Chapter 4

Youth, Deviance, and Subcultures

Jonah Koken, Rachel Gaetz, Sarah Jablonski, Lisa Falaniko, Heber Bennion, Edna Castro

• Observant-Psycroptic

• The author, Patrick Williams, listened to this song while working on the intro to the chapter. What does this say about him? Automatically, some of us may label him, the song, or the band as “Deviant”. Why?Who decides which forms of music are normal or deviant?

• To quote straight from the book, “We don’t all walk around with rule books explaining what we can and cannot say or do. Nor are we born preconditioned to speak a certain language, be attracted to a certain kind of person, or appreciate a certain music genre. Rather, such normal thinkgs are learned and internalized through participation in everyday life.

• Deviance. Why do we care?

• “understanding deviance is the key to a better understanding of social rules, order, and individual and collective behavior.

• Chapter Outlook:

• The Role of Labeling

• Music, Subculture, and Moral Panics

• The Postwar Era

• Hip-Hop Subculture

• Music, Internet, and Deviant Subcultures.

Music, Subcultures, and Moral Panics

• American Music

• American Style

• Moral Panic

• German Music

• German Style

• Subcultures

The Beginning of an Era:Swing

Dance was the ultimate experience . The best thing about being a Swing Kid in Nazi Germany was the opportunity to Swing and jitterbug to a fast tempo. The best thing about this was freedom. The youngsters were free to “break down and blow off steam, excess teenage energy.Duke Ellington

The youth of the western world was celebrating the end of global economic depression and the approach of modern times during the 1930s and 40s with a riotous explosion of dance and music called Swing.

Fashion Style of the 30’s

-Clothing and Hair Style-•American StyleAmerican girls became fairly standarized in their

apparel. They only needed a few sweaters, a skirt, saddle shoes and bobby sox.

•German StyleMale Swing Kids favored London/New York-style

bulky double-breasted suit coats with very wide lapels, or “zootie” suit coats almost reaching to the knees. American fashion Gangsters.

Moral PanicAccording to Stanley Cohen author of Folk Devils and Moral Panic (1972) Moral panic is an condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.

As with any new kind of music or dance craze there is gonna be rejection .Moral Panic set in. It was more prevelant in Nazi Germany. The German officials could not comprehend this type of dancing. In their little minds dancing was suppose to refined. Moral panic increased and Swing was viewed as a very dangerous foreign import. Even worse, as far as the Nazi officials were concerned, Swing was a deliberate product of Jewish media mogul America that, if spread to Germany, could contaminate the blood of its own youth.

• Most new music styles, and the fans of such styles, have induced — at least in small scale of moral panic. From ministers condemning the evils of rock and roll to significant news coverage of the hippie culture and from Kurt Cobain’s death to the Goth movement. In the 1980’s a moral panic was created in the media over HIV/Aids. In 2011 moral panic set in about the Boat people. In overall consensus moral pain is used to sway the majority into backing an idea that contravenes our human rights.

Subcultures

Subcultures are live sociological phenomenas, they are phenomena that change over time and depends on the location, state and continent where occur. Also, changes that occur in society and the mainstream culture, leads to the emergence of new subcultures, whereas the old disappear or change.

Culture Club- Karma Chameleons

AnarchismAnarcho-punkBohemianismDizelasiGopnikiGothic cultureGraffiti writersHacker cultureLager LoutsMetalheads – headbangersMods and RockersNew Age TravellersNew romanticsRivetheadPunksScooter boysSkinheadsStraight edgeSuedeheadSwing kidsTeddy boysTeddy girlsVampire culture

Subcultures our world wide, here is a very, very small list, just in America alone. Subcultures exist in every country from, tattoos subculture to the Philippinos skate boarding, subcultures.

The Postwar EraYouth Culture and Deviance on Wholesale

Homology – relationships among ideology, image and practice within a subculture

Consider the roles that music and related behaviors have played in communicating resistance to mainstream culture but do not ignore the role of “the system” in creating deviant labels as part of it’s efforts to control people’s behaviors

Mid 1960’s Hippie CountercultureAdolescent use and politicized rock and folk music•Marijuana•LSD•AlcoholCollective movementsVietnam WarSocial inequalities

RacismSexism

Late 1960’s -Politically Oriented popular Music•First generation to find the meanings of foreign wars through tv and the Civil Rights Movement

Timothy Leary’s “turn on, tune in, drop out”Invites the hippy to switch to the use of mind expanding drugsORChange mode of experience, leave path of middle class and reject work, power, status and composition

Mushroomhead- Slow Thing

1970’s Conservative popularization of Disco• A dominant form of popular music

Use of cocaine and heroin to go with the all night dance parties

Live for the moment attitude

Abba- Dancing Queen

Rock and Roll•Developing into heavier metal and more aggressive punk

Metal had better musicianship and lyrics appealed more to the popular music customers due to the less opposition to mainstream

Metal bands were playing shows for fans while punk bands struggled to feed themselves

1980’s Metal•Critiquing mainstream values and social indifference

-Drug Use-Truancy-Atheism-Occultism

Religious leaders, politicians and public interest groups concerned about lyrics, heavy tones, speed of the music and album art they deemed “dark subjects”

PMRC- Parent Music Resource Center

Used tactics of portraying the fans as “victims” to control the media content and distributionDeemed heavy metal a threat because it celebrated and legitimate sources of identity and community that did not derive from parental models

Making artists appear as deviant and as dangerous as possible

Metallica-Master of Puppets

AMA-American Medical Assoicationpublished warnings that heavy metal posed a threat to children and adolescents

“Back Masking” was believed to instruct listeners of violence and destruction

Potentially Dangerous music themes

Drug and alcohol abuseSuicideViolenceSatanic worshipSexual exploitationRacism

BIC- Back In Control

Police gave special talks at high schools and offered seminars that outlined “warning signs”

-T-shirt advertising bands-black clothing-w/ spikes or studs-“punk” jewelry-multiple ear piercings-dyed or spiked hair

The Orange County, California Local Government provided families with parenting workshops for families with “problem children”

In a BIC book “The Punk and Heavy Metal Handbook”

“Punk and Heavy metal oppose traditional values of those in authority and encourage rebellious and aggressive attitudes and behavior toward parents, educators law enforcement and religious leaders.”

Understand there is a relationship between music, style, deviant behavior and audience reception.Don’t think that music or lyrics cause people to act in a certain way.

•War•Sexual Predation•AngerAll are found in news, sports, film and television

Music is created around these themes and represent or reflect aspects of mainstream culture

Think about roles subcultural objects play in representing aspects of mainstream culture that sub culturists deal with

Hip-Hop Subculture and the Commodification of

Deviance

Hip-Hop Culture• A multi-billion-dollar

global culture

• Emerged from the African-American ghettos of New York in the 70’s.

• Has since morphed into a multivalent and multiracial phenomenon.

• A variety of popular culture and subcultural forms.

• Sean “Diddy” Combs - $580 million

• Jay-Z - $475 million• Dr. Dre - $350

million• 50 Cent - $125

million

Rap• Rap music stands as the primary creative force within Hip-

Hop culture.

• Rappers themselves come with diverse biographies and desires.

• Some are political, others promote radicalized group-based violence that pushes only the luckiest few out of their position in society.

Rap• In the 70’s and 80’s they focused energy

on highlighting the black, lower-class experience.

• Keep Ya Head Up

• Rap has come a long way since then. It has many styles.

• Very diverse - Racial differences, East Coast vs. West Coast, old school vs. new school.

Understanding Straight Edge

Music, The Internet,and Deviant Subcultures

The “Straight- Edge”Subculture

• Emerged as an offshoot of the hardcore punk subculture.

• Can be traced to the 1981 song entitled “Straight Edge” by the Washington, D.C. band Minor Threat.

• Minor Threat - Straight Edge• Emerged as a conservative reaction to punk’s anarchic orientation.

• Called on punks to renounce drug use and promiscuity and thereby maintain a “straight edge” over their mainstream peers.

• From the 1980’s to today, straight-edge kids consider themselves deviant and define their values and actions in contrary terms to mainstream culture.

Diffusion of Subcultures

• Personal and official band websites.– Personal stories, biographies, song lyrics

• Online Stores– Places where people can purchase items from the band.

The Internet and You• The internet is the way most music gets to you.• Some see the internet as a “defusion” of this

subculture.• Others see the internet as their only resource to get

their music.