How people use subcultures to identify themselves

No matter how much people are willing to deny it, it is considered that everyone is part of a subculture or another. Whether it is being a skateboarder, a geek or a goth everyone can often be put into some sort of category.

subculture: is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from a larger culture. (wikipedia)

But it can also be considered that music plays a big role in seperating these subcultures from the rest. For years people have looked to the music industry as a way of seperating themselves from the rest by creating a stereotypical image which fits with a particular genre.

For example Punk.

The Punk genre has a very stereotypical image which is associated with either crime or offensive outfits but is a big example of people gaining there image and attitude from music.

This genre of music allowed people to express themselves and show others who they are and people would be able to make a stereotypical view of their personality and music taste through their clothes. However this genre was not one that was taken to well as these bands were promoting sex and drugs to young audiences as well as constanly using bad language in interviews on the radio and t.v.

Therefore fans of bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash where using there image to let the public know that they had the same opinions as these bands and where against the law and the country.

This is a video by from the Sex Pistols with their single 'God Save The Queen' and shows the crazy behaviour that occurred throughout the 70's with Punk culture.

It is this sort of genre that young people between the ages of 15-25 can really connect to as they are at the age where they are wanting to rebel against there parents. But Punk isn't considered so popular with young audiences of this modern day and age and could be considered 'outdated' as a newer subcultures are found such as...

Emo

This is a subculture which is based around teenagers aged 14-20 and a subculture which allows teenagers to rebel against life and parents and be what is considered 'emotional'.

Bands which are linked to this subculture are My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Panic at the Disco.

Emo originated with the hardcore Punk Movement of the 1980's in America and was known as Emocore.

The stereotypical outlook of an Emo is someone who is 'emotional' i.e depressed and therefore there are a lot of impacts on this subculture and articles which have been released which try to link suicides with the Emo culture. For example this article found in NME:

Emo fans have contacted NME.COM to defend their music against claims it inspired 13 year-old Hannah Bond to commit suicide.Roger Sykes, the coroner who gave the verdict of suicide yesterday (May 7), suggested that the fact that Bond was an obsessive fan of such music (My Chemical Romance being mentioned in particular) was linked to her death.The inquest heard that Bond had discussed with friends the "glamour" of suicide, and was obsessed with My Chemical Romance.However while most fans accepted that Bond's death was a tragedy, they rejected the coroner's conclusion that "the emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing".NME.COM user Time For Something Bibical said: "My heart goes out to her family, but you don't get 'sucidial' just solely by listening to 'emo' music, there are always deeper reasons and connections. "My Chemical Romance aren't very emo to be honest, their last album had quite a lot about hope - eg 'Welcome To The Black Parade' and 'Famous Last Words'. I listen to emo music, it doesn't make me sad or anything."Neamychem added: "MCR is a band that wants to save people's lives, NOT destroy them."luvmark also questioned the coroner's verdict. He said: "I find it disgusting that small-minded people would assume that music has that much of an influence, that someone would kill themselves because of it. "The idea of suicide has always been glamourised, even in films, but apparently it's easier to blame someone who has been slated in the past. I listen to My Chem, as do many of my friends, and we are happy people with happy lives."

But the Music that is linked to the Emo culture doesn't pocess qualities that are always considered happy particularly My Chemical Romance who link their videos around death such as 'Welcome to the black parade' and their single entitled 'dead'.

Their video for dead is also very similar to that of The Sex Pistols and 'God Save The Queen' and therefore is showing their influence of Punk culture.

A lot of what I am saying could be considered biased as when it came to asking some people I considered to be stereotypically Emo I didn't get the answers I was expecting.
One of the questions I asked was

How does this genre make you feel?
And one of the answers I got back was 'inspired'

So rather than being able to class this genre as Emotional it is in some ways a release for young people to get away from the stress of school, home and growing up.