Subculture Talk

After the week four CIU lecture on subculture i was interested by the chart that shows the evolution of subcultures throughout the centuries. It was interesting to see how Jamaican subculture turned into skinheads and how they flowed from one to another. It got me thinking about what subcultures i am apart of and why i identify with them.

Earlier in my life i was a HUGE metalhead. I would go to all the metal festivals and would jump into the mosh and happily be a front runner in a wall of death. I would dress a certain way and i would grow my hair long and have a side fringe. I would listen to and have the same moral compass and political views that my idles would spout. This whole culture was built around the music and the common thread of being an outcast in school, because a lot of that community was a minority at school. This is a clear example of a subculture born from alienation and collective participation in a leisure practice.

In my adult life i can say that i don’t conform to a subculture as strongly as i did when i was younger. I still identify with a subculture but it doesn't dictate my every day movements and actions. In adult life i identify with the queer and LGBT subculture i attend events and places that are predominantly queer and i do this not because of my ego and wanting to assert my sexuality, but because i feel safe and connected with a certain group of people. I read an interesting article about the death of Larry levan and the tribute parties that followed his death. At the tribute parties that followed the death of this influential DJ, the attendance was dominated by middle aged gay men who were coming out to support a person who was influential in the Queer rights subculture when the first rays of light were shining on gay rights. And when the queer rights subculture was born.

Another aspect that interested me during this week's CIU lecture was that not one person out of around 70 people in that lecture theatre were comfortable talking about or expressing the subculture that they are apart of, including me. There were clear influences of subcultures in that room but when asked to talk about it, people were reluctant to make themselves vulnerable to judgment. My reasoning for not saying i am an active member in queer culture and the LGBT scene was because i felt like i would be called out for not being as involved as other people in the room might be because my life isn't heavily influenced by my subculture. That fear has a direct relation to the conformity that goes along with subcultures.