Subbbaculture! We salute you Ian MacKaye

Subcultures are often defined through the ways in which they oppose the values of the dominant culture. A subculture can be modelled around the fashion, gender, ethnicity, and musical tastes of its participants. But what happens when a subculture is adopted by the larger culture it exists in, does it still retain its subversive appeal?

I think the most relevant example would be the subculture of ‘emo’ and the way in which it is being marketed towards today’s youth. The way in which this subculture has been so readily adopted by the media is paradoxical being that the general idea of subculture is to be subversive to mass ideas of identity. I think that the subculture of ‘emo’ has swung like a pendulum through a series of phases, characteristic of most subcultures in general: an initially ‘underground’ and discreet position in regards to mainstream culture, an increase in popularity due to a surge in members and affiliates which draws the attention of the media, and finally a rejection by people in general to what is now deemed mass culture.

In a Machiavellian kind of way I think that culture moves in cycles of decline and regeneration, which work in response to how bland a subculture becomes over time due to its popularity. Essentially people want to be different, individual, pronounced, memorable, and I think that the adoption of subcultures by mass media undermines that sensibility, and in response we as consumers abandon our individual bastions of identity in search of something unspoilt by popular appeal.

It seems amazing to me how large a factor music can play in the formation of a subculture. But, due to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and the flexibility of the medium in which music is stored, it can be seen that even the rarest and previously unpopular music now has an audience and is open to public scrutiny. We exist within a system of continual opposition, with individuals striving to create something new and unique for themselves and mass media exploiting popularity through efforts like digital rights management and song placement in films. Meanwhile subcultures like ‘emo’ are consigned to our generation like the ‘goths’ and ‘punks’ of yesteryear and we move forwards, some of us searching the others of us waiting for the next big fringe.