The New Romantics: A Deviant Subculture

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Culture
Culture is defined as an expression of society through material things and beliefs. Culture encompasses ideology, values, religion and artistic works. Subcultures, on the other hand, are described as groups whose values and norms differ from the majority of society. A variety of subcultures can exist under one umbrella culture. The ways and norms of a subculture are familiar to those who belong to it. Small societies tend to be uniform, while complex societies, such as the United States, are multicultural. A deviant subculture is one that is opposed to the values or norms most people follow.

The New Romantics
In its early stages the movement was known by many names, including "new dandies", "romantic rebels", "peacock punk", "the …show more content…

For the New Romantics, life didn’t imitate art—life was art, and they made it their goal to stay on top. Punk rock had been about breaking down walls, deconstructing the world and coming together in alienation. It was a community, an “us” to stand against “them.” Their visual language was a gritty dialect of the working class, filtered through the accent of a disillusioned youth. With one look, you could hear their message: “we will not follow the path you’ve made for us.” (Noelle, 2016)
Vermeulen explains, “the key is to understand Romanticism as a sens rather than as a system of thought, a sensibility rather than a paradigm, an attitude more than an aesthetic regime. Romanticism is about the attempt to turn the finite into the infinite, whilst recognizing that it can never – and should never – be realized.” (Vermeulen, 2010) …show more content…

There was a bisexual vibe generally, regardless of the individual's actual sexual orientation. The clothes style was a return to the “freak scene's” roleplay of fashions from previous eras or imagined future ones. It was like using fashion to create a time warp. (Geerinck, 2015) Before the New Romantics emerged, the music scene wasn’t the only thing that was dull. Before the New Romantic culture, there were no “style gurus” for individuals to idolize. You dressed either as a “Top Rank disco kid,” a “new waver”, a “Mohican punk” or “skinhead”. That's why dressing up at the Blitz club became an act of affirmation. The New Romantics were the first children of the television age, well versed the ways of the popular media, and they set out to take over music and fashion. Gary Kemp says, "A cultural identity is a great outlet for people's frustrations. Kids have always spent what little they have on records and haircuts. They've never spent it on books by Karl Marx." (Johnson,

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