The history of subcultures

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Introduction

Music occupies an important place in our daily lives. When we draw an analogy between music and sport, in the sense that they both involve practice and performance, we get a clearer picture of who we are, and of the social, moral ideals that show our life. Music is the most influential factor of life since the beginning of our civilization. We sing when we are happy or when we are sad, we sing when there is war or when there is peace. Music is the most ancient form of self-expressing; real musicians tell us their private emotions, secret thoughts and give us their souls with the melody. Young people hear their own lives in those songs, poverty, divorced parents, and abuse, there is no place to go and music becomes their shelter. So, they buy all those records just to escape into a feeling of not being alone. Artists become the heroes of everyday life.

The idea of my creative work is to know more about music life, about different music styles and subculture; analyze what music styles do the people from different countries prefer and to learn how does music and subcultures influence for people in general; how can it change the views for life.

As understood in sociology, a subculture is a set of people with a different set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture as a whole of which they are a part of. The subculture may be individual because of the age of its members, or by their race, ethnicity, class and/or gender, and the qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be aesthetic, religious, political, and sexual or a combination of these factors. Subcultures are often defined by their opposition to the values of the larger culture to which they belong, although this definition is not universally agreed on by theorists. Members of a subculture will often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style. Therefore, the study of subculture often consists of the study of the symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of the subculture, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture.

More simply, subcultures are groups of individuals who, through a variety of methods (conspicuous clothing and ostentatious behavior), present themselves in opposition to the mainstream trends of the mainstream culture that they are a part of. It may also be difficult to identify subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may often be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles which are alien to the mainstream.

The History of Subcultures

1900-World War I

In the early part of the 20th century, subcultures were mostly informal groupings of like-minded individuals. The Bloomsbury group in London was one example, providing a place where the diverse talents of people like Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, and E.M. Forster could interact.

Other pre-World War I subcultures were smaller, social groupings of hobbyists or a matter of style and philosophy amongst artists and bohemian poets.

World War I

Hairstyles at the beginning of the century were not strict unless you were in a religious order or other controlled circumstances (the military or prison). Both men and women regarded long hair as normal. Men and women had, after all, always had long hair, since prehistory.

Because of the world war, though, everything changed: the wartime trenches were infested with lice and fleas, so soldiers were forced to shave their heads. As a result men with short hair appeared to have been at the front in the war, while men with long hair might be thought of as pacifists and cowards, even suspected of desertion.

1920s and 1930s

In the 1920s, American Jazz music and motor cars were at the centre of a European subculture which began to break the rules of social etiquette and the class system In America, the same flaming youth subculture was "running wild" but with the added complication of alcohol prohibition. In the southern United States, Mexico and Cuba were popular with drinkers. Thus, a drinking subculture grew in size and a crime subculture grew along with it. Other drugs were used as alternatives to alcohol. When prohibition ended, the subculture of drink, drugs and jazz did not disappear, and neither did the gangsters.

1940s

Avant-garde artists like Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall fled Europe following the outbreak of World War II. These artists arrived in the United States, where a subculture of surrealism and avant-garde experimentation developed in New York City, becoming the new centre of the art world.

In post-war America, folk songs and cowboy songs were beginning to be more popular with a wider audience. A subculture of rural jazz and blues fans had mixed elements of jazz and blues into traditional cowboy and folk song styles to produce a crossover called western swing. Thanks to the prevalence of radio, this music spread across the United States in the 1940s. Radio was the first almost instantaneous mass media with the power to create large subcultures by spreading the ideas of small subcultures across a wide area.

1950s

The Existentialists had a profound influence upon subcultures development. Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus transferred their French resistance underground campaign to the context of a cultural revolution and the American beat scene joined the movement. The importance on freedom of the individual influenced the beats in America and Britain and this version of existential bohemianism continued through the 1950s and into the 1960s under the guise of the beat generation. Beards and longer hair returned in another attempt at returning to the image of peacetime man and the normality which had existed before the two wars. At the same time, as a result of American post-war prosperity, a new identity emerged for youth subculture: the teenager.

Jazz culture was transformed, by way of Rhythm and Blues into Rock and Roll culture. At the same time, jazz culture itself continued but changed into a more respected form, no longer necessarily associated with wild behaviour and criminality.

As American rock and roll arrived in the United Kingdom, a subculture grew around it. Some of the British post-war street youths hanging around bombsites in urban areas and getting drawn into petty crime began to dress in a variation of the zoom suit style called a drape suit, with a country style bootlace tie, drainpipe trousers, and Elvis Presley style slicked hair. These youths were called Teddy boys. For day-to-day wear there was a trend toward girls wearing slacks or jeans. At the time, the idea of girls wearing trousers and boys taking time over their hairstyle was socially shocking to many people. British youth divided into factions. There were the modern jazz kids, the trade jazz kids, the rock and roll teenagers. Coffee bars were a meeting place for all the types of youth and the coolest ones were said to be in Soho, London.

1960s

In the 1960s, the beats grew to be an even larger subculture, spreading around the world. Other 1960s subcultures included radicals, rockers, bikers, hippies and the freak scene. In the USA, the hippies' big year was 1967, the so-called summer of love. The mod subculture began with a few cliques of trendy teenage boys in London, England in the late 1950s, but was at its most popular during the early 1960s. Many of them rode scooters.

Subcultures were often based on socializing and wild behavior, but some of them were centred around politics. In the United States, these included the Black Panthers and the Yippies. Allen Ginsberg took part in several protest movements, including those for gay rights and those against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. The Hacker culture was beginning to form in the 1960s, due to the increased usage of computers at colleges and universities. Students who were fascinated by the possible uses of computers and other technologies began figuring out ways to make technology more freely accessible. The international anti-art movement Fluxus also had its beginnings in the 1960s, evolving out of the Beat subculture.

1970s

In the 1970s, the hippie, mod and rocker cultures were in a process of transformation which temporarily took on the name of freaks. Computer usage was still a very inaccessible secret world to most people in those days but lots of people were interested in computers because of their appearance in science fiction. The dream of one day owning a computer was a popular fantasy amongst science fiction fandom which had grown from a minor subculture in the first half of the 20th century to a quite large contingent by the 1970s, along with horror fandom, comics fandom and fantasy freaks. Skinhead culture from the late 1960s continued into the 1970s, and some skinheads became influenced by the punk subculture.

Disco became a really significant centre of subculture from about 1975 onward. However, in some sectors, particularly in the NYC area, where disco had seemingly "taken over" all aspects of youth life from fashion, to behavior, to music, to dance, an aggressive "counter disco" movement was born. Many of the early punks and early punk bands were considered actual lunatics, and incidents of extreme violence against band members and their following occurred, even in the clubs where they had created a community.

They kept the long hair of the freak scene, adopted the black leather jacket as virtually a uniform and took on the name heavy metal. The continuance of hippie ideas of spirituality and mysticism was in the New Age movement, which increased in size and influence.

1980s

At the beginning of the 1980s some of the followers of punk rock began to be bored with it and wanted to make it more stylish and introduce elements of glam. By 1981 this trend had become New Romantics and the music was synthesizer electro-pop.

The clothes style was a return to the freak scene's role play of fashions from previous eras or imagined future ones. It was like using fashion to create a time warp. Other punk rock followers took the genre and culture further underground, where it evolved into a faster, harder genre coined as "Hardcore" or "Hardcore Punk". Post punk and post hippie elements continued and a particular type of anarchist-pacifist subculture centered around the records being put out on the independent

In American urban environments, a form of street culture using freeform and semi-staccato poetry, combined with athletic break dancing, was developing as the Hip hop and Rap subculture. In jazz jargon, the word rap had always meant speech and conversation

1990s

The 1990s saw most of the subcultures of the 1980s continuing in some form or another, such as dance music, raves, pop music, hip hop, rock, goth, punk and hippie.

In the UK, the Britpop scene arose, influenced by the 1960s modes, the 1970s/1980s mod revival, and other British rock music styles. Other popular music genres that gained prominence were grunge, drum and bass, house music, rave, techno, trance music, hardcore and electronic.

The 1990s saw an increase in anti-globalizations protests. The anti-globalization protest movement was accompanied by the fair trade movement.

The Punk Subculture

History of the punk subculture

The history of punk plays important part in the history of subcultures in the 20th century. The punk subculture emerged in the United States England and Australia in the mid-to-late-1970s, and has since undergone several developments.

Punk culture encompasses distinct styles of music, ideology, and fashion, as well as visual art, dance, literature, and film. Punk also lays claim to a lifestyle and community.

The punk scene is composed of an assortment of smaller subcultures, such as hardcore punk and street punk. These subcultures distinguish themselves through unique expressions of punk culture. Several subcultures have developed out of punk to become distinct in their own right, including Goth. The punk movement has had a tumultuous relationship with popular culture and struggles to resist commercialization and appropriation.

Ideology

Punk ideology is concerned with the individual's natural right to freedom, and a less restricted lifestyle. Punk ethics support the role of personal choice in the development of, and pursuit of, greater freedom. Common punk ethics include a radical rejection of conformity, the DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic, direct action for political change, and not selling out to mainstream interests for personal gain.

Punk politics cover the entire political spectrum, although most punks find themselves categorized into left-wing or progressive views. Punks often participate in political protests for local, national or global change. Some common trends in recent punk politics include anarchism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-nationalism, environmentalism, vegetarianism, veganism, and animal rights. Some individuals within the subculture hold right-wing views or other political views conflicting with the aforementioned, though these comprise a minority.

Fashion

Punks seek to outrage propriety with the highly theatrical use of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry and body modification. Punk clothing adapts existing objects for aesthetic effect: previously ripped clothes are held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape, written on with marker or defaced with paint; a black bin liner might become a dress, shirt or skirt. Leather, rubber and vinyl clothing are also common, possibly due to its implied connection with transgress sexual practices, such as bondage and S&M. Some punks wear tight "drainpipe" jeans, brothel creeper shoes, T-shirts with risque images, and possibly leather rocker jackets (often painted with band logos and decorated in studs) and Converse sneakers, skateboarding shoes, or Dr. Martens boots.

Some punks style their hair to stand in spikes, cut it into Mohawks or other dramatic shapes, and color it with vibrant, unnatural hues. Punks will use safety pins and razor blades as jewelry. Punks tend to show their love for a band or idea by pin-back buttons or patches, which adorn their jackets. They sometimes flaunt taboo symbols such as the Iron Cross. Early punks sometimes wore the Nazi swastika for shock-value, but most modern punks are staunchly anti-racist, and will more likely wear a crossed-out swastika symbol.

Also, some punks are decidedly "anti-fashion", saying that the music should define punk and not the fashion. This is most common in hardcore punk.

Music

Music is the most important aspect of punk. Punk music is called punk rock, sometimes shortened to punk. Most punk rock is a specific style of the rock music genre, though punk musicians sometimes incorporate elements from other genres. Punk subcultures often distinguish themselves by having a unique style of punk rock, though not every style of punk rock has its own associated subculture. Most punk rock involves simple arrangements, short songs and lyrics that espouse punk values. Punk rock is usually played in bands, as opposed to solo artists.

Dance

The punk subculture has developed a variety of dancing styles, some which appear chaotic and violent. This has led some punk concerts to look like small-scale riots. The dance styles most associated with punk rock are pogo dancing and moshing (similar to the slam dancing associated with hardcore music). Stage diving and crowd surfing were originally associated with protopunk bands such as The Stooges, and continued to appear at punk, metal and rock concerts. Ska punk promoted an updated version of skanking. Hardcore dancing is a later development influenced by all of these styles.

Lifestyle

Not everyone who plays a hand in the punk movement identifies as a punk. Specific subsets of punk identify with the mainline subculture to varying degrees. Punks are typically white males from working class or middle class backgrounds.

Typically, a punk enters the subculture during the first few years of high school. Many punks continue playing a role in the subculture for several years, and some even make their involvement a lifelong commitment. Although adolescents are the main age group in punk, there are also many adults who hold to the punk mentality, but do not necessarily dress the part. Some punks leave the subculture in favour of the mainstream. Those still in the subculture sometimes regard this apostasy as selling out.

Though punk decries overt sexism, the subculture is largely male-dominated, with the except of the riot girl movement. Since its inception, female punks have always played important roles in the punk subculture, but numerically speaking, they are vastly underrepresented. Compared to some alternative cultures, punk is much closer to being gender equality.

Although the punk subculture is overwhelmingly anti-racist, it is vastly white (especially in Europe and North America), and some fringe punk factions espouse views of white supremacy. These groups are usually treated with hostility by the rest of the subculture. Numerous ethnic minorities have contributed to the development of the subculture, such as Blacks, Latinos, and Asians.

Punks generally come from working class or middle class backgrounds. Some punks hold low-paid jobs or are unemployed. Some are homeless, and some rely on squatting, panhandling, or dumpster diving to survive. Gutter punks and squeegee punks vary in their actual involvement with the punk subculture.

Excesses of substance abuse and violence have always been a part of the punk scene. The subculture has dealt with issues of suicide and self harm since its beginnings. Drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, inhalants, and alcohol have both fueled the movement and plagued it with addiction and overdose. Marijuana and hallucinogens such as psychedelic mushrooms and LSD, though the latter are less common, have found moderate use in the scene. However, later trends in the movement such as the rise of straight edge and proliferation of pacifist strains of anarchy-punk have diminished the presence of drug abuse and violence in the subculture.

The Goth Subculture

Origins and development

The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture prevalent in many countries. It began in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s to early 1980s in the gothic rock scene. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature, mainly through horror movies.

The goth subculture has associated gothic tastes in music and fashion. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all is a tendency towards a “dark” sound and outlook.

By the late 1970s, there were a few post-punk bands in the United Kingdom labeled "gothic." However, it was not until the early 1980s that gothic rock became its own subgenre within post-punk, and that followers of these bands started to come together as a distinctly recognizable movement.

Modern subculture borders

By the 1990s, the term "goth" and the borders of the associated subculture had become more contentious. New youth subcultures became more popular, some of them being conflated with the Goth subculture by the general public and the popular media. This conflation was primarily owing to similarities of appearance, and the fashions of the subcultures, rather than the musical genres of the bands associated with them. As time went on, the term was extended further in popular usage, sometimes to define groups that had neither musical nor fashion similarities to the original gothic subculture.

This has led to the introduction of Goth slang terms that some goths and others use to sort and label associated trends and members of loosely related subcultures. These include mallgoths or neo-goths in the US, cucarachas in Spain, dark in Latin America and Italy, gogans in Australia, hackians in New Zealand and fjortisgoth in Norway and Sweden, and spooky kids, moshers or mini moshers in the UK. More positive terms, such as mini-goths or baby bats, are also used by some older goths to refer to youths whom they see as exhibiting potential for growth into older goths later on. The prevalence of internet-based information regarding Goth has resulted in a distorted and overstated perception of varying slang terms as used in reality and offline, particularly with regard to those terms allegedly used outside of the UK and US.

Gothic ideology

Defining an ideology of the gothic subculture is difficult for several reasons. First is the overwhelming importance of mood for those involved. This is, in part, inspired by romanticism and neoromanticism. The attraction for Goths of dark, mysterious, and morbid imagery and mood lies in the same tradition. The rise of Romanticism's gothic novel during the 19th century saw feelings of horror being commercially exploited as a form of mass entertainment, a process continued in the modern horror film. Balancing this emphasis on mood, the other central element of the subculture is a conscious sense of camp theatricality or self-dramatization.

The second impediment to defining a gothic ideology is Goth's sometimes apolitical nature. While individual defiance of social norms was a very risky business in the nineteenth century, today it is far less socially radical. So, the significance of Goth's subcultural revolution is limited, and it draws on imagery at the heart of Western culture. Unlike the hippie or punk movements, the goth subculture has no pronounced political messages or cries for social activism. The subculture is marked by its emphasis on individualism, tolerance for diversity, a strong emphasis on creativity, tendency toward intellectualism, a dislike of social conservatism and a strong tendency towards cynicism, but even these ideas are not common to all goths. Goth ideology is based far more on aesthetics than ethics or politics.

Gothic music

The bands that began the gothic rock and death rock scene were limited in number, and included Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure, Southern Death Cult, Sex Gang Children, 45 Grave, UK Decay, The Virgin Prunes, Alien Sex Fiend and Christian Death. Joy Division, Dead Can Dance and Killing Joke have also been linked, but there is debate about this.

By the mid-eighties, the number of bands began proliferating and became increasingly popular, including The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission UK, Xmal Deutschland, The Bolshoi and Fields of the Nephilim. The nineties saw the further growth of eighties bands and emergence of many new bands. Factory Records, 4AD Records, and Beggars Banquet Records released much of this music in Europe, while Cleopatra Records amongst others released much of this music in the United States, where the subculture grew especially in New York, Los Angeles, & Orange County, California, with many nightclubs featuring "gothic/industrial" nights. The popularity of 4AD bands resulted in the creation of a similar US label called Projekt Records. This produces what is colloquially termed Ethereal Wave, a subgenre of Darkwave music.

By the mid-1990s, styles of music that were heard in venues that goths attended ranged from gothic rock, death rock, Industrial music, EBM, ambient, experimental, synthpop, shoegazing, punk rock, 1970s glam rock, indie rock, to 1980s dance music. This variety was a result of a need to maximize attendance from everyone across the alternative music scene, particularly in smaller towns, and due to the eclectic tastes of the members of the subculture; but it also signaled new shifts in attitude.

The other significant development of the nineties was the popularity of electronic dance bands such as VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk and Covenant in the goth scene. The rise of what has been called cybergoth music and style, which has much in common with techno/synthpop and EBM, caused bitter divisions between its fans and those firmly attached to the analog and/or guitar based sound of gothic rock. Bands with a darkwave sound or those such as The Cruxshadows, which combine an electronic and gothic rock sound, appeal to both sides to some extent.

Today, the goth music scene thrives most actively in Western Europe, especially Germany, with large festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Zillo (which ceased to be active after 2004), M'era Luna and others draw tens of thousands of fans from all over the world.

20th century influences

The influence of the gothic novel on the Goth subculture can be seen in numerous examples of the subculture's poetry and music, though this influence sometimes came second hand, through the popular imagery of horror films and television. The Byronic hero, in particular, was a key precursor to the male goth image, while Dracula's iconic portrayal by Bela Lugosi appealed powerfully to early goths. They were attracted by Lugosi's aura of camp menace, elegance and mystique. Some people even credit the band Bauhaus' first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released August 1979, , with the start of the goth subculture, though many prior art house movements also influenced gothic fashion and style. A notable early example was Siouxsie Sioux, of the musical group Siouxsie and the Banshees. Some members of Bauhaus were, themselves, fine art students and/or active artists.

The concept of the femme fatale, which appeared in Romantic literature, film noir, as well as in the gothic novel, went on to become a vital image for female goths. In cinema, the femme fatale style adopted by silent movie actress Theda Bara exerted a lasting influence. Bara was nicknamed the vamp, and her first name was an anagram for "death". She established the look for pale predatory women in later films, which ultimately influenced the Goth subculture.

Film poster for The Hunger, a key influence in the early days of the Goth subculture

Some of the early gothic rock and death rock artists adopted traditional horror movie images, and also drew on horror movie soundtracks for inspiration. Their audiences responded in kind by further adopting appropriate dress and props. Use of standard horror film props like swirling smoke, rubber bats, and cobwebs were used as gothic club decor from the beginning in The Batcave. Such references in their music and image were originally tongue-in-cheek, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously. As a result, morbid, supernatural, and occult themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by The Hunger, a 1983 vampire film, which starred David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. The movie featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a nightclub. In 1993, Whitby became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of being featured in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Throughout the evolution of the goth subculture, familiarity with gothic literature became significant for many goths. Keats, Poe, Baudelaire and other romantic writers became just as symbolic of the subculture as dressing all in black.

A literary influence on the gothic scene was Anne Rice's re-imagining of the idea of the vampire. Rice's characters were depicted as struggling with eternity and loneliness, this with their ambivalent or tragic sexuality had deep attractions for many goth readers, making her works very popular in the eighties through the nineties. Movies based on her books have been filmed in recent years -- notably Interview with the Vampire, which starred Tom Cruise, and the more recent Queen of the Damned, in which Goths appear directly and indirectly.

Historical and cultural influences

The original Goths were an Eastern Germanic tribe who played an important role in the fall of the western Roman Empire. In some circles, the name "goth" later became pejorative: synonymous with "barbarian" and the uncultured due to the then-contemporary view of the fall of Rome and historically inaccurate depictions of the pagan Gothic tribes during and after the process of Christianization of Europe. During the Renaissance period in Europe, medieval architecture was retroactively labeled gothic architecture, and was considered unfashionable in contrast to the then-modern lines of classical architecture.

In the United Kingdom, by the late 1700s, however, nostalgia for the medieval period led people to become fascinated with medieval gothic ruins. This fascination was often combined with an interest in medieval romances, Roman Catholic religion and the supernatural. Enthusiasts for gothic revival architecture in the United Kingdom were led by Horace Walpole, and were sometimes nicknamed «Goths», the first positive use of the term in the modern period.[citation needed]

The gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of The Castle of Otranto, was responsible for the more modern connotations of the term gothic. Henceforth, the term was associated with a mood of horror, morbidity, darkness and the supernatural. The gothic novel established much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots. Another notable element was the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. The most famous gothic villain is the vampire, Dracula, originally depicted in a novel by Bram Stoker, then made more famous through the medium of horror movies.

The powerful imagery of horror movies began in German expressionist cinema in the twenties then passed onto the Universal Studios films of the thirties, then to camp horror B films such as Plan 9 From Outer Space and then to Hammer Horror films. By the 1960s, TV series, such as The Addams Family and The Monsters, used these stereotypes for camp comedy.

Certain elements in the dark, atmospheric music and dress of the post punk scene were clearly gothic in this sense. The use of gothic as an adjective in describing this music and its followers led to the term Goth.

Hip-Hop Culture

Hip hop is a cultural movement that began among African-American and Puerto Rican communities in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. Portions of the culture began spreading into the mainstream during the early 1980s; by the 1990s, hip hop culture had spread all over the world. The movement began with the work of DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaattaa and Disco King Mario.

The main aspects, or "elements," of hip hop culture are MCing (rapping), DJing, urban inspired art/tagging (graffiti), b-boying (or breakdancing, to most), and beat boxing. Most consider knowledge, or "droppin' science," as the sixth element. The most known "extended" elements are political activism, hip hop fashion, hip hop slang, double dutching (an urban form of rope skipping), or other elements as important facets of hip hop. In mainstream spheres, the term "hip hop" typically refers only to hip hop music (or rap music), the music produced by the MCing and DJing aspects of hip hop culture.

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also known as rap music, is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. It consists of two main components: rapping (MCing) and DJing (production and scratching). Along with hip hop dance (notably breakdancing) and urban inspired art, or notably graffiti, these compose the four elements of hip hop, a cultural movement that was initiated by inner-city youth, mostly African Americans and Latinos in New York City, in the early 1970s.

Typically, hip hop music consists of rhythmic lyrics making use of techniques like assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. The rapper is accompanied by an instrumental track, usually referred to as a "beat," performed by a DJ, created by a producer, or one or more instrumentalists. Historically, this beat has often been created using a sample of the percussion break of another song: usually funk and soul recordings have been utilized. However, in recent years, it has become more common for the beat to be built up from individual drum samples. In addition to the beat, other sounds are often sampled, synthesized, or performed. Sometimes a track can be instrumental, as a showcase of the skills of the DJ or producer.

Hip hop began in The Bronx, a borough in New York City, when DJs began isolating the percussion break from funk and disco songs. The early role of the MC was to introduce the DJ and the music and to keep the audience excited. MCs began by speaking between songs, giving exhortations to dance, greetings to audience members, jokes and anecdotes. Eventually this practice became more stylized and became known as rapping. In the 1990s, a form of hip hop called gangsta rap became a major part of American music, causing significant controversy over lyrics which were perceived as promoting violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 2000s, hip hop was a staple of popular music charts and was being performed in many styles across the world.

Modern hip hop fashion

After the influx of the hip-pop influence, hip hop fashion became less based in actual street wear and more in an idealization of such. Hip hop clothing is often produced by popular and successful designers, who charge significant amounts for their products.

The main elements of modern male hip hop fashion are sagging, gold or platinum chains, boots or a fresh pair of kicks (sneakers), and a bandana or do-rag tied around the head (often with a fitted cap on top). Large T-Shirts are also standard street wear.

Today, hip hop fashion is worn by a significant percentage of young people around the world. Many hip hop artists and executives have started their own fashion labels and clothing lines, including Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Kimora Lee Simmons (Baby Phat), Damon Dash and Jay-Z (Rocawear), 50 Cent (G-Unit Clothing), Eminem (Shady Ltd),OutKast (OutKast Clothing) and Beyonce Knowles (House of dereon). Other prominent hip hop fashion companies have included, in addition to the aforementioned Karl Kani and FUBU, Ecko, Girbaud, Enyce,Famous Stars and Straps, Bape, LRG, Timberland Boots, A Bathing Ape, and Akademiks. There are now a significant number of retailers that are dedicated to the sale of hip hop inspired fashions such as Dr.Jays. Hip hop fashion is often satirised by comedians such as Ali G.

According to many, hip hop fashion has become much more mainstream, possibly due to the popular acceptance of hip hop culture. Today, arguably more so than in the past, the music goes with the fashion; one does not exist without the other. Present-day hip hop fashion is not simply limited to one particular group of people but to anyone who has decided to identify with the culture. Recent trends in hip hop fashion have geared toward a tighter style of dressing (so called "prep-hop), which is coming to include raiments such as Nike Dunks, polo shirts, and tighter denim jeans. In some circles, the baggy style has lost some favor, with the growing popularity with rappers such as Kanye West and Andre 3000, often sporting such colorful fitted prep-hop clothing, and tighter-fitting skater influenced styles in the case of Pharrell. Yet, the baggy style remains de rigueur in some places such as South Central L.A. and Bed-Stuy, where prep-hop and tighter-fitted styles are oft viewed with an air of waspishness.

Breakdancing

Breakdancing, also known as breaking, b-girling or b-boying, is a street dance style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement that originated among African American and Latin American youths in the South Bronx of New York City during the early 1970s. It is arguably the best known of all hip hop dance styles. A breakdancer is also known as a breaker.

For most breakdancers, fashion is a defining aspect of identity. The breakdancers of the 1980s typically sported flat-soled Adidas, Puma, or Fila shoes with thick, elaborately patterned laces. Some breakdancing crews matched their hats, shirts, and shoes to show uniformity, and were perceived as a threat to the competitor by their apparent strength in numbers. B-boys also wore nylon tracksuits which were functional as well as fashionable. The slick, low-friction material allowed the breakdancer to slide on the floor much more readily than with cotton or most other materials. Hooded nylon jackets allowed dancers to perform head spins and windmills with greater ease. Additionally, the popular image of the original breakdancer always involved a public performance on the street, accompanied by the essential boombox and oversized sheet of cardboard, which serves as a dance floor.

Function is heavily intertwined with b-boy fashion. Due to the demands on the feet in b-boying, b-boys look for shoes with low weight, good grip, and durability in the sole as well as elsewhere. Headwear can facilitate the movement of the head on the ground, especially in headspins. Bandannas underneath headwear can protect against the discomfort of fabric pulling on hair. Wristbands placed along the arm can also lower friction in particular places, as well as provide some protection. Today's breakdancing styles, which emphasize fast-paced, fluid floor moves and freezes, differ from that of two decades ago, requiring more freedom of movement in the upper body. Therefore, less baggy upperwear is more common today (though pants remain baggy).Some dancers and crews have begun to dress in a style similar to "goth" or punk rockers in order to stand out from the more traditional toned-down b-boy appearance.

Certain clothing brands have been associated with breaking, for instance, Tribal. Puma is also well known in the breaking community. Both brands sponsor many b-boy events.

But aside from these generalities, many b-boys choose not to try too hard to dress for breaking, because one would want to be able to break anytime, anywhere, whatever the circumstances. This is part of the reason why many breakdancers would rather learn headpins without a helmet even though helmets allow them to learn the technique more easily.

subculture modern gothic music

Emo (slang)

Emo is a somewhat ambiguous, controversial slang term most frequently used to describe a fashion or subculture which is usually defined to have roots in punk fashion and subculture, as well as some attributes of gothic fashion and subculture. It is loosely defined, and its meaning varies by region, but most definitions share a number of similarities.

History in music

1980s

Emo was not always used as slang referring to a subculture. The term was born in the 1980s to describe a genre of music stemming from the hardcore punk music scene in Washington, D.C. Early bands labeled emo (or sometimes emocore) in this scene included Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Fugazi.

1990s to present

The word has more recently been used to describe a subculture as a slang term, but still describes a music genre as well. The term emo as a music genre has become broader and broader with time, and now is loosely understood to mean "rock music with emotionally-based lyrics or effect." Emo now often refers to a person's fashion, personality, or both, as well as the music genre.

Fashion

Emo fashion is usually defined to have roots in punk fashion as well as gothic fashion. By almost all current definitions, emo clothing is characterized by tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe (bangs) often brushed to one side of the face, dyed black hair, tight t-shirts which often bear the names of rock bands, studded belts, belt buckles, Chuck Taylor All-Stars or other black shoes - often old and beaten up - and thick, black-rimmed glasses.

Emo personality is also often connected with writing poetry, which addresses confusion, depression, loneliness, and anger, all resulting from the world's inability to understand the author. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional tone, stream of consciousness writing, a simple (ABAB) or nonexistent rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, concern over the mutability of time and/or love, and disregard for punctuation, grammar, and/or spelling. Themes such as life is pain are common.

Emo (music)

Emo is a subgenre of hardcore music. Since it's inception, emo has come to describe several independent variations, linked loosely but with common ancestry. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate.

In its original incarnation, the term emo was used to describe the music of the mid-1980s Washington, DC scene and its associated bands. In later years, the term emocore, short for Emotional Hardcore.

So far, no one has found a primary source that uses the term "emotive hardcore" before 1996. On the other hand, there are plenty of sources from late 80s and early 90s that demonstrate usage of the term "emotional hardcore". Please do not alter this definition without providing a primary source.

Emotional hardcore, was also used to describe the DC scene and some of the regional scenes that spawned from it. The term emo was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and strongly emotional during performances. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and, slightly later, Moss Icon. The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the term emo began to reflect the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason put forth a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles.

As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker emo within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term emo was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music.

Rockers

Rockers were a term originally applied in a derogatory manner to British motorcycle-riding youths in the 1960s, but was later adopted by those same youths.

Rockers became defined as the antitheses of their scooter-riding contemporaries, the mods. Before this time, young motorcyclists had not been grouped together and labelled in such a manner. Mods and Rockers attracted attention in 1964 because of sensationalistic media coverage of fights between the two groups. Mods and rockers became known for Bank Holiday clashes in the southern English holiday resorts of Clacton, Margate and Brighton.

Fashion & Music

Rockers are generally associated with being a music/fashion subculture in England and favored 1950s and early 1960s-era Rock'n'Roll by artists like Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry and the early Elvis Presley. However the English Rockers of the 1950s were motorcyclists first and foremost, not a fashion or music focused subculture. These early Rockers were actually referred to as Ton Up Boys, 'ton-up' being English slang for doing 100mph (160kph) along North London's Circular roads around the area of the famous Ace Cafe, which was one of their most popular hangouts.

The rocker style was born out of necessity and practicality. They wore heavily-decorated leather motorcycle jackets often adorned with studs, patches, pins, and sometimes an ESSO Petroleum gas man trinket. They were generally seen riding their motorcycles wearing a classic open-face helmet, aviator goggles, and a white silk scarf (to protect from the cold and cover their mouths). Other common items included: Levi's jeans, leather trousers, tall motorcycle boots made by Lewis Leathers, engineer boots, brothel creepers, T-shirts and Daddy-O-style shirts. Also popular was a patch declaring membership to the 59 Club of England, a church-based, youth organization that later formed into a genuine motorcycle club with members all over the world. The Rocker hairstyle, kept in place with dubious amounts of Brylcreem pomade, was usually a tame or exaggerated pompadour hairstyle, as was popular with some 1950s rock 'n' roll musicians.

Modern Day

The Rocker of the 21st century has evolved from its humble working-class British beginnings more than 40 years ago and so has the fashion ; Full length motorcycle boots such as the classic Lewis Leather styles are still used, but Winkle Pickers, sharp pointed shoes are no longer so common.

Engineer boots and occasionally Doc Martens being the norm. Brothel Creepers, thick crepe soled shoes, have worked themselves back into fashion, as originally worn by the " Teds " or Teddy Boys. Rockers continue to wear motorcycle jackets with leather trousers and the ubiquitous white silk scarf while riding their bikes. Also the use of Levi 501 or 505's has always maintained as part of Rocker fashion. Leather caps, all the rage with Rockers during the 1950s and 1960s adorned with studs and chains, are rarely ever seen anymore, but in its place you might see Rockers of today wearing a classic wool English 'driving cap'.

To complete the look, Rockers would tend to ride a classic British motorcycle, preferably but not exclusively a Cafe racer, usually Triumph or Norton or the Triton motorcycle hybrid of the two, but sometimes a BSA, Royal Enfield or Matchless from the 1960s, as this was the heyday of the British motorcycle industry. Many of these bikes have been lovingly restored.

The Conclusion

A theme of my creative work even for me was unusual enough, because personally I never took interest such concepts as a subculture and did not know about existence of many styles of music and life in general. But lately on the streets of our city, our country I began to notice separate people which differed from other the style of clothes or hair-do. And that is why I decided in more depth to learn these differences in different subcultures. I examined basic subcultures which arose up in England and USA approximately at the end of a 20 age and at the beginning of a 21 age. And I understood, that such style this life not only way to be in some way selected. In it people find the place, ideas and looks which can be freely expressed together with like-minded persons. It is their ideology; it is a method of existence. But unfortunately with modern development of subcultures all more people which want to be selected from other began to appear; only dressed not so as all. For itself I understood that a subculture - it not only style of clothes, hair-do not look like other, it is ideology which includes for itself existence of individual looks. In the English-speaking countries people with individual looks respect and give complete freedom of actions within the limits of laws. But in our country people doesn't perceive this quietly and it remains a problem. In my opinion, it simply needs to be understood and it will come in course of time. I hope that reading my creative work, you made sure in it.

Literature

1. Hebdige, Pick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style.

2. Hodkinson, Paul. Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture, 2002.

3. Light, Alan. The Vibe History of Hip-Hop. New-York, 1999.

4. Nelson, George. Hip-Hop America, 2000.

5. Robb, John. “The birth of Punk”. The Independent (UK), 2005.

6. Sabin, Roger. Punk Rock: So What? (The Cultural Legacy of Punk), 1999.

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