We live in a world where reputation can be highly valued and classifications are important to fit in with certain groups. People typically want to fit in with the group that is most popular or those with the best influence. But if you look at the subcultures today, they are often overrated and do not match up to your true values. Consider Hipsters for example who have been around since the 1940s and have transformed to the modern days as an important subculture of our generation. The term was first used by jazz musician Harry Gibson, who called his fans “hipsters” (Gonzalez, n.d.). According to the article “The Origins of the Hipster”, the group protested traditional societal expectations and embraced the style and culture of the lower classes,
The stereotypical person in this subculture is middle or upper class, and highly educated. Urban living, natural and healthy diet choices, and eco-friendly resources typically come to mind when someone says the word “hipster” (Gonzalez, n.d.). They claim to be against anything mainstream in society, wearing vintage clothing and listening to alternative music. Are they really against this or is it just the look that’s intriguing? If you were to walk around my college campus, I can tell you that you would come across a variety of people who fit this description. The style of the modern hipster is now more mainstream than ever before. People are all trying to fit in with the look of the subculture and this is causing a problem of deindividualization. The people who try to perceive this look are simply doing it to fit into a group, and losing the value of their real identity. If you are only trying to fit into some certain criteria, you probably don’t believe in the values you are following. This subculture started to go against mainstream ideas and strove to be unique from others, but media has caused it to be the “cool” culture that everyone wants to be a part of. Consider conserving the environment, for example. Using alternative methods of transportation such as bikes and scooters is an important value of hipsters, against the mainstream transportation of a car. Media has caused this to
Because the image of a hipster has become a trend in which many follow, people do not like to admit that they fall into the category. A poll from the Public Policy Polling showed that “77 percent said they were not hipsters, 10 percent said they were, and 13 percent noted they were not sure” (Petri, 2013). This poll also found the there was “denial of being a hipster” or thinking “highly of hipsters.” Although we cannot view the participants and truly identify them as being a part of this subculture, we see the denial of some people of being called “hipsters.” This shows people rejecting who they are, simply because of the mainstream views of the current culture. Back in the 1940s when the term was created, we saw people opposing important problems in society and people standing out from their common culture. The hipster culture continues to change through the years and more people are beginning to leave the trend. Why are people hopping off the bandwagon? Some may deny it so they don’t seem mainstream and others may realize it is not who they truly are. Either way, media has influenced the way people view themselves and it continues to be a problem within this subculture and many others. If this continues, we will see the constant decrease of people finding their identity and some will even be scared to admit to fitting into their true
The government and the older generations could not understand their way of life. Hippies were often portrayed as criminals, subversive to the morals and best interest of the public. Although misunderstood, the hippie had a great impact throughout the country, still surviving today in American culture. The term “hippie” itself became a universal term in the late sixties. It originated in a 1967 article in Ramparts, entitled “The Social History of the Hippies.” Afterward, the name was captured by the mass media as a label for the people of the new movement. (Yablonsky 28) Even before this, the word “hip” described someone who was “in” and “down”, wise to what was going on around him. By the 1960s, some of America’s youth created a gap between themselves and their parents. They grew their hair long because it was natural and therefore considered beautiful.
Since the 1970s, theorists of youth subcultures in Britain have appropriated the notion of "style" from marketers of teenage fashion commodities to study oppositional subcultures in the post-war period. Many analysts of sub-cultural deviance and opposition dislike the plastic glamour of commercialized youth culture; they notice subversions of dominant forms (Carter, p. 104). Appropriating commodities from fashion, music, and media industries, subcultural youths reassemble them into symbolic systems of their own, which strike chords of disenchantment, rebellion, and resistance. The analyses themselves are founded on a number of unspoken opposi...
The 1950‘s was a time noted for its high expectations and widespread conformity. The children growing up in the 1950’s were from the baby boomer generation. By the 1960’s some of these children began to migrate away from the ways of their upbringings. These children called themselves the Hippies. Even though the Hippie kids had grown up in the richest economy America had ever seen, they sought an alternative lifestyle to the one their parents led. This trend spread and eventually progressed into a nationwide movement, popularly known as the Hippie Movement. The Movement created its own entirely new sub culture that enthralled the nation. The Hippie Movement of the 1960’s transformed people’s perspectives on cultural matters, moral values, and created a new unique genre of fine arts.
Theater dork, nerdy kid, slut, whore, popular girl, jock, druggie, dumb blonde. Have you ever been called one of these names? These stereotypes are used to make a name for outsiders. I know many people who are overlooked and called names that do not actually define them. Teenagers are convinced that when people do things out of the ordinary such as dressing differently that they are considered “weird” or “not cool”. People can be judged on their personality, attitude and friends along with many other superficial components. Instead of putting people down who are different we should be celebrating their differences.
However, 1960s was a period when American culture moved from being traditional to new and observant ways of thinking. Moreover, these changes led to the creation of a completely new, strange culture that is known as the hippie culture. In addition, the hippies (which means modern, stylish) made their way into a new sexual revolution that broke the old fashioned boundaries. There are many contradictions and different opinions in regard to clarifying the nature of the hippie movement. Some people believe that it is more cultural than political phenomenon, while others characterize it as entirely religious. However, the hippies are mostly young people between 15 and 25 years old and come from white middle-class family. The style, expression, behavior and appearance adopted by hippies turned upside down the normal norms of the time. Some of the key...
In the article “Commodity your Dissent” author Thomas Frank discusses the idea of counterculture and has a posture that counterculture along the years has made an impact not just on society, but on consumer society. Thomas explains that during the 1950s, the idea of counterculture started to spark with portraits of “correctness and sedate music, sexual repression, deference authority, Red Scares, and smiling white people standing politely in line to go to church” (Thomas Frank 164). Explaining that, it was the usual and only way to act for the America population at the time.
This generation’s high school lifestyle incorporates a lot of different cliques and niches. With these cliques comes many labels. The words “jock,” “nerd,” or “prep” may come to mind. Everyone has the expectation that they will find somewhere that they will find somewhere to fit in high school. What happens to the ones that do not? They seem to be in a void category, as if they are not even there or forgotten. They receive the label of an outcast. Shane Koyczan observes the way one may be labeled through his own experiences: “We were expected to define ourselves at such an early age, and if we didn’t do it, others did it for us. Geek. Fatty... I was being told to accept the identity that others will give me,” (Koyczan). We are not in complete control of who we are perceived to be. Surrounding peers decide who they think you are based on your appearance or grades but forget to look at what lies on the inside. It is all a process of categorization where you must attempt to camouflage yourself or risk being excluded.
I am of course talking about the punk rockers in the United States in the 70s who followed the hippie movement. Like the hippie movement the punk movement advocated nonconformist, anti-war, and anti-corporate sentiments. However, the similarities end there, for the punk movement was not against being violent to express their actions. As a result the punk movement generated a lot of people whom were referred to as “hoodlums”, “gangsters”, “ruffians”, and other terms that had connotations of general violence and delinquency (No Future). Generally speaking, the people of the early punk movement wanted to look as tough and as different as society as possible. They adopted trashed clothes from hippie, and instead of embroidering symbols of peace onto their clothes, they would add bold designs - often with political and violent connotations. Whether they sow an upside down cross, the symbol for anarchy7, or just regular studs, the punk rock movement was the polar opposite in how they came across when compared to hippies. The punk movement manifested itself and split off into metalheads and grunge kids, while still remaining as “punk” then splitting off into a bunch of into smaller different punk inspired movements, like all the goths and emos in the world. Now, people take the edgier bits of the
When people hear the term hippie, they think of men and woman in loose clothing with flowers weaved in their hair. Although these men and women did in fact wear these things, they left a significant impact on society. Hippies were a part of the Counterculture movement, which basic ideals were to reject the ideas of mainstream society. The movement itself began with the protesting of the Vietnam War. Eventually, the movement was more than just protesting the war. Hippies promoted the use of recreational drugs, religious tolerance; they also changed society’s views and attitudes about lifestyle and social behavior. The Counterculture movement was the most influential era in the 20th century because the people of this time changed society’s outlook, and broached the topics of drugs, fashion, and sexual freedom.
I was the stereotypical "hippie," and my social circle during that year and the four years preceding it (two of those years in middle school and two years in high school) included other hippies. The hippie subculture has often been subject to a stereotyped image over the years. The image identified with the hippie is one of an individual that is generally unclean and unkempt, usually lives in squalor, has a drug habit, and is not very smart. Of course, male members of the hippie subculture all had long hair. Though the conservatives stereotyped me and my friends by what they saw, they did not know a single thing about us.
A subculture is a cultural group within a culture that differs in one or more ways from the culture. This would include differences in interest, behaviour or beliefs, like religion, and social or economic status. For example Christian is related to religion so they have different beliefs to others. Hip Hop has definitely impacted society throughout the years that it has been around. Hip hop has also has changed others thoughts about hip hop. But how? Celebrities? Acceptance? Identification? What are the positives and the negatives?Celebrities are a massive influence on people's thoughts. Hip hop has definitely grown in popularity from the celebrities that have joined them, for instance Jay Z. He has been regarded as the most talented rapper
In today’s society, high schoolers are split up into wide varieties of cliques. In high school, people label you in some kind of group or clique. People are either considered a goth, jock, stoner, nerd, loner etc. The reason why people are labeled as those things is because of what their interests are, what they wear, what their personality is, and the people that they associate themselves with. People tend to migrate towards certain kinds of cliques because they like to do certain things. Consider this, the jocks will hang out with other jocks and play or practice the sport they play, the stoners will hang around other stoners and smoke as an interest, and the nerds will get together with other nerds to study and practice things. High school is filled with drama and arguments, but hanging out and doing
Indeed, punk subculture has consistently been centered on punk rock music and include a myriad of fashions, ideologies and forms of expressions. Consequently, the subculture is still being characterized by promotion of individual freedom i.e. independence and anti-establishment views i.e. challenge to authority. Therefore, it is certain that agents of the punk subculture; punk rockers were and are still staunch non-conformists. This is due to the fact that punks were and are still not embracing convention. For instance, rather than just dying their hair unusual but safe shades, they opted for bizarre, absurd and unnatural colors like green and pink. Classically, this is still being observed among today’s punk. In their out ordinary haircuts many piercing and tattoos, and excessive use of leather all match to make the punk style interesting and controversial combination. Therefore, since the inception of punk subculture or punk movement and its successes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, punk subculture has never gone away. In the current world, there punk rock bands that continue making music in the original styles and in fact, it is not abnormal or awfully strange to come across an individual walking around with green or pink colored hair, or a spiked Mohawk
Youth, in particular, gravitate to some of the most striking subculture. Youth who identify with similar subcultures often share similar traits, however, traits shared within a subculture do not necessarily have to be positive or negative. For example, a 2009 Swedish study demonstrated that youth who identify with subcultures that emphasise extreme appearances are more likely to be anxious, shy, or “socially inhibited” than youth who belong to more traditional social groups (Bešić and Kerr, 118). Three major extreme subcultures were examined within the Swedish study: punks, goths and synths. All three are musically influenced, punk and goth subcultures are somewhat universally recognized, with the remaining subculture defined within the study: “synths are named for their interest in electronically synthesized music, and they are recognized by severe, all-black clothing and dyed-black hair” (Bešić and Kerr, 116). Although youth within a subculture may share similar traits, it is important to note that in spite of the significant link between music and subculture, there are important distinctions between the two. Although there is an interesting relationship between hardcore subcultures and associated youth, the correlation between musical interest and personality or behaviour is less
Changing who they are is conforming which is very prevalent in American teens today (Teen Music 2). Teens feel the need to do this to not stand out or be different (Teen Music 2). Teens are thereby stripping themselves of all differences, making them automatons. Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird, does not think and says the n-word her reasoning is “ ‘s what everybody at school says” (Lee 75). She is so unknowing of the current circumstances and what that word means, so she is easily influenced by classmates. Teens change themselves to follow fads spread by other peers. Fads are just trends that are popular for a short period of time (Sociology 626). Miley Cyrus recently sold four billion albums, but does she really deserve those sales? “… a study recently published in Neuroimage, selling four million albums does not translate to having four million people like your music…. A lot of those purchases were made out of fear… a terror of social rejection.” (Baird 1). Teens feel the need to lie about what music they listen to just so they do not stand out. Teens learn about what is popular because they have an ability to learn fast for their peers (Teen Music 1). This is very simple because now a day teen just needs to hope on social media and they can see what is trending (Teen Fads 2). Another study teen shows actual signs of panic when they are perceived as different: