Subculture
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture of the area from which they are a part of.
Subcultures can be distinctive because of the age, race, ethnicity, class, and/or gender. The qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be aesthetic, religious, political, sexual, or a combination of these factors. Subcultures are often defined via their opposition to the values of the larger culture to which they belong, although this definition is not universally agreed on by theorists. Members of a subculture will often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style. Therefore, the study of subculture often consists of the study of the symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of the subculture, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. If the subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, then it may be described as a counterculture.
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Origin of the term
The term subculture began to figure in anthropological and sociological writing around 1945. The concept has been most generally adopted by scholars of delinquency says Pat Rogers in Grub Street: studies in a subculture (1972).
Since the late 1970s, the study and concept of subculture - through the influence of the [CCCS] - has largely been focused on an awareness of style and differences in style, in clothing, music or other cultural areas.
Etymology
1886, in ref. to bacterial cultures, from sub- + culture. 1936 in ref. to humans.
Sources
- Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Routledge, March 10, 1981; softcover ISBN 0-415-03949-5). Cited in Negus, Keith (1996). Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6310-2.
See also
