Thursday, 10 December 2015

OUGD501 - Lecture - The Meaning of Style



OUGD501 -  Lecture - The Meaning of Style 



  • Form of resistance/rebellion 
  • Challenges mainstream
  • symbolic challenge
  • start as challenges - get sucked into mainstream 'the system' find ways to put back into conventions - tragedy of subculture
  • incorporation
  • ideological form
  • commodity form
  • turned against - was edgy/challenging now liquidised and made into a joke, weird, gentle thing
  • after war - no uniforms/conscriptions 
  • music coming from America 
  • 'new teenagers' 
  • teddyboys - pionerring, made it okay for men to take pride in their hair etc, from Bill Hayley. Subverting it, fuck up the class system
  • no money/education - can work your music/appearance   


- Rockers- at same time as teddy boys. Based on bikes and fighting. Generation gap

- Media was fundamental to subculture - picking up new 'sensation' fear aspect is useful to administration 

Mods vs Rockers
Rockers
SkinHeads
Punks
Teddy boys

Essence is they are elitist - exploiting this expression 
All they've got is the clothes on their backs- can stand out by their appearance 



  • Stylists/Modernists - interested in jazz, taken from Italian films and the idea of 'cool'
  • Finding your tribe from style - 1966 drug culture
  • Ready, Steady, Go (Tv programme?) 
  • accurate representations of your culture is rejected as it is diluted  


- Psychedelic side of the MODs, became hippies - other side becomes skin heads

- New Wave style

- Fred Perry 


  • Multi cultural England - huge impact 
  • Rude boy culture - completely anti mainstream - narrow black trousers with white socks

- Mix english elements and west indians  - skinheads



  • younger brothers of MODs
  • Millitent, working class
  • Hardly anyone knew about them 
  • Very cool
  • Brought black and white together 
  • Against the height of fashion - 'swinging London' 
  • saying we are proud to be working class
  • skinhead girl attacks, work in gangs

Media caught on - over by 1970s. Skin Head revival who were racist - nothing to do with the style - just a uniform to look intimidating. Very small group - media blurred out of population 


- Soulboys - Northern soul boys


  • Heart of Wigan 
  • Enthusiastic about black music - very rare records, all about having the records the next guy didn't have. All about going out, dressing up and dancing 
  • Black kids vs white kids, divided fashion 
  • Southern soulboy vs Northern 
  • Chris Hill & Foggy in Essex

- 'Club Culture' came about in 70s - Soul was left to it

  • Punk came out in 70s repression
  • Want for anarchy 
  • Post modernist ideas, made from bits together of other sub cultures
  • No one defined look to punk, no one looked liked each other 
  • women punk band - The Slits 
  • Feminist ideas (hippie ideas) came out again from punk 
  • Reggae vs Punk - both saying something together 
  • Sex pistols swear on tv, media slam punk - afte it was pretty much finished, blown out of proportion, made into a pantomime 
  • Punk and Reggae together  - Ghost Town 

- Two Tone, monochrome culture - lasted 1 1/2 year

- 1980s, sportswear came out of footballers, parties and drugs ended that


- Rave Culture

  • Same as hippies relies on sound, light and atmosphere
  • Ecstacy
  • Acid House
  • Became more about musical genres e.g Jungle

- BritPop  - last subculture or was it a culture?

  • Retro enthusiasms, swinging London/Manchester & MODs
  • Back to bands again 
  • Themes, attitudes in common - wanted to sell millions of records rather than be underground  (Posers)


- No subcultures now, nothing is under the radar - everything's available via the internet. Music doesn't drive anymore - politics does





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