Subcultures and music videos
Subcultres are groups who are united through common values, systems and tastes. These are split up into specific groups such as clothes, music politics etc. They tend to go against popular mainstream culture. As hebdige suggests, subcultures create their own smaller culture and do not conform with the majority of people and rebel against common values and systems.
Subcultures are a large part of the music industry in which they grow out of mainstream genres such as Rock. The 'Rock' genre is favoured by the punk subculture as they can relate to the type of music by who they are and how the represent themselves. Subcultures play a significant role in music and shouldnt be ignored as they have a unique nature and they offer a different perspective in the music industry.
Hebdige & McCraken are specifialists on subcultures and they have viewpoints about the topic.
McCraken suggests that the post modern world is full of diversity, and people have so many different and diverse ideas about music videos and that this is still growing. McCraken outlines the fact that dynamism and creativity plays a big role in this. If we look at the array of values and ideologies then we cant say all subcultres come from one culture.
Hebdige suggests that conforming to music is a process that differs from person to person. Social background is a contributing factor to this. People can read into different aspects of the same song. People are not part of the 'mass culture'
Subcultures and our history:
In the 1950's Rock and Rollers and beatniks were the main subcultures in society. In the 1960's surfers, rude-boys, mods, hippies and bikers had emerged. In the 1970's there had been skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glow rockers, funkers and punks. In the 1980's heavy metal, goths and the hip hop culture.. The 1990's and beyond can be described as not following a distinct culture.
In my music video I would be aiming to target popular mainstream culture and not a particular sub-culture. This is because targeting a sub-culture would limit the success of my music video and it would not appeal to a wider audience. I would want my music video to be viewed by a larger audience rather than a limited audience.
Subcultures and our history:
In the 1950's Rock and Rollers and beatniks were the main subcultures in society. In the 1960's surfers, rude-boys, mods, hippies and bikers had emerged. In the 1970's there had been skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glow rockers, funkers and punks. In the 1980's heavy metal, goths and the hip hop culture.. The 1990's and beyond can be described as not following a distinct culture.
In my music video I would be aiming to target popular mainstream culture and not a particular sub-culture. This is because targeting a sub-culture would limit the success of my music video and it would not appeal to a wider audience. I would want my music video to be viewed by a larger audience rather than a limited audience.
A good post Onat with some key information. You identify some sub-cultures of our history, and you discuss Hebdidge and Mckracken to some detail.
ReplyDeleteTo improve;
-When you discuss Hebdidge, go into his theory a bit more. What did he say about how audiences read into cultural products? Was this the same for everyone? Are audiences active or passive?
-think about how the industry now tries to appeal to sub-cultures or 'whats in' by referring to popular, mainstream shows like the X Factor
-what musical genres today are still perceived to be associated with sub-cultures? why do you think this is so?
-start some critical thinking before you end the post; state whether you believe some sub-cultures represent the idea of 'Star image' if people are choosing to dress like them...