Lecture Seven: Subculture - The Meaning of Style

"Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges but they must end by establishing new conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries or rejuvenating old ones" 

- Hebdige, D (1979) 

Mods and Punks

This quote has perfectly summed up what was discussed in today's lecture. We took a look at subcultures in Britain and what it meant to be part of a subculture. I've discovered that different subcultures were basically defined by their style (not fashion) and the clothes they wore, the music they listened to and what they did. To me that seems to be the only differences between the different subcultures, for instance 'Mods' were typically defined by The Who, Scooters to show that they were independent, and getting high of off amphetamines and and dancing all night in clubs (to name generic examples) where as Punks for example listened to punk music (Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, etc.), wore a wide range of clothing items including offensive t-shirts, leather jackets decorated with large spikes or metal studs, Dr. Martens boots and converse and would often dye their hair bright colours and have it spiked up or in a Mohawk. A common punk's viewpoint was to not conform and not to sell out.

Fred Perry Presents 'Subculture' - The Unique Story of British Music & Street Style

We watched the above video which explained how different subcultures came about and what they consisted of, as well as how each of them evolved and what it meant to be a part of each subculture. For instance the 'Skinhead' subculture originated in the 1960s and was influenced by West Indian 'Rude Boys' and British mods in terms of how they dressed, music and lifestyle. This died out around the early 70s, but was later re-adopted to be racially-motivated and violent. By the late 1970s the Skinhead subculture was largely viewed as the one to promote racism and neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

Other subcultures that were mentioned in the film were; Teddy boys, Mods, Punks, Rude Boy, Skinhead, Ravers (AKA Soulies), Rockers.

Lecture Notes

Influences on Animation:
John Holmstrom is an American cartoonist and writer, who is best known for being the founding editor of Punk Magazine and illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums 'Rocket to Russia' and 'Road to Ruin', The Ramones being an American punk rock band that were often cited as being the first band to define the 'punk rock' sound.

Ramones Album Covers by john Holmstrom

Though they weren't animated, you can clearly see how the punk culture has influenced the character design in these covers, or at least how the style of punk has been captured, with ripped jeans and studded jackets, with bold bright titles.