According to the book, You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley (2021), subcultures have been defined as groups united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group (p. 92). There are many different types of subcultures, for example, there are the Hippies, Hipsters, Cosplayers, LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer, or Questioning), Skaters, Goths, Punks, Hip-Hop, Emos, Bikers, and so forth. There are many types of subcultures in contemporary society and it is difficult to keep track of them all. Because when one type of subculture fazes out, another type of subculture would emerge. The emergence of newer generations of subcultures depends on the political, sociological, or cultural climate within a certain geographical area.
At large, these groups of people hold different values from the dominant society. Subcultures have their norms and values concerning their take on cultural, political, and sexual matters. In the earlier days, subcultures rebelled against the system that oppresses their beliefs and their right to self-expression. These small groups of people are considered nonconformists in mainstream society. Two of the prime examples of the subculture are the Hippies and the Punks.
The Hippies were one of the most well-known subcultures of the 20th century. The Hippies came out in the mid-1960s in the United States as a youth subculture that was characterized by free love, utopian socialism, the sexual revolution, and psychedelic art and music (Drew, 2020). They were against the Vietnam war and the Hippies were infamously known for taking hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and marijuana. By the 1970s, the Hippie counterculture subsided.
By the 1970s, Punks were one of the most influential youth music subcultures in the world. At the heart of early punk was calculated anger. It was anger at the establishment and anger at the allegedly soft rebellion of the hippie counterculture; anger, too, at the commodification of rock and roll (Brown & Cullen, 1996). Famous Punk bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and The Ramones introduced music with a fast and more aggressive beat than pop.
What makes the Hippies and the Punks a subculture? Both share aspects of shared identity among participants shared meaning in subcultural activities, stratification from society, resistance to aspects of mainstream culture, and marginalization of members (Bhasin, 2020).
In retrospect, belonging to a certain subculture is a refusal to fit in within the norms of the status quo. Since these individuals are not able to meet the standards of the dominant society, they are labeled as deviant and different. The descriptions of the subculture mentioned above are based on social interactions and the identities shared by multiple individuals are a source of their distinctive form of self – external or internal. Putting it in another light, subcultures are all about establishing connections with other people who are different and who crave understanding, belongingness, and oneness of thought.
References
Bhasin, H. (2020, October 2). What is Subculture? Characteristics and Examples Explained. Marketing91. https://www.marketing91.com/subculture/
Brown, J., & Cullen, J. (1996). The Art of Democracy: A Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States. The Journal of American History, 83(3), 989. https://doi.org/10.2307/2945662
Conley, D. (2021). You May Ask Yourself (Core Seventh Edition) (7th ed., p. 92). W. W. Norton & Company.
Drew, C., & PhD. (2020, November 8). List of Subcultures (21 Examples) – Youth & Music Counterculture! The Helpful Professor. https://helpfulprofessor.com/list-of-subcultures/
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