Introduction
People, as social creatures, tend to unite in groups that have something common: they may have a similar system of values, behavior or lifestyle that is different from the dominant culture to which they belong. In social studies, the word “subculture” refers to a part of a public group that differs from predominant society. This paper is aimed at analyzing subculture of punk, the role of media and style in punk youth subculture. From the perspective of cultural studies, a subculture is associated with a group of people that do not contradict against the values of traditional culture but complement it. Not always, however, predominant culture accepts the values and rules that differ from the majority; what is not usual for them is often reckoned as something weird or insane. The process of integration of new subcultures, therefore, is faced with a struggle now and again.
Subculture may differ from the dominant culture in language, demeanor, accessories, style of clothes and so on. Further in the paper will be discussed the way punk subculture behave, the clothes they wear and their style of conversations. The basis of the subculture can be musical genres and styles, lifestyle, certain political views. Some subcultures have extreme views and demonstrate their protest against the society or a certain social phenomenon. Other subcultures have reserved nature and tend to their isolation from society. Developed subcultures have their own periodicals, clubs, forums and community organizations.
Typology of youth subcultures
There are several types of youth subcultures that are classified by their ideology and world views. Among them are:
politicized subcultures,
ecological and ethical subcultures,
non-traditional religious subcultures,
radical youth subcultures,
subcultures of interest
Politicized subcultures in their majority actively participate in political life and have a clear ideological affiliation. Ecological and ethical subculture are engaged in the construction of philosophical concepts and are fighting for the environment. Non-traditional religious subculture is mostly involved in a stream of Eastern religions (such as Buddhism or Hinduism) and preaches its ideology and creed. Radical youth subcultures are the different organization that usually have an older leader who admonishes the rest. Those groups usually identified by their increased aggressiveness (criminal youth gangs, skinheads). Subcultures formed by interest gather to pursue their hobbies: music, sports, literature while subcultures of lifestyle share similar way of living and word views (hippies, punks). There is a recently emerged group that is called subculture "golden youth" and has the characteristics of the metropolitan cities and is focused on the leisure activity. These types of subcultures listed above do not have strict characteristics and may clash with each other. For instance, punks share common lifestyle, as well as one style of music the majority of punks listen to (Williams, 2007).
Youth subcultures, as well as a punk subculture, are created by young people for young people. It is an esoteric group and often its specific features are known only to their members. Youth subculture is an elitist phenomenon and not high percentage of youngsters switch their traditional culture to subculture. Therefore, it is all about minorities in subcultural groups.
In 1950, an American sociologist David Rayzmen in his research drawn up the concept of subculture, where he depicted a group as a class of people who deliberately selects a style and value only because they are preferred by minorities (Howes, 1996). Hebdige conducted a more thorough analysis of the phenomenon and the concept of subculture in his book "Subculture: the meaning of style." According to him, the subculture attracts people with similar tastes, which do not meet generally accepted standards and values.
A French sociologist Michel Mafessoli in his writings used the concept of "urban tribes" to describe the youth subcultures. Victor Dolnik in the book "Naughty child of the biosphere" used the concept of "clubs". In the USSR, for instance, members of youth subcultures were called as " an informal association of young people", hence the slang term “informal."
Punk culture is characterized by its own style of music, fashion, and ideology. It is reflected in the visual arts, dance, literature, and movies. By itself, punk movement consists of a multitude of smaller subcultures, such as a street punk, heavy punk, and others. Punk maintains a close relationship with other subcultures such as gothic and psychos; supporters of the movement opposed to the commercialization, which is one of the major mechanisms of capitalism.
Emergence of punk movement
This movement emerged in the USA, UK and Australia in the mid-1970s. Punk subculture reproduced “the entire sartorial history of post-war working-class youth cultures in cut up form”, blending elements which had originally belonged to absolutely different epochs (Hebdige, 26). The emergence of punk was spawned by the improbable cooperation of differing and externally inconsistent musical conventions, mysteriously fulfilled under punk genre and found ratification in an equally eclectic apparel style which reproduced the same sort of dissonance on the visual level. The entire gathering turned into the celebrated and very photogenic wonder known as punk subculture which all through the 1970s generated an asset of typically incredible “quality press with a welcome catalogue of beautifully broken codes” (Hebdige, 26). The word "punk" was originally a term of abuse in its mildest form meant "bastard," "scoundrel."
Ideology of punk subculture
Punk ideology focused on the realization of the right for freedom of every individual. There should be no pressure from society or government or whoever on the way of the life the individual leads. The ethics of this movement recognizes the great role of personal choice in the development or simply in the search of freedom. The whole punk ethic culture radically denies any conformism. It implies independence, direct action by changing the political structure and the failure of public culture consumer.
Political views of punks usually refer to the entire political system, but they do not relate themselves to the left or to the progressive political forces. Punks may regularly take part in political protests of the local, national or global scale. Some current trends in politics for the whole punk movements is anarchism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-nationalism or the protection of animal rights. On the other hand, the ideology of punks is quite close to the ideology of hippie and relates to the material values of neglect. While the hippie idea is expressed as “why do we need the money, the world is so infinitely beautiful", then punk’s notion would rather be "the world is still a sh and anyway we cannot help it to improve "." Unlike the hippie punk pretty aggressive political preferences are considered anarchists (with a light hand "Sex pistols", written for the cult punk song"Anarchy in the UK").
The ideology of punks is a nonconformity, in other words, an active rejection of the standard procedure, norms, and values. Nonconformity developed up to shocking vagrancy, often up to anarchy, protest against a modern society that enslaves individuals. The concept of punk movement took radical directions and belief that a social system makes a mechanism out of human beings and any kind of these social systems should be broken. It begot a movement, an anti-system that opposed all common norms and principles in the lives of regular people.
After becoming a ubiquitous movement and spreading on TV, radio and in layers of society, new waves of punk subculture started to emerge. Punk-rock began to deform, change, divide into parts for a variety of musical, political, aesthetic directions. There were dozens of new styles with their concepts, the new artistic thinking and vision of the world for other purposes.
Punk subculture is one of the gloomy subcultures we can meet in the modern world. “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalized forms, nor to bring down upon itself such vehement disapproval” - states Hebdige in his book (19). Indeed, their style of clothes is quite conspicuous: punks wear leather coats and black ripped and frayed jeans and ponderous boots with the thick platform. They listen to aggressive heavy music and paint their hair in different colors, making so-called Iroquois. In the process of flourishing, the punk subculture adopted essential attributes of apparel, such as chains and spikes on clothing, piercing. In the very beginning, however, these accessories was rather cliché for a punk representative. Further in the paper it will be discussed the difference in the fashion of punk subculture. In the eighties, studded collars around the neck and Iroquois on her head were especially popular. Obscenities are not the last words one may hear in a conversation between representatives of this subculture. Alcohol and drugs often are comrades of a modern punk.
As any subculture, punks style and fashion have been changing over the time.
In general, as any young subcultural group, representatives of punks love to shock the public with their anti-conservative appearance, however, it should be noted that for the rest of the punk rockers appearance is a minor detail. Ideologist of the appearance of the punks was English designer Vivienne Westwood, who made the attributes of punk to the masses, and turn the movement into the whole fashion industry (Leblanc, 1999).
Early fashion punk adapted existing things under the particular vision of the world: torn clothes kept intact thanks to pins or tape, the usual things "decorated" markers or paint, black garbage bag became a dress, a skirt or blouse, and safety pins and razor blades used as decoration. Leather, rubber, and vinyl are also gained its popularity, perhaps due to the fact that they are associated with non-standard approaches to sex. Sometimes punks wear tight jeans pipes, rocker jackets, T-shirts with custom images and a variety of shoes, starting from sneakers, or boots and ending with titanium shoes.
It was a glam punk that conceived a fashion industry and exalted punk subculture to the new horizons. It became not only the issue of the ideology but also the matter of the appearance. Punk subculture began to evoke the interest of youth not only by its concept but also by striking way of dressing. Moreover, punks significantly influenced the hairdressing, introducing a bold bright colored hair and asymmetrical hairstyles. Fashion for Iroquois introduced British band “The Exploited”.
These types of clothes, behavior, and music are all aimed at the radical opposition to the usual world. Members of punk subculture may have different political and religious views, but they are united by a concept of nihilism: punks deny ideology of anything and everything and this concept is quite popular till nowadays.
Punk music
Punk is a subculture that is addicted to music. Thought the music, they convey their feelings and world views. From the moment of separation from the wider areas of rock and roll in the mid to late seventies punk movement has spread around the globe and began to develop in the great variety of forms. Any subculture arises only on the ruins of the previous course, as in the seventies, there was a shift change with the hippie-punk. Touching, almost airy, hippie ideals were swept away by the rampant destruction of the energy provided by punk.
Music plays a very important role for punk subculture, as punks do prefer passive protest and rarely take public revolts and demonstrations. With the help of music, punks express their worldview. Incipience of punk rock music genre was developing in the 1970s in the UK. Hebdige gives us the details of the emergence of a new style, that was generated by “combining elements drawn from a whole range of heterogeneous youth styles” (25). The founder of the punk genre in the UK became David Bowie while America distinguished the Ramones, the Heartbreakers, Iggy Pop and Richard Hell.
The resulting mix begot a genre of music that chanted a cult of nihilism, narcissism and a penchant for self-laceration. The main feature of the punk music is a concept of freedom, protest against the establishment of conservatism, authoritarianism, nationalism and radical capitalism, as well as a commitment to the ideals of anti-racism and anti-fascism. The legendary American band Ramones was the first musical group that played punk rock. The first British punk band was Sex Pistols. After the occurrence of these punk bands and similar ones, punk music as a genre has spread around the world from the 1980s encompassed other continents. In USSR, one of the representatives of punk rock genre became "Civil Defense" band. Punk was a response to the crisis of the hippie movement and its bias in mysticism, in the rock music of the time that moved away from the energy and rhythm of traditional rock and roll, as well as the difficult situation for young people in the labor market.
Integration into society
As many social minorities, subcultures are seen as a strange model against the regular values of the society. It is not deniable fact that majorities considered subcultures as a deviation of norms and morals. Punks, as any other radical subcultures, want to withstand the dogma of the world. The more punks reject the standards, norms, and values of the society, the more outrageous society reacts to punk’s behavior. It foments the protest of subculture and makes them believe deeper that a common human is a mechanism of social system.
However, not everyone who is impressed by the punk movement could be considered as its representative. The core of the movement constituted white men from the working or middle class. Even despite the fact that punks are positioning themselves against sexism, women in this subculture are seen rarely.
As it was stated previously in the paper, abuse of alcohol and drugs, as well as violence in some display are also elements of punk. The harm and suicide in punk movement are the phenomenon that accompanied this direction from the very beginning.
Current state of punk movement
Any subculture has its validity and nowadays, the punk movement is on the verge of extinction. This subculture is getting stuck in the previous century. One may enjoy the punk rock music of Ramones and Sex Pistols band that in the modern world became a classic of punk rock music genre. The subculture is altering and regenerating into the new modern movements of current centuries.
Conclusion
Subcultures differ from the dominant culture in every aspect of the society: language, behavior, style of clothes etc. The basis of the subculture can be musical genres, as well as lifestyle. Those two main characteristics differ punk subculture out from the other ones. The punk subculture that has been introduced in the paper, have extreme views and demonstrate their protest against the society.
Punks have been tending to express their belonging to the subculture and its own personality, adopting a specific style of clothes, hairstyles, makeup, tattoos, ornaments and other methods. Representatives of punks shock the society with their anti-conservative appearance. Style of punk apparel can be divided into three main categories: glam punk, pop punk, and hardcore punk. Music plays a very important role for punk subculture, as punks do prefer passive protest and rarely take public revolts and demonstrations. With the help of music, punks expressed their worldview. All of these types of clothes, behavior, and music are all aimed at the radical opposition to the usual world.
As many other subcultures, punk has been seen as some weird model against the regular values of the society because of its rebellious ideology. Therefore, punk movement attracted mainly young people as at this age people want to leave the system and live out of the mechanism of the word. Nowadays, however, the punk movement perished but instead, there are many new subcultures emerging from the ashes of the old cultures. This tendency has been typical for most social movements. Especially vulnerable streams are those founded and supported by youth. The main reason for this is that the only thing which is impossible to be stopped is time. Kids grow up. They change their toys for cars and big houses, noisy parties and disorderly conduct for respected jobs and their crazy iroquoises for neat haircuts of office white collars. People cannot keep their young passion for whole life.
Nobody knows what happens tomorrow to hipsters and indigo boys and girls. The only thing that obvious is that punk subculture and its different directions and branches have made a tremendous contribution to the world culture. They were bold enough to rebel against the system and got their feedback from this brave step. The story of punk movement has taught humanity how to value what we have and protect our inner inclinations and desires from the rules imposed by the dull traditional system. Based on all that was said, we can surely say “Punks are not dead!”
References
Hebdige D. (1979). Subculture: the meaning of style. Routledge. London & New York. Print.
Howes, D. (1996). Cross-cultural consumption: global markets, local realities. New York: Routledge. Print.
Leblanc L. (1999). Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture. Rutgers University Press. Print
Maffesoli M. (1996). The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society Volume 41 of Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society Theory, culture & society. Sage. Print.
Williams P. (2007). Youth-Subcultural Studies: Sociological Traditions and Core Concept. Arkansas State University. Retrieved from http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/patrick.williams/PDFs/Williams%20-%20Youth-subcultural%20studies.pdf
