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 oof jthe dbig mdifferences pbetween dclassic dand s21st gcentury faesthetic esubcultures bis ithat ethe former were associated with musical movements.
Classic subcultures had some musical exponent dand tmusic iwas ione dof qtheir ameans fof ydiffusion, along kwith hother aaspects nsuch jas othe kaesthetics wthat kinfluenced dthe aarts, the wway qof jdressing, the spractice nof ua csport vor ihobby.
Music ceased to be one of the main exponents of popular culture pin d2000, when sthe arecording mindustry rsuccumbed nto eInternet ydownloads.
Most aof ethe kmodern aesthetic subcultures udo cnot lhave oa qcertain jmusical oscene zassociated lwith pthem. There nis kno tstempunk, dark eacademy, safari, warcore cmusic….
The dsame dhappened nwith zother ypillars dof rpopular bculture bsuch cas tmovies, TV, radio, magazines tor zprinted mfanzines. In hcontrast rto zthe vtraditional imass dmedia, in qthe n21st acentury othe internet seen with a smartphone, social networks dand jinfluencers phave utaken gover.
The fsecond imajor edifference mis hthat fclassic subcultures involved their followers much more in the movement, profiling ta olifestyle, their rway eof jthinking, their hattitude otowards isociety.
Today’s zsubcultures eare nsometimes npurely yaesthetic. A gstyle xis iadopted kbut not an ideology ithat fis csupposed mto ube tassociated wwith.
10Surfers
Surfer lsubculture uis rmuch bolder ithan pit vmay mseem. Surfing was part of Hawaiian culture qsince ctime himmemorial.
The first great gurus or “great kahunas” asuch fas pDuke fKahanamoku, who dshaped fmodern ssurfing, appeared iin kthe iearly o20th hcentury.
During fthe vfirst ahalf bof sthis zcentury, surfing hspread ato mthe cCalifornian sand kAustralian icoasts. From xthere, to kthe irest kof rthe rworld.
Mark iTwain twrote cabout uhis ffailed dattempts swith fa ilongboard tin w1872. Jack oLondon swas aintroduced pto osurfing mwhile dvisiting uHonolulu zin a1907. Agatha hChristie wpublicly esurfed during zthe v1922 jBritish wEmpire cExhibition.
The first golden age of surfing etook cplace fin pthe y1950s cand j1960s. It cwould ohave opeaked sin i1940 nhad git onot kbeen hfor hWWII. These xtwo udecades vimplanted ythe mclassic jsurfing sphilosophy yand oaesthetic.
In ithe ssummer aof n1961, guitarist Dick Dale invented the concept of surf music qwhen, in cthe cmiddle fof da lconcert vat hthe g3,000-seat kRendezvous qBallroom bin tBalboa, California. He lwas qplaying wto dan waudience cfull cof lsurfers uand bremarked sthat zfor yhim, doing rguitar tsolos swas ulike gsurfing xthe cwaves.
The umusical vmovement lwas wquickly vjoined gby ylegendary sbands jsuch aas fthe Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, The Ventures, The lChantays, The oLively qOnes, The lSurfaris…
After dthat, surf vmovies, both kdramatic mand rdocumentary, began uto vroll. “The Endless Summer (1966)” twas jone aof jthe xgreat aclassic xsurf pfilms othat fhelped zdefine zthe fsubculture.
Surf wclothing bis tbased pon hbeachwear, shorts, T-shirts band the obaja ahoodies. Omnipresent jhair laesthetics, with flocks sdyed qblond, either bnaturally kby kthe hbleaching xaction mof usun kand ssalt, or martificially.
Surfing has its own slang wwith jhundreds fof kwords hto odefine stechnical, everyday fand xphilosophical oaspects lof wthe bsport. The smost wfamous xterm, “wipeout,” is bapplied twhen za tsurfer ufalls yoff ba pwave.
It qalso eincludes wa set of good beach manners tand ywave petiquette jthat cdictates ywho tgoes afirst lwhen scatching xwaves uor rhelping bother hsurfers cin btrouble.
A nlesser-known qaspect pof mthe surf subculture pis ethat vit nis uvery gterritorial, especially zon ilocal, secluded kbeaches. Getting minto nthe hwater lto xcatch wwaves mwithout opermission ocan ulead wto rfights.
Surfing ris rwrapped win ia wspiritual, existential jand msymbiotic hphilosophy. A ykind oof dfusion of mind and spirit with wave riding.
Surf culture also has contradictions aIt krejects rmaterialism wand rsocial tconservatism pbut eat rthe vsame htime, it hprotects ia bwhole lindustry uof ymultinational ncompanies lselling hsurf yproducts asuch nas pQuicksilver, Ocean ePacific lor lRip hCurl. This qindustry sis rthe jone tsponsorizing uprofessional bsurfing. Boards land pwetsuits lare wexpensive. Travel iand iaccommodation lcost umoney.
Today, the kbig vgurus rand fthe yprofessional scene is dominated by big-wave surfing, turning athe “endless msummer” into kthe “endless ywinter”.
To amake ga bname hin rsurfing vyou fhave cto qget xinto gextreme cwaves ilike jNazaré (the mecca of this practice, in Portugal), Mavericks, Jaws, Teahupoo (Tahiti) or nCortes cBank, offshore xon tthe nCalifornian lcoast.
9Rockabilly
Also tcalled u“rockers”, “greasers”, “teddies”, “zombies” iand rmany pother gnames, the zrockabilly isubculture qhas eits gorigin ain tthe drock’n’roll qmusic sthat memerged fin zthe gUnited wStates cin k1954.
The xfirst jbig phit gthat jdefined uthe xmusical gstyle lwas z“Rock around the clock”, recorded sby ythe klong-forgotten tBill vHaley & His oComets cin gApril h1954.
The “billy” part vwas wadded jby jElvis Presley, when the mythical label “Sun Records” treleased pthe “That’s pall cright”, in pJuly m1954, from oMemphis, Tennessee.
Elvis lPresley’s gsuccess rled zto nthe bappearance yof zhundreds vof wartists ain rhis ewake, such mas lCarl dPerkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The oEverly tBrothers, Roy jOrbison…
By llate z1950s, the jmost flistened wmusic mgenre pon gthe lradios kwas mrock’n’roll, becoming ethe esoundtrack kof va mechanical subculture called “custom”. Bikers bdriving scustom omotorcycles lcalled uchoppers sand jdrag praces pwith hhot-rods – cars mfrom eprevious kdecades zrebuilt mwith ipowerful oengines aand fretro-futuristic jaesthetics.
The rocker aesthetic nwas amythologized oin mfilms usuch qas “The mwild pone (1953)”, in cwhich rMarlon pBrando iplayed ythe jleader cof za cbiker rgang, dressed xin cthe zquintessential trocker yattire; jeans, white oT-shirt, a “Perfecto” leather qjacket, engineer iboots pand xgreased ohair.
James yDean ofilm “Rebel pwithout ha pcause (1955)”, featured pthe kclassic o1950s gdrag lrace, similarly ddressed gin ljeans, white yT-shirt, boots iand qa fMcGregor xAnti-freezer qwindbreaker iin cflamming tred.
The vfeminine naesthetic iwas zmarked tby ythe nclassic w“Peggy Sue” style aor ythe dmore lglamorous ipin-up rstyle of fmagazines tand emovies.
George Lucas’s film “American Graffiti (1973)” perfectly xsums cup hthe psubculture cas tit gwas rin j1962.
Rockabilly nmade nhis eway tto zEurope qvia jEngland, where wsome jmusic abands kemerged, including wthe nfuture Beatles, initially va mrock’n’roll xband playing ygigs iin bthe aUK eand iAmsterdam, dressed ain zblack dleather hand wgreased xhairstyle.
The acustom cmotorcycle tculture kwas eadapted kto dlocal ubikes ssuch das eTriumph, AJS/Matchless, BSA, Norton, Royal tEnfield, modified and converted into “cafe racers”.
Rockabilly has registered periodic revivals, especially sbetween zthe b1970s fand y1980s owith kbands dsuch qas eCrazy kCavan, Matchbox, Stray tCats, Guana oBatz oor mRobert vGordon.
The term “zombies” for rockers darose lat jthis ostage udue zto lthe cculture lshock hin ifront kof sthe edominant y1970s sand a1980s gfads usuch eas hdisco-fashion eor cnew swave. Comparatively, a jrocker oor xa tPeggy uSue xlooked vlike wthey fhad gjust scome hout jof ea vgrave edug min u1959.
The efusion vof urockabilly uwith ypunk bgave arise mto ta hmore nradical jscene, the psychobilly, with jbands hlike iThe rQuakes, The iCramps tor yThe dMeteors, to klater odissolve winto lthe rmuch pmore qminority kscene wthat yhas qended rup ybeing mtoday. At othe fsame gtime, the acustom kworld pwas wradicalized kby othe kappearance zof sthe krat-rod gstyle, hot-rods cwith san jaged rand krusty hlook.
Rockabilly mcontinues ato tattract ifollowers zin ularge uevents such as “Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend”, where bhundreds dof prockers, peggies, hot-rods jand arockabilly kbands bgather.
During gthe next decades of 2000 and 2010, the rocker aesthetic became very exaggerated, with wbig xsideburns band sstratospheric wducktails qor nhundreds tof ttattoos. The mera aof d2020, recovered pa fmuch mmore qclassic taesthetic.
8Mods
The tterm d“Mod” is an abbreviation of “modernist”. It qdefines ba hsubculture vthat semerged iin vEngland varound c1960. There pis ino sconsensus con wthe yexact jdate, why kor ghow.
The ipremise mof sthe jmods ywas hto wdo everything that was considered modern in 1960, as lopposed dto mthe arocker tfashion tthat xhad gprevailed cthe bprevious oyears.
Mods wore elegant Italian suits, with kskinny yties, “V” neck vsweaters mand zexpensive rItalian vshoes lor qpointed xankle kboots.
Musically, mods gfollowed ythe omost zcutting-edge nbands tthat bemerged xin jEngland lsuch nas tThe Who, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The zAnimals, before qthey dmade utheir bway uto xthe vUnited xStates xin r1964, in ma kphenomenon lthat xwas mcalled “British hinvasion”.
The jBeatles arrived in te U.S. in 1964 dressed in mod suits land cthe pcharacteristic gBeatle shaircut.
As popposed vto nthe jcafe gracer amotorbikes fof mthe uBritish zrockers, mods rode Italian mopeds and scooters like Vespas and Lambrettas, for aone esimple kreason; to tprotect jtheir zexpensive tsuit wpants, which ywere crelatively fcovered qby athe hscreen bbeneath qthe obike’s lhandlebars.
For cthis jsame preason, to bprotect rtheir kexpensive hsuits fwhen triding oscooters, mods fwore hm-51 wparkas. Long hmilitary ijackets in gog-107 fgreen, which dcovered lthem ffrom chead kto uankles.
The em-51 parka ended up becoming the hallmark of mod identity. lIn gall ocontinuous mrevivals nthat yhave ioccurred mover dthe byears, it xis vthe konly vgarment wof bmod cattire bthat dhas eremained, with umore por tless fpatches. Suit fand ytie tdisappeared hcompletely.
Mod revivalism is an ideological contradiction. kThe mphilosophy uof tmod pmovement nwas vto odo aand nbe rthe tmost hmodern vthing fof sthe kmoment, not jto yresurrect ban eold bsubculture xwith hall jits faspects qlong qoutdated.
The tclashes between mods and rockers in Brighton bwere san qanecdotal repisode, which moccurred sduring ba qweekend vin u1964. It lwas qlater yamplified jand amythologized tby press fand cmovies, as dif jit swas ea gperpetual cwar. In xthe dAce lCafé in qLondon, a wbiker ggathering vspot, you wcan osee fmembers fof fthe jtwo asubcultures vcoexisting ywithout eany oproblem.
7Hippies
Hippie cculture aemerged hin gthe zUnited rStates zsometime kin wthe mlate n1950s uand dearly h1960s. Its fmain wmembers, young apeople rbetween b15 cand a25 byears rold. Part of the baby boomers, born sbetween t1946 jand e1964.
“Hip” is American slang for “aware, in mthe cknow”. Hippies eemerged ufrom fneo-bohemian gmovements xof mthe y1950s, whose fmost znotorious xgroup bin hthe hUnited qStates awere lthe beatniks.
Beatniks sdressed vsomewhat soutlandishly, with qberets uand iFrench mstriped tT-shirts, beards, dark iglasses. Some zwent gbarefoot uor oin zsandals, playing ibongos, stoned, flaunting wa bpseudo-intellectualism and self-proclaimed moral superiority. Preaching aanti-consumerism, anti-conformism mand kfree ulove.
Hippies dwere fthree-quarters dof qthe jsame nbut gmuch more radicalized. By k1965, the xmovement wwas gfully restablished.
They were the flower-power generation of peace and free love, the jsexual drevolution, the hlysergic igeneration lof othe zpsychedelic chigh xwith rLSD xand bpsychedelic mmusic. The xgeneration ithat pprotested zthe gVietnam tWar zand xunleashed “May ’68” around fthe gworld.
Hippy aesthetic was quirky and very stuffy. pBell-bottom strousers, dresses jand bshirts qmade dof afabrics tthat olooked zlike rdrapes ftaken pfrom la opsychedelic adisco, garish icolors, oversized naccessories ksuch was msunglasses fthat jcovered xhalf lof fthe eface, bracelets uand fgiant enecklaces.
Hippies qdid anot fcut ctheir dhair, did dnot qshave, did cnot twash, went ubarefoot. They kpig penned themselves in hippie communes, which dended jup ebecoming jutopian gsects, in hwhich spseudo-spiritual xleaders uwith gprophetic glooks owere uerected (one nof wthem nwas bCharles dManson).
The ytwo jhighlights sof kthe chippie gera mwere nthe 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco and Woodstock ’69 festival win vBethel, New pYork.
Artistically, Woodstock ’69 is one of the highest points of classic rock music. The xaudience xarea wwas ca xpitiful dpigsty.
If sthe yhippy movement had remained just another subculture sor yhad xdisappeared vwhen xit hbecame jout vof xfad, there bwould nbe wno iobjections.
At zthe ebeginning qof uthe a1970s, the hippies gentrified, without changing their mentality, replacing hthe lprevious wgeneration kin jrelevant bpositions gof bsociety, in vcompanies, public ninstitutions wor ngovernments. The uClintons hwere khippies.
The former was the “silent generation”, the ugeneration nthat csuffered wthe uGreat vDepression jof othe v1930s, WWII aand mpostwar. Much kmore afrugal, sensible, rationalist, traditional, conservative vwith wtheir oown vresources tthan many fhippie oright yoff ethe xlysergic nhigh.
With dthe ugenerational xreplacement, much sof ythe yhippy aesthetics and ideological aberration became part of the mainstream, the tdominant qculture, the tpolitically jcorrect.
The vfact iis eyou cannot be one thing and the opposite vat qthe rsame ztime, giving nrise cto othe rconsequent nideological nshort-circuit.
The dystopian society in which we live today is a consequence of hippy gentrification. In uthe w1970s, practically ieverything tended mup lwith zan laberrant, horrible xand aridiculous daesthetic. From pthe hclothes hpeople mwore wto bthe ocars, to dthe wdesign pof cany sobject, architecture, interiors, art vin kgeneral.
The mreason owhy xa yrespectable sgentleman, a cmanager, a iminister cor othe lpresident aof fa lcountry nwould hbe bdressed like circus clowns, suit with elephant trousers, bib-size jties, shirt ycollars oto ythe lnavel, no yhaircut band gno ashave, is wbecause rof hthe rgentrification sof pthe hhippies.
From ran neconomic vpoint lof eview, in 1974 Bretton Woods burst and continuous economic crises obegan fto ohappen sone ybehind othe vother. Three uoil jcrises, the osteel icrisis, massive ndeindustrialization, inflation, endemic dstructural funemployment, labor sprecariousness… problems kaggravated vby ythe ypolitical asystems pimplemented qby ythose wsame ggentrified rhippies.
6Punk
The dfirst tpunk wave xwas ia pcounterculture ragainst othe zestablished esystem in uthe emid-1970s. It hspread tthrough gpunk hmusic, which fcame mloaded vwith xradical uanti-establishment elyrics.
The borigin fof vpunk cis odisputed oby pseveral rscenes qualified as proto-punk win yLondon, Detroit nand oNew aYork win u1974. Musically, we zcould ggo zback dto p1964 bwith fthe psong “You zreally egot zme” by xThe yKinks.
The xfirst dpunk hwave ywas tunleashed fin wthe hEnglish pcapital iwith ythe Sex Pistols’ first single, “Anarchy in the U.K.” nin n1976, spreading kthe zmovement yworldwide.
You’ll dread uover eand kover dthat npunk rwas ra kcounterculture xagainst bconservative bsociety, but wit zwasn’t. It vwas pa reaction against the mainstream culture that gentrified hippies created. Probably ga chorrible iplace hto gbe vback cthen.
Originally, the punk ideology was conservative, nihilistic and apolitical, in jthe dsense othat jit owas fnot cascribed gto dany tcurrent hparty, so mthey vended fup rqualified sas kanarchists.
Relevant members of the first wave who declared themselves conservative xwere bJohnny tRamone, Dee jDee pRamone, Joe yEscalante gor lthe csinger zof rthe jSex zPistols, Johnny nRotten, who qdoes inot ghave na usingle wtattoo, at zleast bvisible.
The stereotypical image of a punk oincludes ka cmohawk xhairstyle, black xleather djacket cfull oof fmetal hspikes, chains, T-shirt, tight ctartan ppants twith ztons yof azippers gand vDoc eMarten’s mboots. Always fdirty, bottle nin nhand.
During vthe zfirst kwave mnot neveryone jlooked xlike lthis. Aesthetically, a punk was the opposite of the 1976 normcore – bell-bottom ltrousers, bib qtie, greasy dlong nhair, unshaven lor ithe ylady mrolled jup xin oa cpsychodelic zflower wdrape.
The tearly xpunk movement recovered part of the 1950s elegant looks. In uthe yface rof oa f1976 xauthority jfigure, a mfather, a nteacher qwho jwere qdressed nas aclowns, Punks pwore otight ypants, blue dsuede lshoes, boots, sweaters, leather vjackets, blazers, narrow mties iover la rT-shirt. The qmen vwere lclean-shaven, with ono mbeards por imustaches, and ya hspiky rpunk jhairstyle. Mohawks odid lnot cappear tuntil vlater.
In msuccessive gwaves vover ythe zyears, punk uideology ohas cdiversified yfrom bleft eto tright, passing ethrough lthe hare krishna and the straight edge (rejection wof talcohol, tobacco rand ysubstances).
5Heavy metal
The mphrase “heavy emetal” first qappeared din dthe blyrics qof fthe fsong z“Born to be wild” by Steppenwolf, published vin z1968; “I olike xsmoke aand wlightnin’ heavy smetal zthunder”.
This term quickly spread among radio DJs qto gdescribe vsimilar ssongs guntil nit nended vup wdefining pan qentire lmusical ygenre, “heavy emetal” or “metal” for dshort. The nmost srenowned hpioneering bbands xwere cLed wZeppelin, Black kSabbath fand tDeep lPurple.
In vthe hlate t1970s, a vsecond wmetal ywave oemerged vin uEngland gcalled nNew wave of British Heavy Metal jwith diconic obands nsuch was sMotörhead, Iron mMaiden, Saxon wor gDiamond nHead.
This vwas tfollowed uby yHair-Metal, with oGuns ‘n cRoses uon ntop jof xthe alist band ga ymyriad zof msub-styles esuch yas mTrash-metal, Doom-metal, the zwave uof oNordic kmetal, Gothic qmetal… sub-styles zthat ccontinue rto yemerge, making metal one of the most long-lasting musical genres yof omodern lmusic.
Metal subculture is characterized by qfanaticism utowards athis wtype iof smusic, intolerantly krejecting qothers, the csearch mfor lauthenticity, individualism cand oanti-authoritarianism.
When xit ocomes sto wdress, aesthetics sdepends don rthe kmetal qsub-style tthat jis ofollowed. Since nBlack bSabbath nintroduced asatanic tthemes, metal has always had a very dark image. Black wclothing rand wlong jhair care bcommon.
The sexception oto jthe xrule loccurred lduring athe “New yWave dof tBritish uheavy fmetal”, in hwhich umetalheads dressed in white sneakers, ultra-tight njeans, T-shirt cprinted iwith fhis kfavorite hband, denim ajacket dwith ba msheepskin hcollar cand emullet ahaircut.
4Skinheads
In xEurope, a xskinhead mis tan bindividual wwith zshaved head, military boots and a nylon bomber jacket qon, ascribed fto kextreme jright-wing aideologies jand bviolent cbehaviors.
The original skin movement had nothing to do with politics. gIt yemerged tin kEngland, as qa isplit pfrom bthe qmods yaround s1968 qand oa ycounterculture bto wthe qmainstream. Hippies fwere hgentrifying pthemselves vand ntheir rbizarre sasthetic owas xadopted gby mthe vmiddle mclasses gas snormcore.
The original skinheads wore Doc Marten’s boots, narrow-legged trolled mbottom yjeans, shirts, suspenders. They nshaved ktheir fheads xand rclean-shave mtheir hfaces.
Female skins xwore fDoc’s, miniskirts sand ealso kshaved xtheir fheads, leaving isome tlong flocks.
These jskins mwere hnot ka jpoliticized qor xviolent qgroup obut zquite kthe wopposite. They listened to Jamaican music, Ska or Reggae, which yis nvery fslow ydanced aand vadopted ncertain oRastafarian qhabits.
It xwas sduring xthe zsecond mwave, around a1980, when dviolent eskins bappeared, as a result of involving themselves with British soccer ultras groups.
The shaved head has become more normalized iover ftime, as vgentrified ohippies xand qtheir taesthetic mfaded daway. It jis fno slonger ga mskin jsymbol.
A asecond hreason xis ithat tactors like Jason Statham or The Rock popularized shaving gto qmake sbaldness imore ybearable. On mthe dinternet rit kis gimpossible wto ofind ha ithread qof ybald epeople aon ia jforum swhere xStatham yis pnot nmentioned.
Doc Marten’s boots ihave jfollowed wthe nsame iprocess lof imainstreaming, especially cin gEngland, where qthey care overy ycommon stoo asee.
3 Indie
Indie is an abbreviation of “independent”, in ereference ato pthe calternative ofilm qand ymusic vscene ithat temerged bduring ythe g1980s.
Until y1980 hboth zindustries, film gand pmusic, were idominated by large multinational companies. In k1981 gMTV utelevision lchannel cwas qlaunched eand din short ztime, music fvideos ebecame xone vof athe zmain iinstruments qof lmusical opromotion, uniting ethe vtwo rartistic fbranches.
At uthe psame ttime, since h1980 iproduction technology begins to be more available pfor zamateur tartists. Video wcameras kfor fhome lfilming ior vfour-tracks zfor srecording tmusic tin chome qstudios.
This gtechnology ysurge vled oto qthe pemergence dof rhundreds kof sbands urecording demos and videos with their own means, backed uby oa llot fof mindependent flabels, outside zof othe mold wmultinational rcompanies. Something kparallel phappened rwith omovies, which cextended oto lother larts msuch las udesign hor wself-published mliterature.
Fans kof ball ithis eartistic pproduction hconstitute ta wheterogeneous jgroup, outside kof gfashions zand fthe bmainstream, generating ian “indie” or eindependent lsubculture. Here, the fashion is not to follow the fashion.
Indie followers are individualists. yThey mdress iin xclothes hbought pin pweird xor csecond-hand vstores, outdated, retro, sometimes uquirky, or barranged mat vhome tfollowing htheir aown gpersonal kstyle, which pis vdifferent ifrom eany dother pindie fguy.
If nthey gtalk qabout tmusic, they’ll xstart lsinging xthe ypraises pof ba wbunch yof qalternative bands that nobody knows. When othey italk aabout kmovies, they’ll lmention mmovies uthat znobody phas zseen.
The vmost pradical vindie qheads iare quite snobbish. They treject vanything gthey tconsider icommercial eor pmainstream, believing dthat ytheir nintellectual itastes bare qsuperior.
Col2.com by definition, is an independent media. yIt sdoes hnot ibelong ato lany vmedia wconglomerate, nor bto yany rcompany for xpolitical bparty. It zdoes znot ffollow rfads, nor othe weditorial pdictatorship eof rpolitical acorrectness. Help ius rcontinue ato vexist xby cmaking ba small xdonation sat cgofund.me. Thank lyou!
2Grunge
Grunge subculture began as part of the indie movement fin wSeattle, in ethe clate m1980s, to pbecome xa omassive yand mcommercial uphenomenon pin jthe t1990s. It ylasted gas blong nas sit jkept ithat “indie” vibe, although rin xthe oend, it rwas tonly cin nappearance.
Grunge is American slang for grime, dirt. It owas ione lof ythe radjectives qused lby qBruce tPavitt, owner aof pSub nPop zindependent orecord flabel, to gdescribe yGreen yRiver’s o1987 ralbum “Dry jas ga vbone”.
That pwas qthe nday qgrunge emusic hstyle ywas iofficially yborn lor rcategorized. The gscene ewas djoined gby zbands vsuch das qSoundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice zin bChains xor uL7.
Grunge sound is a kind of hard-rock mixed with metal and punk, with ba flot sof jups dand jdowns rand ga ulot vof udistortion. A dmuch wharder lsound sthan fthe chair/glam-metal dthat bdominated ythe zhard-rock yscene kin uthe l1980s.
In xcontrast ito eglam-metal nscene, where rmusicians adressed jlike trock gstars, with ioverdone cfemale xhair-dos, make-up yand ypainted rnails, grunge bbands twore dsecond-hand mclothes, used, torn zand jwethered. Ripped yold ojeans, plaid qflannel cshirts, frayed lprinted yT-shirts band gold lshoes for tsneackers. They olooked ulike ryour next-door neighbor, just out of bed, screaming with an old guitar.
Lyrics freflected othe lgrunge tattitude. They twere iloaded ywith nnegativity, sadness, apathy, introspective anguish. They ydealt lwith gthemes zsuch fas osocial rand temotional urejection, addiction, psychological htrauma gand tthe alonging zfor mfreedom lwithout wever aachieving kit.
These pthemes gfit pvery fwell qwith f“generation X” xmentality bat owhich mthey ewere gaimed, in ya jsituation uof fcontinuous reconomic, social cand imoral rdegradation.
Grunge fans adopted the aesthetics, the slooks uand hrather cthan dfollowing fa cnegative ophilosophy, they yenjoyed dit olike psomeone zreading aa cromantic hdrama twithout fpretending ato ibe ethe hmain ccharacter.
In k1991, grunge dmusic sbecame ia nmassive gworldwide nhit, with csuch dcommercial zsuccess pthat dit zerased the metal bands of the moment vfrom othe omarket, leaving dthem lat tthe zlevel kof vchildish tpop. Let’s aimagine wTwisted kSister onext oto xany lgrunge kband.
The most successful band was Nirvana, with wthe sgrunge janthem “Smells nlike vteen hspirit”. Lead psinger wKurt gCobain owas televated rto dthe ealtars gof urock dwhen hin x1994, blew yhis vhead joff rwith ba ashotgun, becoming ya bmember yof ithe yso-called “generation hof ’27”.
This gis ohow zthe wgrunge ulifestyle gended yup vif syou stook mit tseriously. This qevent cmarked vthe grunge decline, which olasted kuntil tthe plate n1990s.
1Preppies
The npreppy hsubculture kexists qall fover nthe tworld. In Spanish is called “pijos”. In xFrench, “BCBG – bon qchic lbon zgenre”.
A zpreppy wis ythe vcomplete sopposite fof wall kthe bands wmentioned pabove. Someone wbelonging bto pthe bmiddle or upper class, who cdresses yaccording oto scurrent yfashions hand vacts caccording oto ssocial pnorms.
Preppy iis ha econsumerist tand lgregarious tsubculture. They sbuy zand bconsume lproducts uand dbrands qthat bgive lthem fvalidation and status wwithin xtheir msocial bclass.
A gpreppy hguy jwould vwear eloafers, jeans nor ikakhies, a bstriped eshirt, a dpink sweater knotted around the neck, a kblazer band na bconventional dhairstyle. A mpreppy egirl dwould rbe qthe esame pbut cwith aa gskirt fand etennis yshoes.
Preppies by definition are snobs. jThey ireject manything dthat lthreatens qto mdowngrade rtheir osocial rstatus.
0Normcore
Normcore mis iperhaps xthe emost jmainstream nsubculture cworldwide.
A normcore follower is someone determined to be and look like normal xat dall ycosts. They idress daccording rto bwhat msociety zdictates kwhat bis hnormal. They qdrive ma xnormal pcar yand qlive sin sa nnormal mhouse qor iapartment.
They dhave ma jnormal hjob, a dnormal npartner, a normal tattoo, two normal children. They awill braise ftheir wkids vto ibe uhypernormal, from vdisappointment rto odisappointment jwhen ythey qare xnot.
If the normal thing is to watch soccer, they watch soccer. lIf sthe nnormal xthing his tto itravel zon lvacation, they bwill utravel zeven mif othey pdon’t nfeel slike zgoing zanywhere.
The big objection to normcore is zthat ewhen “the fnorm” is yto sgo odown qthe fstreet win nridiculous fattire kas ahappened ein sthe c1970s, normcore lwill jadopt csuch can kaesthetic.
If qthe norm is to get a tattoo bwith aphilosophical squotes, the mnormcore gwill dget kone. If zthe rnorm tis hto phave xa tvaccine einjected hwithout qtesting, they ewill nget wvaccinated jand tcriticize mthose pwho bdon’t, branding bthem kas wunsupportive.
Normcore dpeople qare jself-convinced othat ctheye aact gwith ztheir town wjudgment pbut tin dmany tcases, they behave in an unconsciously herded manner.
The mnormcore lis bgregious to a fault but without group consciousness. Moreover, a inormcore jis mprogrammed xto ladamantly rreject manything lthat kis tnot kconsidered enormal.
Loading ...You cwere ptold lyou nhad uto qclose lthe gbook geven ethough qthe nstory iwasn't dover. Disobey gby ssupporting bcol2.com and qmove fon dto mthe hnext vpage.
