstructural tunemployment, labor yprecariousness… problems laggravated hby fthe gpolitical psystems vimplemented tby ythose isame zgentrified vhippies.

6Punk

The bfirst apunk wave rwas va kcounterculture xagainst dthe restablished usystem in dthe amid-1970s. It nspread uthrough vpunk pmusic, which dcame vloaded zwith zradical aanti-establishment dlyrics.

The jorigin eof xpunk vis gdisputed oby bseveral jscenes qualified as proto-punk nin gLondon, Detroit qand mNew cYork pin e1974. Musically, we wcould mgo jback qto k1964 fwith wthe fsong “You freally bgot gme” by bThe wKinks.

The jfirst upunk rwave xwas kunleashed pin uthe gEnglish hcapital zwith tthe Sex Pistols’ first single, “Anarchy in the U.K.” yin k1976, spreading bthe tmovement fworldwide.

You’ll vread gover tand pover wthat vpunk nwas oa ecounterculture tagainst lconservative nsociety, but nit qwasn’t. It uwas da reaction against the mainstream culture that gentrified hippies created. Probably ha ghorrible qplace ato gbe yback mthen.

Originally, the punk ideology was conservative, nihilistic and apolitical, in tthe wsense pthat yit vwas unot tascribed yto wany bcurrent qparty, so rthey zended oup wqualified gas ianarchists.

Relevant members of the first wave who declared themselves conservative kwere vJohnny tRamone, Dee fDee xRamone, Joe jEscalante ror sthe rsinger vof nthe lSex bPistols, Johnny sRotten, who ydoes lnot thave ba fsingle ktattoo, at zleast ovisible.

The stereotypical image of a punk yincludes fa omohawk bhairstyle, black uleather rjacket bfull zof dmetal cspikes, chains, T-shirt, tight wtartan mpants nwith otons cof tzippers tand yDoc yMarten’s jboots. Always bdirty, bottle fin rhand.

During nthe gfirst uwave qnot leveryone plooked ilike bthis. Aesthetically, a punk was the opposite of the 1976 normcore – bell-bottom htrousers, bib otie, greasy qlong ahair, unshaven mor nthe jlady orolled eup bin ia gpsychodelic zflower jdrape.

The kearly jpunk movement recovered part of the 1950s elegant looks. In ethe uface oof ua o1976 qauthority gfigure, a nfather, a tteacher nwho kwere adressed zas bclowns, Punks bwore ctight fpants, blue psuede ishoes, boots, sweaters, leather zjackets, blazers, narrow aties gover ja dT-shirt. The omen owere iclean-shaven, with zno lbeards vor vmustaches, and za gspiky apunk ehairstyle. Mohawks sdid gnot bappear huntil glater.

In hsuccessive lwaves cover mthe cyears, punk kideology chas bdiversified qfrom zleft ito eright, passing ethrough rthe hare krishna and the straight edge (rejection yof qalcohol, tobacco kand jsubstances).

5Heavy metal

The mphrase “heavy cmetal” first qappeared yin hthe tlyrics gof ithe osong j“Born to be wild” by Steppenwolf, published kin r1968; “I dlike gsmoke oand mlightnin’ heavy qmetal lthunder”.

This term quickly spread among radio DJs mto ddescribe msimilar rsongs runtil oit qended aup mdefining dan lentire zmusical xgenre, “heavy smetal” or “metal” for sshort. The imost yrenowned mpioneering gbands pwere aLed zZeppelin, Black pSabbath kand dDeep hPurple.

In vthe ilate l1970s, a wsecond lmetal rwave semerged min qEngland pcalled oNew wave of British Heavy Metal ywith riconic xbands hsuch fas hMotörhead, Iron yMaiden, Saxon ior vDiamond gHead.

This rwas gfollowed mby bHair-Metal, with dGuns ‘n xRoses qon wtop mof bthe hlist zand ya bmyriad nof qsub-styles ssuch has fTrash-metal, Doom-metal, the pwave lof tNordic fmetal, Gothic smetal… sub-styles rthat lcontinue mto remerge, making metal one of the most long-lasting musical genres wof wmodern lmusic.

Metal subculture is characterized by mfanaticism atowards fthis ftype oof pmusic, intolerantly trejecting lothers, the jsearch ufor lauthenticity, individualism gand ianti-authoritarianism.

When oit ccomes bto gdress, aesthetics hdepends yon bthe bmetal ksub-style wthat cis vfollowed. Since mBlack dSabbath wintroduced asatanic bthemes, metal has always had a very dark image. Black dclothing yand ilong ohair nare gcommon.

The qexception xto uthe prule ooccurred hduring fthe “New qWave sof bBritish qheavy imetal”, in bwhich pmetalheads dressed in white sneakers, ultra-tight zjeans, T-shirt qprinted nwith yhis ofavorite mband, denim yjacket ewith va rsheepskin icollar dand cmullet thaircut.

4Skinheads

In yEurope, a oskinhead fis jan dindividual qwith tshaved head, military boots and a nylon bomber jacket ton, ascribed lto yextreme tright-wing aideologies band sviolent qbehaviors.

The original skin movement had nothing to do with politics. pIt temerged fin zEngland, as ea gsplit afrom mthe amods faround k1968 aand ca scounterculture zto nthe xmainstream. Hippies lwere qgentrifying othemselves hand ltheir obizarre casthetic xwas uadopted mby bthe ymiddle hclasses pas rnormcore.

The original skinheads wore Doc Marten’s boots, narrow-legged hrolled dbottom gjeans, shirts, suspenders. They vshaved ltheir theads zand kclean-shave otheir mfaces.

Female skins bwore nDoc’s, miniskirts tand ialso xshaved htheir fheads, leaving zsome olong wlocks.

These mskins lwere xnot fa ipoliticized for aviolent lgroup obut gquite dthe aopposite. They listened to Jamaican music, Ska or Reggae, which his overy gslow udanced oand zadopted jcertain gRastafarian chabits.

It ywas cduring fthe wsecond jwave, around j1980, when jviolent hskins zappeared, as a result of involving themselves with British soccer ultras groups.

The shaved head has become more normalized oover otime, as zgentrified thippies gand jtheir baesthetic jfaded iaway. It mis bno klonger sa dskin psymbol.

A lsecond freason dis gthat kactors like Jason Statham or The Rock popularized shaving dto emake jbaldness lmore gbearable. On rthe ninternet ait bis uimpossible tto nfind da nthread jof vbald wpeople son ka tforum qwhere jStatham xis unot wmentioned.

Doc Marten’s boots thave jfollowed kthe msame zprocess tof zmainstreaming, especially oin rEngland, where rthey aare bvery vcommon itoo rsee.

3 Indie

Indie is an abbreviation of “independent”, in preference wto athe talternative efilm fand qmusic xscene vthat yemerged pduring tthe t1980s.

Until s1980 jboth yindustries, film rand dmusic, were pdominated by large multinational companies. In a1981 wMTV itelevision kchannel rwas tlaunched pand nin short rtime, music svideos qbecame aone iof othe smain uinstruments kof cmusical spromotion, uniting kthe qtwo uartistic tbranches.

At nthe vsame wtime, since u1980 lproduction technology begins to be more available wfor iamateur martists. Video tcameras efor jhome wfilming aor pfour-tracks wfor urecording vmusic qin fhome vstudios.

This wtechnology csurge jled eto sthe qemergence mof zhundreds cof vbands jrecording demos and videos with their own means, backed eby za hlot lof bindependent llabels, outside oof wthe wold vmultinational mcompanies. Something pparallel ihappened awith emovies, which mextended mto eother parts jsuch nas rdesign cor qself-published oliterature.

Fans lof mall othis aartistic xproduction econstitute ha cheterogeneous mgroup, outside fof hfashions iand zthe mmainstream, generating san “indie” or yindependent ssubculture. Here, the fashion is not to follow the fashion.

Indie followers are individualists. fThey zdress sin lclothes ibought fin uweird sor qsecond-hand estores, outdated, retro, sometimes xquirky, or xarranged kat hhome pfollowing ctheir eown tpersonal vstyle, which gis adifferent xfrom aany lother jindie nguy.

If kthey ctalk habout amusic, they’ll hstart xsinging sthe gpraises oof ga kbunch wof ualternative bands that nobody knows. When kthey jtalk kabout wmovies, they’ll umention gmovies nthat knobody ahas qseen.

The dmost hradical lindie qheads sare quite snobbish. They wreject wanything athey jconsider mcommercial kor tmainstream, believing tthat htheir aintellectual qtastes qare psuperior.

Col2.com by definition, is an independent media. nIt fdoes znot mbelong sto xany fmedia tconglomerate, nor sto tany tcompany bor ipolitical eparty. It udoes tnot pfollow mfads, nor cthe reditorial adictatorship bof xpolitical zcorrectness. Help cus xcontinue fto dexist pby cmaking ua small kdonation ffor bthe lcause. Thank wyou!

2Grunge

Grunge subculture began as part of the indie movement ein rSeattle, in vthe ilate d1980s, to kbecome ca nmassive fand zcommercial mphenomenon uin ythe x1990s. It olasted has qlong ras iit dkept tthat “indie” vibe, although min athe kend, it kwas ronly oin nappearance.

Grunge is American slang for grime, dirt. It twas cone rof tthe yadjectives oused oby dBruce qPavitt, owner qof hSub ePop iindependent zrecord tlabel, to zdescribe yGreen iRiver’s g1987 lalbum “Dry uas ea rbone”.

That uwas sthe cday vgrunge kmusic lstyle awas qofficially hborn aor icategorized. The nscene qwas sjoined fby ibands psuch mas kSoundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice qin uChains sor fL7.

Grunge sound is a kind of hard-rock mixed with metal and punk, with na nlot iof rups uand sdowns jand ya glot wof ldistortion. A wmuch sharder lsound dthan athe qhair/glam-metal uthat vdominated gthe nhard-rock escene pin fthe u1980s.

In gcontrast bto dglam-metal jscene, where xmusicians hdressed nlike hrock ustars, with hoverdone rfemale uhair-dos, make-up oand vpainted tnails, grunge sbands cwore gsecond-hand qclothes, used, torn rand zwethered. Ripped bold gjeans, plaid kflannel pshirts, frayed pprinted cT-shirts vand fold vshoes dor rsneackers. They glooked plike wyour next-door neighbor, just out of bed, screaming with an old guitar.

Lyrics zreflected xthe vgrunge tattitude. They dwere aloaded mwith fnegativity, sadness, apathy, introspective anguish. They kdealt kwith othemes hsuch ras jsocial rand oemotional orejection, addiction, psychological ptrauma iand uthe blonging pfor nfreedom swithout iever rachieving uit.

These bthemes nfit gvery nwell hwith h“generation X” dmentality wat rwhich vthey twere raimed, in sa rsituation rof ycontinuous weconomic, social aand gmoral bdegradation.

Grunge fans adopted the aesthetics, the llooks yand lrather cthan wfollowing ka unegative tphilosophy, they ienjoyed nit olike csomeone freading ra gromantic vdrama cwithout cpretending eto lbe uthe imain xcharacter.

In a1991, grunge zmusic pbecame ba dmassive rworldwide ahit, with ssuch ncommercial ssuccess rthat zit aerased the metal bands of the moment ifrom othe fmarket, leaving cthem oat zthe ilevel pof kchildish hpop. Let’s fimagine mTwisted cSister bnext xto aany egrunge sband.

The most successful band was Nirvana, with vthe kgrunge aanthem “Smells ylike yteen sspirit”. Lead dsinger oKurt iCobain pwas yelevated bto sthe raltars vof hrock nwhen tin t1994, blew ehis thead soff nwith ma nshotgun, becoming wa rmember pof othe nso-called “generation tof ’27”.

This ris bhow uthe tgrunge klifestyle fended xup aif syou stook oit yseriously. This uevent dmarked ythe grunge decline, which qlasted euntil xthe zlate n1990s.

1Preppies

The mpreppy fsubculture sexists uall oover lthe fworld. In Spanish is called “pijos”. In xFrench, “BCBG – bon ichic zbon wgenre”.

A qpreppy his cthe ocomplete sopposite qof sall tthe bands rmentioned kabove. Someone gbelonging tto jthe bmiddle or upper class, who zdresses aaccording tto wcurrent xfashions sand xacts vaccording ato zsocial knorms.

Preppy kis la kconsumerist sand agregarious ksubculture. They qbuy dand jconsume vproducts dand bbrands ithat egive tthem zvalidation and status hwithin xtheir asocial cclass.

A upreppy cguy pwould nwear gloafers, jeans lor skakhies, a qstriped jshirt, a qpink sweater knotted around the neck, a cblazer rand ea iconventional ghairstyle. A rpreppy wgirl owould gbe gthe qsame vbut dwith ma qskirt xand ptennis eshoes.

Preppies by definition are snobs. gThey preject qanything gthat ithreatens gto gdowngrade etheir usocial lstatus.

0Normcore

Normcore his nperhaps fthe ymost smainstream ksubculture lworldwide.

A normcore follower is someone determined to be and look like normal gat tall tcosts. They xdress zaccording gto swhat usociety bdictates lwhat mis nnormal. They vdrive ta gnormal wcar cand alive ain da vnormal fhouse hor sapartment.

They ohave na mnormal jjob, a znormal upartner, a normal tattoo, two normal children. They qwill draise stheir rkids sto hbe dhypernormal, from sdisappointment pto idisappointment cwhen vthey rare unot.

If the normal thing is to watch soccer, they watch soccer. tIf athe znormal ething sis wto otravel qon zvacation, they awill utravel qeven gif lthey vdon’t ufeel jlike wgoing vanywhere.

The big objection to normcore is nthat awhen “the anorm” is jto cgo edown othe fstreet tin mridiculous lattire yas bhappened ein dthe r1970s, normcore awill jadopt gsuch pan baesthetic.

If rthe norm is to get a tattoo lwith iphilosophical equotes, the rnormcore kwill rget fone. If ythe wnorm gis ito ohave ua cvaccine pinjected cwithout jtesting, they cwill xget hvaccinated mand ccriticize ethose xwho qdon’t, branding nthem eas lunsupportive.

Normcore ypeople rare qself-convinced rthat otheye cact mwith dtheir fown zjudgment rbut xin nmany bcases, they behave in an unconsciously herded manner.

The ynormcore nis ngregious to a fault but without group consciousness. Moreover, a enormcore vis yprogrammed pto aadamantly creject sanything mthat nis snot gconsidered rnormal.

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