Where have all the subcultures gone?

Niles Crane · 30-08-2018 01:03PM

Identity politics has taken over from all that sort of stuff.

verycool · 30-08-2018 01:05PM

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Indeed! I'm an ex-Curehead. After nearly 30 years, I still only wear black.

Were they not goths?

5rtytry56 · 30-08-2018 01:11PM

Niles Crane wrote: »

Identity politics

YES.
Such subcultures are not compatible with the entailing Political Correctness.

jpm4 · 30-08-2018 01:12PM

Music is free or cheap as hell, why limit yourself to one sub culture when you can take a little of each? Same for the clothes - they do "metal" clothes in h&m sometimes. No need to invest your time or money hence no allegence.

As someone else said online identity politics has replaced a lot of this stuff as an outlet for teens.

tomofson · 30-08-2018 01:18PM

jpm4 wrote: »

Music is free or cheap as hell, why limit yourself to one sub culture when you can take a little of each? Same for the clothes - they do "metal" clothes in h&m sometimes. No need to invest your time or money hence no allegence.

As someone else said online identity politics has replaced a lot of this stuff as an outlet for teens.

Most people back then used to listen to a lot of different music too, it was just a fashion thing which fashion you liked the best.

There used to be a goth lad a few years ago used to walk around dun laoghaire wearing a weird goth man-skirt. He had painting on his face too, I remember thinking he was pretty cool.

J Mysterio · 30-08-2018 01:23PM

tomofson wrote: »

I have asked this question in the past, it would seem like music orientated subcultures are dead now days.

I wish they still existed honestly, I miss the skater fashion of the 00's a lot. And I miss metalheads,punks and skinheads, I wish they all still existed but unfortunately they are gone for good.

Go to Dundrum and look at the Vans t-shirts. These used to be nice big, cotton t-shirts where the sleeves went to near enough your elbow. These days they are - like all popular clothes - skin tight.

jpm4 · 30-08-2018 01:24PM

tomofson wrote: »

Most people back then used to listen to a lot of different music too, it was just a fashion thing which fashion you liked the best.

I disagree, unless you were loaded there is no way you could access the amount of music you can now as a teen.

Am a big metal head and I remember as a teen hmv had a particular obscure black metal album I really wanted! It had an "import" sticker on it and cost 30 euro! Nowadays I can just stream it free in youtube.

J Mysterio · 30-08-2018 01:27PM

jpm4 wrote: »

I disagree, unless you were loaded there is no way you could access the amount of music you can now as a teen.

Am a big metal head and I remember as a teen hmv had a particular obscure black metal album I really wanted! It had an "import" sticker on it and cost 30 euro! Nowadays I can just stream it free in youtube.

You recorded it off the radio and shared mix tapes. You watched MTV or Kerrang or whatever. You bought music magazines.

The Crowman · 30-08-2018 01:29PM

Almost every eary 80's sub culture is included here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ab6II1psU

Ash.J.Williams · 30-08-2018 01:30PM

The kids have put getting laid before individuality

....... · 30-08-2018 01:57PM

The Crowman wrote: »

Almost every eary 80's sub culture is included here.

Interviewed by old prune face himself.

Fairly elaborate hair do on yer man from Kiliney!

tomofson · 30-08-2018 02:26PM

jpm4 wrote: »

I disagree, unless you were loaded there is no way you could access the amount of music you can now as a teen.

Am a big metal head and I remember as a teen hmv had a particular obscure black metal album I really wanted! It had an "import" sticker on it and cost 30 euro! Nowadays I can just stream it free in youtube.

I used to buy an album every week when I was a kid and I am far from loaded, people did have the internet in the early to late 2000's , I had it and again I am not loaded. I can remember using limewire to download songs, but I do get what you are saying. With youtube it is far easier to listen to different music because almost every song ever made is on it.

What is the name of the black metal album if you don;t mind me asking?

I was big into rap and hip hop as a kid, which makes me cringe because I hate most of the stuff these days, my cousin who I grew up with was mad into heavy metal and other rock bands, We used to listen to each others music. It makes me laugh when I think how we used to pretend we hated each others music tastes back then only to finally admit to each other we did like certain songs from certain bands which we would follow up with "but the rest is ****e". I actually really enjoy bands like metallica, slipknot and system of a down now, I am not too big into NWA anymore though.

My cousin also had a lot of friends around who where big into music and they would bring cd's for us to listen too, that is mostly how we found out about different music.

Gimme A Pound · 30-08-2018 02:27PM

J Mysterio wrote: »

You recorded it off the radio and shared mix tapes. You watched MTV or Kerrang or whatever. You bought music magazines.

You sure did, but there is still absolutely no way that there was the same access to any music you wanted, or as cheap, even for free. Waiting around in case the dj played your favourite song to tape is definitely not the same as looking up anything you want in your own time and playing it yourself immediately/keeping it in full without someone talking over it/cutting it short.

Badly Drunk Boy · 30-08-2018 02:32PM

verycool wrote: »

Were they not goths?

Yeah, I suppose, or at least a subset. Just another label from people who weren't. I didn't go around saying "I'm a Curehead!" or "I'm a Goth!". That's just how people referred to you. I listened to The Cure, The Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus, but I was also listening to The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Nick Cave (and still do).

....... · 30-08-2018 02:34PM

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Yeah, I suppose, or at least a subset. Just another label from people who weren't. I didn't go around saying "I'm a Curehead!" or "I'm a Goth!". That's just how people referred to you. I listened to The Cure, The Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus, but I was also listening to The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Nick Cave (and still do).

You didnt have to say it - it was obvious what you were by how you looked.

Sardonicat · 30-08-2018 02:38PM

....... wrote: »

I forgot about Cureheads. They had great hair.

Yes. But highly flammable. Lighting your ciggy from a gas hob was not a good idea, as I discovered.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-08-2018 02:41PM

....... wrote: »

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Kids don't even have any interest in listening to an album from start to finish anymore so the likelihood of them devoting their time to styling their like a teddy boy or something is slim to none. They still follow fashion but it doesn't seem to be informed by their choice in music.

Im more looking at it from the point of individuality and self expression.

We used to be part of subcultures because we wanted to be different. Now obviously we were only different within a larger group, all the rockers were still rockers and the same as each other. But rockers were a minority group within the wider group of kids of that generation. And mainly, we wanted to be different to our parents.

Even within our particular subculture it was possible to express yourself differently to others, style your hair differently etc... There was no "one" rocker look, it was rather a theme of a number of different ways of being.

But these days I see kids and they all look the same, no one is expressing any individuality or using their hair/clothes/style to express themselves.

Whats happened!?

I’d presume you just can’t tell the differences between the kids styles. Imagine an old boy when you were young. Do you reckon they knew about the differences between rockers? Or would thy have seen a bunch of rockets all dressed the same?

I’d say the kids could tell each other’s styles apart even if you Oder people can’t.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 30-08-2018 02:41PM

I spent heaps of money and time on music when I was a teenager. Staying up late to listen to donal dineen, hoping you'd catch him muttering the name of the artist if you liked a song and then hoping to fcuk they had it in one of the music shops the next time I made it to Galway. Scouring Hotpress and NME trying to guess if I'd like something and taking a punt on the CD. Spending a lot of time at friends' houses if they had the music channels. Limewire and the likes in the mid 2000s in rural Ireland was mostly an exercise in how to be patient and not punch a Compaq :pac:

I'm getting nostalgic now but taking the rose tinted glasses off if 15 y/o me could have had an afternoon on spotify I would have sh1t myself with joy. Literally sh1t myself.

Ragnar Lothbrok · 30-08-2018 02:43PM

I went to see the ska band "The Service" in An Bróg, Cork, last week and the place was heaving. Although everyone loved the music, the only ones dressed any differently were the middle-aged skinheads (myself included

). Everyone else who appeared to be born after the seventies were all dressed remarkably "normal".

My son is in his mid 20s and neither he nor any of his friends had a particular style in the way that you could define as being part of a particular group - although some of his school friends were goths/emos.

In my teens I remember many of us were clearly defined as Skins, Punks, Mods, Rockers or (God help us) New Romantics. You just don't see that these days, and like most of the modern ills, I lay the blame fairly and squarely on Social Media and the seemingly overwhelming drive to conform to the norm.

Ragnar Lothbrok · 30-08-2018 02:55PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I’d presume you just can’t tell the differences between the kids styles. Imagine an old boy when you were young. Do you reckon they knew about the differences between rockers? Or would thy have seen a bunch of rockets all dressed the same?

I’d say the kids could tell each other’s styles apart even if you Oder people can’t.

I'm calling BS on that one

Put a bunch of Skinheads in a room with a bunch of Rockers and anyone, even my old Granny, could tell the difference between a shaved head and a head full of long, greasy hair.

Same goes for the Mods with their clean cut appearance and fancy suits. Punks with Mohicans and studded leather jackets most definitely did not look like the ridiculously foppish New Romantics.

True, a lot of old people would just have seen us all as young hooligans, and might not have known the specific name of the "subculture" we adhered to, but they would have had to be blind not to see the difference in dress.

....... · 30-08-2018 02:55PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I’d presume you just can’t tell the differences between the kids styles. Imagine an old boy when you were young. Do you reckon they knew about the differences between rockers? Or would thy have seen a bunch of rockets all dressed the same?

I’d say the kids could tell each other’s styles apart even if you Oder people can’t.

No I dont buy this.

The differences in the various subcultures that have been named on this thread were quite distinct.

My ma (at my age) knew the difference between rockers and cureheads and townies and goths (bit of crossover with the cureheads and goths alright).

Sure no one can even name a subculture that exists today - none do!

benjamin d · 30-08-2018 02:56PM

My "internet" was Planet Sound on Channel 4 teletext and a lot of my musical choices were made from that. I was somewhat of a rocker/skater punk type but never fully committed to the fashion or anything outside of the general faux pas (remember early 2000s flaired cord trousers, WTF!)

I definitely agree with the previous posts that identity politics is where young people choose their niche these days. At least back when you identified with a group through music it was fairly harmless nonsense.

....... · 30-08-2018 02:56PM

Maybe modern music isnt divided into particular looks anymore?

Badly Drunk Boy · 30-08-2018 03:05PM

J Mysterio wrote: »

You recorded it off the radio and shared mix tapes. You watched MTV or Kerrang or whatever. You bought music magazines.

Yeah, that's how it was for me as a teenager in the 80s and early 90s. We didn't have much money so most knowledge of music came from Melody Maker, NME, and Dave Fanning's radio programme.

I still have the taped recording of the first time Dave Fanning played Morrissey's debut single, Suedehead. Dave played it at the wrong speed and burst out laughing, and acknowledged that he had probably messed it up for loads of people trying to record it. He wasn't wrong...

tomofson · 30-08-2018 03:05PM

benjamin d wrote: »

My "internet" was Planet Sound on Channel 4 teletext and a lot of my musical choices were made from that. I was somewhat of a rocker/skater punk type but never fully committed to the fashion or anything outside of the general faux pas (remember early 2000s flaired cord trousers, WTF!)

I definitely agree with the previous posts that identity politics is where young people choose their niche these days. At least back when you identified with a group through music it was fairly harmless nonsense.

Remember the JNCO jeans?

....... · 30-08-2018 03:06PM

tomofson wrote: »

Remember the JNCO jeans?

We had unbranded versions of those back in the 70s. They were just called flares.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 30-08-2018 03:12PM

Nerds and jocks seems to be the one constant.

It has always existed in one form or the other.

tomofson · 30-08-2018 03:14PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Nerds and jocks seems to be the one constant.

It has always existed in one form or the other.

The strong bulky and brutish vs the shy intelligent and weak.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 30-08-2018 03:40PM

Sure no one can even name a subculture that exists today - none do!

There are still punks and hippies and metal heads and skaters. Grime is probably very close to an old fashioned subculture, specific look tied to a specific music. Vegans probably count, that's way more than a diet now. Sneakerheads would be a new, weird one. Like I said within techno there'd be a lot of distinct scenes. Certain "fandoms" would fit the criteria too, though they probably operate mostly online.

Just because you can't tell what music someone listens to by what they're wearing doesn't mean subcultures have stopped existing.

....... · 30-08-2018 03:47PM

Marie Grumpy Query wrote: »

There are still punks and hippies and metal heads and skaters. Grime is probably very close to an old fashioned subculture, specific look tied to a specific music. Vegans probably count, that's way more than a diet now. Sneakerheads would be a new, weird one. Like I said within techno there'd be a lot of distinct scenes. Certain "fandoms" would fit the criteria too, though they probably operate mostly online.

Just because you can't tell what music someone listens to by what they're wearing doesn't mean subcultures have stopped existing.

I meant specifically the type of subcultures that are visible in what you wear and how you look. How self expression and individuality in how you present yourself to the world seems to be gone compared to the recent past.

I mean there are millions of subcultures out there that have absolutely nothing to do with how you look or what you wear but are about something you like to do or a particular way you choose to live. Thats not what I was talking about though.

Where have all the subcultures gone?

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