XXth century youth subcultures

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

XX^th century youth subcultures

D.Y. Bendas

a 4^th year student, Faculty of History,

I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University

Since the XX ^th century, with young people all over the world it has become rather popular to refer themselves to a particular subculture. At first sight it might seem that it is a “mainstream”.

Today around the world there is such a big variety of youth subcultures. All of them definitely impact on personality of young people forming their values, norms of behavior, life orientation and outlook. Our society is always changing, improving production, creating new equipment and new technology. These things can't help influence the culture of population. Our society is constantly changing, improving production, created new equipment, new technology. All these things impact our culture and people. New generation doesn't satisfy any longer old standards and principles it aims to find more effective ideology. The reason for the formation of subcultures in society is the need to “escape”, and thus to oppose the dominant, official culture. While looking for solutions people find that they are not alone with the same problems, and therefore, begin realizing what kind of subculture they can identify themselves with [1].

Hippie Subculture (Hippy can be translated as “the understanding person or that who knows”) appeared in the United States in the late 1950s. The subculture received the name from the slang phrase of the 60s: “to be hip” means to be up to date. The exact cause of Hippie subculture is unknown. Perhaps it was the result of American economic growth, industrial development as well as high rate of life did not satisfy everyone, especially young people. Perhaps the cause of Hippie was aggressive policy of the USA which yielded in the Caribbean crisis and the war in Vietnam. It was a real revolt in the country against the policy and an old order. In calling for radical changes in society they united in communes. But it was a peaceful protest. Hippies promoted “peace in the world”, “free love” and rejection from wealth. Hippies' main slogan is “Make love, not war!” Hippies, who called themselves “children of flowers”, advocated nuclear and military disarmament, cessation of all wars, including the Vietnam War, the movement for human rights, for a healthy lifestyle, naturalness and unity with nature. Hippies' movement had its own style. Hippies wore long hair, took drugs (mostly cannabis and LSD), listening to rock and roll. The traditional symbol of Hippie movement of the 60-s -70-sbecame Foltsvagen minibus, which they painted in bright colors Another symbol of the movement was a “Pacific” or as it is called “bird foot” [2].

Punks (from English: Punk means a crazy young man, independent and extreme) is youth subculture, a generation of young people on the rock stage (mid 70's). They expressed protest against any moral and customary rules which reflected primarily on the character of their music such as punk rock. The viewers were shocked with performers' appearance as in their style there was always some dirtiness and negligence [40]. The term “punk” came to the Ukrainian language from English where it has many meanings (“rotten wood”, “rubbish” and so on). In the late 60's, when actually originated punk movement, the journalists name called so the young people who stood at its source. They believed that such a degrading word will reduce the popularity of this movement. But this did not happen, and the word stuck in that time vocabulary. Punk culture originated in Britain and America, and quickly became popular among young people in other countries around the world.

The name of the famous American artist Andy Warhol and his group `Velvet Underground' is closely associated with punk rock. A popular American band `Ramones' was the first group that played music in the style of “punk rock”. The first British punk band was `Sex Pistols'. Punks immediately stood out from the crowd. Ideologist of their appearance was an English designer Vivien Westwood, who gave punk attributes to masses and the fashion industry. Punks made significant impact on hairdressing by dying hair with bold bright colors and asymmetrical hairstyles. A British band `The Exploited' introduced Fashion for Iroquois. Punk clothes were convenient: T-shirt (often black), jacket (usually black leather jackets), jeans, sneakers or heavy shoes. Among the accessories there were fashion chains and studs on clothing, studded wristlets, badges and patches with the names of groups or political slogans. Punks tended not only to neglect the rules, but to break and destroy everything. Also punks totally did not follow the personal hygiene, in fact, they denied it completely.

The concept of anarchic system in the sense of punk subculture representatives lies in a society that refused state control. Punks believed that people could organize their lives based on mutual trust and respect, but it provided personal responsibility of each member of society. They believed that anarchy could become reality if people controled themselves, which meant responsibility, availability of law within itself.

Goths (from English: Gothic i.e. barbaric, rude) - subculture that originated in the late 70s in the UK. It was based on punk movement. The development of gothic subculture is associated with weakening of punk influence in Britain in the late 70s.. Several groups turned to a new genre, called “post-punk” by changing their sound to more depressed. The starting point in history of gothic subculture is considered to be in 1979, due to the release of the song “Bela Lugosi's Dead” of the post-punk band `Bauhaus' [3]. Before 1981 it was possible to say that around these groups a new youth movement formed and it mainly constituted of admirers of those musicians who had adopted from them some elements of the image. Perhaps the most important date for the gothic subculture is considered to be 1982 which marked the opening of the famous club `Batcave', thus some sociologists believe that this event determined the date of the subculture. That year, the band `The Cure' released the album Pornography. Modern researchers believe that it was one of the peaks of early gothic music. Since the early 1990s, Gothic subculture has established itself as a “scene” i.e. were recorded first musical compilations and at the same time it undergone considerable distortion, faced with the influx of new participants who had no idea about its nature and history. The desire to preserve the spirit of the movement led to the departure of the Goths into the underground. Many of them (including the famous musicians) even refused to call themselves Goths, assuming that the term was too severely compromised. This trend remains till today. 1995 can be considered a turning point, this time the movement just stopped to shock and surprise, it actually integrated into the Western society and it became more or less a routine. During the 1990s and 2000s subculture underwent splitting, i.e. split from the movement of several regional areas, often the opposite oriented, as well as interpenetration of musical genres; as a result today the concept of “Goths” can vary greatly. Appearance, clothes and shoes, hairstyle, attributes are one of the most important components of gothic subculture. Gothic fashion legislators were musicians whose appearance was guided by their fans. At the early stage of the gothic subculture there were some typical elements of punk image. The main components of modern gothic image are the predominance of black clothing, the use of metal or silver jewelry with Gothic symbols and dark makeup. The typical attributes of the Goths are ankh (ancient Egyptian symbol of immortality), crosses (including Celtic), images of bats and symbols of death [5].

Metalist is subculture inspired by music in the style of metal. It appeared in the 1980s. Subculture is popular in northern Europe, and it is quite common in North America; it has a large number of fans in South America, southern Europe and Japan. The term which often refers to the whole “gravity” - metal - came from quite distant from the music of the spheres. For the first time in the cultural context, the phrase “heavy metal” was used in the novel “Naked Lunch” (1959) by legendary William Burroughs. He named so a tough, aggressive, and energetic music. Metalists had blatantly aggressive appearance: black clothes with plenty of metal images of skull, and blood. Clothes were clean and neat. Classic metalists wore tight black jeans tucked into high boots or leather jackets with oblique zipper, earring in the left ear, rings depicting skulls or other black magic. But their external aggression and gloom is often a way of shocking people around them. Those older than 25 are engaged in serious work but sometimes there can be hooliganism with those who are younger. Unlike Goths and Punks, subculture of metalheads was devoid of pronounced ideology and focused mainly around music. However, there are some features that are considered characteristic of the representatives of this subculture. The texts of metal bands promote independence, autonomy and self-confidence, the cult of “strong personality”. The attitude to religion is different. Despite the large number of religious mysticism and occult texts in metal bands, they do not usually have missionary nature. Among the fans of black metal there are pagans and Satanists.

Skinheads are members of the subculture that emerged among the working class and young people in the United Kingdom in 1969 and then spread to other parts of the world. They were named after cropped or shaved bald head. The first skinheads were heavily dependent on the West Indies (including Jamaica) rude boys in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle. First subculture was based on these elements, not politics and race. The political spectrum of the far-right skinheads ranges to the far left, although many skinheads are apolitical. Skinheads of the late 60's were product of fashion culture that had developed under the strong influence of Jamaican culture that came to England immigrants. Mods, in turn, came from the working class. Thrre was a special mod style of the British young in the mid 60's of XX ^th century. Mods dressed very neatly, wore expensive suits. In the late 60's skinheads became the mainstream. Bald heads were everywhere. In the evening, the Ganges of skinheads clashed in the streets. All were young and really happy. 1969 is considered to be the highest point. The second wave of skin movement began in Britain in the late 70's. This was the impetus to punk rock. It was music that turned punk with campuses outside. In the early 90's, there was another increase in traffic. Many young people used opportunity to buy the instrument and create a group. Thanks to the emergence of the Internet, it was possible to find friends in different parts of the world. This provided confidence that you are not alone, that you are doing the right thing. In addition, older group did not disappear; they continued carrying the same ideas to the masses.

The effect of subculture should be considered from various aspects, both positive and negative ones. Firstly, subculture influences the development of creative teenagers. It is here that young people can realize themselves as creative individuals. However, some subcultures are oriented to criminal groups where there is cult of force. The representatives of these subcultures often demonstrate passive protest against the adult world and rejection of generally human norms and rules of conduct. That is why the theme of youth is often connected with negative associations such as alcoholism, drug addiction, absence of spirituality, and asocial lack of morality.

References

youth subculture attribute

1. Brake M. The sociology of youth Culture and youth subcultures / M. Brake. - 1985. - 204 p.

2. Roszak T. Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic / T. Roszak. - Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. - 310 p.

3. Культурологія: Навчальний посібник для студентів вищих навчальних закладів I-IV рівнів акредитації / Ред. В.М. Пічі - Львів, 2003. - 298 с.

4. Любчич О. Панки як культура чи її відсутність / О. Любчич // День. - 2010. - № 28.

5. Щепанская Т.Б. Символика молодежной субкультуры: Опыт этнографического исследования системы 1986-1989 гг. - СПб.: Наука, 1993. - 340 с.

Размещено на Allbest.ru