Lesson 8-Youth Subcultures

LESSON 8: YOUTH SUBCULTURES
OBJECTIVE/S:
1. Youth Subcultures:
A. Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (BCCCS)
-Clarke et al (1976)
-Jefferson (1976)
B. Dick Hebdige (1976, 1979)

1. YOUTH SUBCULTURES
1.1 Studies on Youth Subcultures:
A. Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS)
• Features:
1. Adopted a neo-Marxist approach
2. Hall et al (1976): Resistance through rituals
-youth subcultures develops as a creative response to class situation
3. Clarke et al (1976): a. Cultures and material life
-people see the world according to their maps of meaning
o Such maps and associated cultures change over time, not at
will, but according to experiences, material circumstances &
pre-existing cultures
-culture of dominant groups are more powerful, but not to the extent
where it dominates the society as a whole
A. BIRMINGHAM CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES
1.2 Features (cont.):
3. Clarke et al (1976):
b. Hegemony (based on Gramsci)
-In their quest for hegemony, powerful classes are in a state of constant
struggle against competing ideologies
-Classes also struggle over material & social life
-Subordinate cultures try to win space, making room for their own
distinctive lifestyles, values & institutions
c. Youth subcultures
-Expression of a distinctive group’s attempt at maintaining/winning
autonomy and creating distinctive style
-Characterised by homology (objects & styles chosen fit meanings they
are expressing) & authenticity (genuine, not a media product)
A. BIRMINGHAM CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES
1.3 Youth culture-The case of the Teddy Boys

• Jefferson (1976)
-Teddy boys emerged as attempt to create sense of WC community + to reclaim
their ‘territory’
o Unskilled WC youth felt undermined & threatened by urban planning &
growing presence of minority ethnic groups in their neighbourhood
-Identifying features: Edwardian-style jacket, bootlace ties & suede shoes
o Seen as an attempt to buy status & image of living by their wits
• Clarke et al
-Teddy boys seen as the struggle of youth for cultural hegemony, borne out of
class cultures
o Attempt at challenging & resisting dominant ideologies, but without
really threatening them
o Distinctive lifestyle is an expression of resistence
TEDDY BOYS-1950’S YOUTH SUBCULTURE
B. HEBDIGE (1976, 1979)-SUBCULTURE: THE MEANING OF STYLE
1.4 Subculture and Style

• Combination of class and semiotics to understand subcultures
• Attached strong importance on meaning of signs

-Youth subcultures have their own style and transform everyday
objects, adding new (secret) meanings to them
o Meanings are expressed in codes, and represent defiance
against society, e.g.,
1. Teddy boys: Edwardian suits & pointed boots
2. Punks: safety pins & ripped jeans
More example of youth subcultures are to follow

1.5 Skinheads and Mods

1.5 Skinheads and Mods (cont.)

• Skinheads:
-wore ‘cropped hair, braces, short, wide Levi jeans or functional Sta-prest trousers,
plain or stripped button-down Ben Sherman shirts and highly polished Marten boots’
o Image/appearance: the ‘hard’ WC manual man
• Mods:
-Adopted a respectable appearance, akin to the MC
o Dress and style were actually different from most MC people. They
depicted affinity to black people, had liking for discotheques, record shops
etc
o Wearing of collar, suit & tie, but indulging in a different lifestyle to that of
the MC actually disrupted their conventional meanings
-wore conservative suits in respectable colours, but had a style reflecting affinity
with black people
1.6 Black Subcultures

• Black subcultures developed with the coming of the first immigrants from
the West Indies
• Aspired to succeed in Britain
-Adopted smart & conventional dress
• Hopes of integrating British society were dashed
-Racism & high levels of unemployment
o Rise of Rastafarianism in the 1970’s
• Rastafarianism represented black people’s
alienation and identity
o Wore simple clothes with an African
feel & ‘army clothes’ (see picture)
The Rastafari community

1.7 Punk
• Drew some meaning from reggae and
Rastafarianism
Evidence:
-incorporating reggae rhythms into
their music
-wearing the colours of the Rastafarians
-rebuffing of their British identity (e.g., through music, Sex Pistols)
• Attacked the conventional music industry and glamorous artists
-Aimed at breaking down the demarcation between performer and audience
o celebrated amateur music/performance
• Contrary to Rastafarians, punks did not carry the promise of redemption nor of a better
future
1.7 Punks (cont)
• Punk subculture signified chaos at every level
-Strongly against racism
-Ability to detach symbols from their conventional meanings
o Evidence: Swastika symbol was used in a way that it was detached
from its conventional meaning of Nazism
• ‘Triumph of the signifier over the signified’: meaning is derived more from the
position of the person using it (parole) than derived from the overall structure of
language (langue)
• Hebdige also draws from Marxism and connects it with semiology

-Subcultures is seen as a form of resistence
o Ruling class ideology is challenged
o Acts as an alternative source of ideas
EVALUATION OF BCCCS & HEBDIGE
• Exaggeration of importance of class as opposed to other social divisions
• Postmodernists consider that:

-social divisions do not actually matter in a consumer society
-distinctive subcultures do not necessarily exist
• Conventional Marxists: Importance of the economic base has not been

considered to its fullest extent by neo-Marxists of the BCCCS
• Hebdige did not carry out in-depth interviews with members of subcultures to
cross-check whether his views actually correspond
-Postmodernists argue that subculture is no more relevant for describing
today’s youth
EVALUATION OF CCCS & HEBDIGE (CONT.)
• Bennett & Kahn-Harris (2004):
-Arbitrary for CCCS to assume that members of the subcultures were
necessarily of WC backgrounds
-CCCS failed to consider ethnicity and locality as influences on formation of

subcultures
-Little analysis offered on those not forming part of any subculture, and
why subcultures attract some WC youth, but not the others
-Exaggeration by CCCS on extent to which youth subcultures are in

opposition to mainstream culture
-Gender bias

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What are some of the major youth subcultures discussed in the document?

What are some of the major youth subcultures discussed in the document?

What are some of the approaches used to study youth subcultures according to the document?

What are some of the approaches used to study youth subcultures according to the document?

LESSON 8: YOUTH SUBCULTURES

B. Dick Hebdige (1976, 1979)

1.3 Youth culture-The case of the Teddy Boys

1.4 Subculture and Style

• Attached strong importance on meaning of signs

More example of youth subcultures are to follow

1.5 Skinheads and Mods

1.5 Skinheads and Mods (cont.)

1.6 Black Subcultures

The Rastafari community

• Hebdige also draws from Marxism and connects it with semiology

• Exaggeration of importance of class as opposed to other social divisions

• Postmodernists consider that:

• Conventional Marxists: Importance of the economic base has not been

-CCCS failed to consider ethnicity and locality as influences on formation of

-Exaggeration by CCCS on extent to which youth subcultures are in

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