Subcultural identity in alternative music culture

Abstract

Angela McRobbie (1992) has recently observed that what is currently missing from Marxist cultural studies is a sense of urgency. In part, I believe this lack of urgency is the result of cultural studies' tendency ultimately to privilege theory over lived experience; the lived experiences of the post-baby boom generation seem especially neglected. As a 1991 issue of Spin magazine told its readers:Magazines and newspapers such as Time and the New York Times are … comparing you unfairly to the dynamic and euphoric baby boomers – the authentic prototype of youth culture, at least as they would have it. They're saying you, the members of the twentysomething generation, have no distinctive identity, no culture to call your own, only recycled bits from the past. Ask yourself this question: Do you recognize yourself in this portrait? No? We didn't think so. (Owen 1991, p. 68)

Something for Everyone? : Changes and Choices in the Ethno-Party Scene in Urban Nightlife

“…It is a term that is also extensively used in the everyday discourse of young music followers and stylists. Consequently, researchers have used this concept as a descriptor of local sites of cultural, particularly musical cultural, production and consumption (see, for example, Kruse 1993;Bennett and Peterson 2004). I will therefore use the concept of the dance scene, which I define as:…”

Class dis-identification, cultural stereotypes, and music preferences: Experimental evidence from the UK

“…Musical taste is a way of identifying with a particular group or subculture while dis-identifying with other groups (Kruse, 1993). This may be manifest in preferences for particular artists, genres and even labels.…”

“…Rhetorical distinctions between 'pop', 'alternative' or 'indie' capture mainstream or oppositional positions in the cultural field. In many cases, such distinctions are drawn consciously (Kruse, 1993). Similarly, Thornton (1995) observes that such distinctions, e.g., between 'mainstream' and 'hip', are incredibly forceful in defining hierarchies within a specific subculture.…”

“…Snobbery and class dis-identification matter because both are involved in accruing or maintaining the social value of the self in social interactions (Skeggs and Loveday, 2012). Identifying with a particular musical genre is, according to Kruse, a form of dis-identification or distancing from other groups, thereby de-valuing them (Kruse, 1993). Struggles over moral value, or the worth of the individual, have a long association with (musical) taste (Skeggs, 2004).…”

“…Music is one field in which these struggles over social value occur (Kruse, 1993); people do not tend to give neutral responses to particular genres and these judgments are frequently applied to those who enjoy such styles (Savage, 2006, Bennett et al, 2009). Individuals articulate a complex network of intra-genre distinctions which are symptomatic of cultural privilege (Bennett et al, 2009) but also serve to create hierarchies within genres (Thornton, 1995).…”