What is a subculture?

Well, where do I begin? How about I start with why I choose this topic for my blog. You see, I have always been interested in culture, and not just current American culture either, but cultures from around the world are fascinating to me, as well as the ancient cultures of the Greeks and Romans. Any culture really. I love learning the reason why people exhibit different behaviors. What makes people tick? Are they rebelling against something? Celebrating? Or just trying to exhibit self expression? These actions and behaviors can reveal a lot about the time period and the culture a person lives in. Im not a history buff by any means, but I really like learning about culture. This brings us to subculture, which to me means a group of people with unifying behaviors and beliefs that differentiate them from the hegemonic culture. It seems to me that in the 21st century everyone is involved in a subculture of some kind which differentiates them from the larger mainstream cultural group. According to Paul Hodkinson, an expert in subculture studies and author of Four Indicators of (Sub)cultural Substance, for a subculture to truly be a subculture the members of the group must have 4 things.

1. Commitment - The subcultures members must be committed to a degree that influences the pattern of everyday life for the participant involved, accounting for free time, friendship patterns, shopping routines, going-out habits, collections of commodities, and even internet use.
2. Identity- Members must share a sense of affiliation with group insiders, giving feelings of distinction from outsiders. Creating a different perspective from those outside the group.
3. Distinctiveness- A set of shared tastes, ideals and values which is distinctive from those of other groups and reasonably consistent within the group.
4. Autonomy- Independent and self-governing. The act of not relying on mainstream culture to produce what is needed for the group to function and prosper.

Now that I have explained what a subculture is and how subcultures function in our larger culture, for the remainder of the blog I’m going to take the time to explore specific subcultures and their uniqueness from the categories of dance, film, sports, street art and music. By the end hopefully we will have found out what makes the poeple involved in these subcultures tick. Happy reading.