Thursday 15 November 2012

Lecture Notes: Subculture & Style


You can have the subculture without the style

Directed by Stacey Peralta, using the city as a performance space
Ogirinal subcultures transform into contemporary subcultures, use of the swimming pool bowl evolving into a purpose built bowl in a skatepark.


Clthing was chosen for practical use which develops into a style
Ian Bordens 'Perforrming the City' looks at urban street skating as more of a political statement, something to do with the body that doesn't involve consuming and resisting the direction of the city itself. e.g Using a hand rail to grind down rather tan to help you up the stairs

Lords of Dogtown (2005) 

“Skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape from the routinized world of school family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life.” (Borden:2001)

Parkour and Free Running have a similar motif behind them:

-Moving around the city
-Urban Acrobatics

Yamakasi (2001)


Jump London (2005)

Documentary about people navigating buildings - challenging architecture


Graffiti is a similar redefinition of space which produces a different sub culture
-About leaving the way you look or the way you are behind and swapping it for what you write and your graffiti style

Black Graffiti write Prime says:


Miss Van


Swoon
“In the meantime there was a lot of attention coming my way for being female, and it just made me feel alienated and objectified, not to mention patronized. ‘Look at what girls can do-aren’t they cute?’ To hell with that shit. I don’t want it.”


Bidgette Bardot 1960's

Suggests sexual deviance which goes against the normal femininity of the time


Usually girls are an 'add on' to the motorbike


Mod culture comes from working class teenage consumerism in the 1960's



Quadrophenia (1979)

Tensions between mods and rockers, clash of two subcultures



"Hebdige outlines the hierarchies within the mod subculture where “the ‘faces’ or ‘stylists’ who made up the original coterie were defined against the unimaginative majority…who were accused of trivialising the mod style” 


Subculture arises through universities in late 60's
-Middle class girl therefore has space to explore subculture for longer before family


Within the Hippy stereotype there are further subcultures:


Riot Grrrl mid 1990's -

Underground punk movement based in washington and surrounding areas


Bands

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear, The Frumpies

less about musicianship more about anti authoritarian approach


Influences and origins:
Poly Styrene, Siouxsie Soux


Produced Fanzines that reproduce that punk DIY aesthetic:


Tackle real life issues

Zines revived from 1970's DIY Punk ethic, this was influenced by posters and graphic design from the dadaists in the 1920's and 30's



Raoul Hausmann - DADA


Grunge scene evolves from this punk start: they take the style but leave the subculture behind


Britain adopts a similar sort of Girl Power but focussing on the style and leaving the subculture.
Cartoon-isation of people reduced the political aspects of the movement. Songs make no statement- it's all about the style



Dick Hebdige

“Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media.” 

Subcultural style and music are turned into mass produced objects


Zandra Rhodes 9ct White Gold Diamond Safety pin





Teddy Boys

The meaning of clothing changes as its context changes




Teddy boy culture was an escape from the claustrophobia of family


Skinhead Culture
Possibly an extension of the mod culture


Gavin Watson Skins (1980)




This is England



The film explores the difference between the skinhead style and the politics of the National Front skins as they infiltrate the working class estate in the UK in the 1980’s






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