Understanding Dislocal Urban Subcultures_ Example of Hardcore Scene_tokyo and Beyond

8/9/2019 Understanding Dislocal Urban Subcultures_ Example of Hardcore Scene_tokyo and Beyond

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Music and Arts in Action | Volume 3 | Issue 3

Understanding Dislocal Urban Subcultures.The Example of the Hardcore Scene, from Tokyo and Beyond

!"# $UE!!E%

Center for Ethnography |University of California at Irvine | USA*

ABSTRACT

This article examines, through se&eral ethnographic examples taken from my

empirical multi'sited field(ork, the logics and the mechanisms of the global

circulation of a specific music'based )youth subculture*+ hardcore punk. $ore

broadly, it proposes a shift of perspecti&e in the examination of similar phenomena

by adopting - a stance that refuses to consider entities such as )cultural areas*,

)subcultures*, )cultural* and )subcultural identities*, )local* and )global* as taken'

for'granted analytical concepts, but rather considers them as the result of

continual actions by social actors (ho create and maintain such loci of action/ 0 a

method that allo(s us to focus on the mechanisms of circulation themsel&es rather

than on the modalities of )delocali1ation* and )relocali1ation*, mainly by trackingideas, con&entions, people and material ob2ects. 3rom this perspecti&e and on the

basis of my ethnographic material, " demonstrate to (hat extent and under (hich

modalities the hardcore scene takes the form of a global net(ork bounding

different units of social situations.

45enter for Ethnography, Social and Beha&ioral Sciences 6ate(ay SBS6 U5 "r&ine, "r&ine, 5 70879':-;;, US

$usic and rts in ction


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I"TR#$%CTI#"

This article aims to examine the logics and the mechanisms of the global circulation

of a specific musicbased !youth subculture"# hardcore punk.1$ore broadly and on

the basis of multisited field%or&' it aims at proposing a shift of perspective in theexamination of similar phenomena by adopting a method that allo%s a focus on themechanisms of circulation themselves rather than on the modalities of!delocali(ation" and !relocali(ation") This shift of perspective resonates %ith atour+sstance, as he argues' !Circulation is first' the landscape -in %hich+ templates andagents of all sorts and colors circulate is second)" .atour' /001' p) 2345)

Although initial studies on !youth subcultures" .see e.g.' Clar&e' 2364, A) Cohen'2311, 7) Cohen' 236/, 8ordon' 2396, :all and ;efferson' 2364, :ebdige' 2363,$c


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fruitful) Indeed' from this standpoint' my perspective refuses to consider entities suchas !cultural areas"' !subcultures"' !cultural" and !subcultural identities"' !local" and!global" as pregiven' ta&enfor granted notions' but rather considers them asoutcomes' as results of continual actions by social actors %ho create and maintain

such loci of action) Such a perspective thereby endeavors to account for thosepractices in a detailed ethnographic manner) This alternative approach already ta&esshape at a very basic level# trying to summari(e' as an inevitable introductory tas&'

%hat hardcore pun& is)

&'AT IS 'AR$C#R() $RA&I"* A $+"AMIC ,#RTRAIT

rom a musical point of vie%' hardcore pun& is a more aggressive form ofpun& roc&' mixing fast parts %ith heavy brea&do%ns, freDuently' the vocals areaggressively screamed' reflecting the content of the lyrics) Although thesefundamental elements remain' currently' there are different subcategories of hardcorepun& music' %hich differentiate themselves through the combination of differentmusical influences stemming from other musical styles' mainly metal and rap)

Some of the hardcore &ids associate hardcore %ith specific lifestyles' li&e straight edge'%hich consists in the abstinence from drugs' alcohol' smo&ing and promiscuoussexuality' or a commitment to a vegetarian or vegan diet) @orld%ide hardcore is alsocharacteri(ed by musical events' hardcore shows' %hich are concerts %here differentstyles of a very aggressive %ay of dancing called violent dancingor moshingare often



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performed) This type of dancing also constitutes a possibility for different localgroups of friends' called hardcore crewsand affiliated %ith a specific name H li&e the24 Cre% from To&yo for instance H' to defy each other) The production pattern ofhardcore goods and commodities' i.e.' records' CJs' boo&s and fanzines but also

bands+ merchandi(ing products li&e Tshirts or stic&ers' relies on the idea of DIY.do-it-yourself5 %hich means that these commodities have been created by hardcore &idsthemselves' in accordance %ith the !traditional" hardcore precept by the kids for thekids' i.e.' %ithout the aid of nonhardcore professionals belonging to the massmediaindustries in general and large music labels in particular)

-IRST C#"TACT

@hen starting my research on hardcore' the rather naKve idea that originallymotivated it %as to examine ho% hardcore %as reconfigured in a !non@esternculture") I therefore decided to underta&e empirical %or& in ;apan) The firstfield%or& experience I had in To&yo appeared to be very decisive for my overallstance and research Duestion) @hen I arrived in To&yo for the very first time' in/001' I %as not able to communicate in ;apanese' experienced exoticism and had tograpple %ith the status of being a complete foreigner) :o%ever' a couple of days aftermy arrival' upon entering a music club in Lo&ohama to attend my first ;apanesehardcore sho%' these feelings of discomfort immediately faded a%ay' as I myself %as a!member" of the hardcore scene and pretty much turned out to feel !at home") Theconfiguration of the sho% %as similar to %hat I had experienced in Europe# a smallclub' different hardcore distros' .independent CJs and record distributors5 and most

of the records for sale %ere familiar to me) @hen the first band started to play' thecro%d began to dance in the mosh pit' i.e.' the dance floor' to stagediveand to grabthe microphone to sing along,and all this in a %ay that %as very familiar to me)

This first experience made me reali(e that the To&yo hardcore scene reveals logics of

movement and meaning that are not properly assimilated to national or local 2categories or essences) This constituted the first data that inductively helped me toreali(e that social actors %ho %ere involved in the hardcore scene %ere engaged incontinual activities to create and maintain the hardcore scene as a globalphenomenon' thus %ittingly deciding not to perform other registers of identities' li&e

ethnicity or !national culture") =y adopting an ethnomethodologically informedvocabulary' such as contemporary research on ethnicity or gender proposes .see e.g.'$oerman' 2369 and =ruba&er' /004 on ethnicity, and @est and >ensterma&er'2331 and :irschauer' 2334' /002 on gender5' one could also formulate that they

%ere able to engage in processes of !undoing ;apaneseness") >rom this reversedperspective' the belonging to both !the ;apanese culture" and !the %orld%idehardcore subculture" had to be understood as routinely engaged accomplishmentsand accounted for through Mrelational' processual' dynamic' eventful' anddisaggregated termsM .=ruba&er' /004' p) 225) In addition to this fundamentalrecasting of my stance' this field%or& experience also raised a central Duestion#

through %hich paths and according to %hich mechanisms %ere all of these obectsand ideas related to hardcore' that I found in Europe and To&yo' circulatingN

0Here Clocal should be understood as a homogenous cultural context (ith clear spatial delimitations.



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Ans%ering this Duestion reDuired rigorous trac&ing of such mechanisms) This tas&%ould enable me to better understand ho% hardcore' as a set of conventions andvalues' globally circulates) @ith this ne% research Duestion settled' I no% had toreframe my methodology)

A *R#%"$($ M(T'#$##*+

To properly account for the !native"+s strategies and accomplishments' my proecthad to proceed inductively) Therefore' my methodology %as generally based on themodel of grounded theory as proposed by 8laser and Strauss .23465)

In order to achieve a productive methodological triangulation H according toJen(in+s idea of =et%eenmethod triangulation .Jen(in' 2360' pp) /36?2?, see also>lic&' /0095 H different methods and approaches %ere adopted) $y research reliedfirst of all on participant observation and ethnography) :o%ever' the specificity of

my research Duestion reDuired the development of a method able to trac& processes ofcirculation) I therefore opted for a multisited inspired perspective .:anner(' /00?,$arcus' 2331' /0045) $y research thus too& me to ;apan .particularly To&yo5' aspreviously mentioned' but also S%it(erland .particularly the areas of Ourich and

@estern S%it(erland5' Fe% Lor&' os Angeles' the urthermore' as a !member"of the hardcore scene myself' I extended the use of ethnography %ith a narrativemethod' %hich has been discussed under the term of !analytic autoethnography".Anderson' /0045) This enabled me to consider my o%n life history as data) Thisethnographic %or& has been completed by an extensive amount of open informalintervie%s and lifehistoryrelated narrative intervie%s)

The fact that ethnography can only account for a section of reality %as' thus' not seenas a negative feature of this method but as its force) $y research %as deliberately an!ethnography of the particular" .Abuughod' 23325 so as to minimi(e effects ofgenerali(ations and premature categori(ations from %hich previous research on thecirculation of youth subcultures seems to suffer)

'AR$C#R( ,AT'S

In order to better understand the mechanisms and the routes of the flo%s lin&ing thedifferent locales %here hardcore is performed and constructed' let me provide someethnographic examples of trac&ing) >irstly' in order to account for !hardcoremigrations"' I %ill outline the biography of Emi' a young ;apanese girl %ho decidedto migrate to !follo% hardcore") I %ill also demonstrate that hardcore &ids move

constantly' by examining other examples of !hardcore migrations" over shorter



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periods of time and on smaller scales)3 Secondly' I %ill propose differentethnographic glimpses of obects that circulate' especially Tshirts' Pideos and CJs)

'AR$C#R( ,(#,(S ,AT'S: (MIS BI#*RA,'+

I met Emi for the first time at a huge hardcore festival in =elgium organi(ed by thelabel 8ood ife -http://musicandartsinaction.net/index.php/maia/article/ie!/hardcorescene


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friendship among hardcore &ids %orld%ide and the strong %ish to communicate andstay connected) This idea is also constantly promoted by individual discourses) >orexample' entaro' the singer of a band from To&yo called Crystal a&e' told me#!The values lin&ed to it .:ardcore5 are to connect many hardcore &ids in the %orld)

@e can share this %orld%ide movement)"

Apart from Emi+s biography' there are many other examples of short' medium' orlongterm !hardcore migrations" %hich I gathered during my extended field%or&that verify this thesis) >or example' one of my interlocutors in To&yo moved fromthe rural countryside to ;apan+s capital for its hardcore scene and no% regularlytravels to the United States to attend hardcore sho%s and festivals there and to spendtime %ith his American hardcore friends) The To&yo hardcore scene also attractsforeigners' %ho sometimes come especially for an annual festival' or even decide tolive in To&yo for a longer period of time' a choice in %hich the To&yo hardcore scene

turns out to be a decisive criterion) >or example' on my first stay in To&yo' I met aS%edish student doing an academic exchange for one year %ho had ust had a 24.the name of a local cre%5 freshly tattooed on his %rist) >ollo%ing the end of hisacademic year' he regularly travelled bac& to ;apan to meet up %ith his ;apanesehardcore friends) @hilst in To&yo' I also met a Canadian girl living there %ho

%or&ed as an English anguage teacher for t%o years before moving to ondon) Inher case too' her hardcore net%or& %as decisive in this choice) Juring my entire stayin To&yo' I met numerous other people from the United States and Europe %ho alsobecame part of the To&yo hardcore scene) In addition to these itinerant individuals' Ialso observed a constant flo% of bands' from various countries li&e Italy' 8ermany'

the United States or the Fetherlands' playing one or more gigs in To&yo during theirtours)

Although hardcore &ids are generally resourceful and travel relatively cheaply H bystaying at friends+ places' traveling via lo% budget transportation' even sometimesshoplifting H and are prepared to reduce other living expenses and invest their moneysolely in traveling' long distance travel is only underta&en by a certain proportion ofthem for obvious professional and financial reasons) :o%ever' even if reDuired tooccur on a smaller scale' due to limited resources' movement remains central tohardcore &ids+ activities) It is common for hardcore &ids to drive for bet%een t%o to

eight hours to attend sho%s) In To&yo it too&' for example' an average of one hourby public transport %hereas in S%it(erland it ta&es an average of t%o hours+ travel toget to a sho%) In sum' exchanges and circulation of people' as I observed in To&yo'

appear to be incessant and therefore a fundamental characteristic of hardcore)4Indeed' these flo%s %hich I have described for To&yo are no exception but can besimilarly observed in all other !hardcore places" of different si(es such as Fe% Lor&and the @est Coast of the United States' Central 8ermany' the Fetherlands'=elgium amongst others in @estern Europe' South America' Australia' ;apan and

>This point raises the Auestion of the minimum material and financial means, (hich are necessary to undertake these

tra&els, and indirectly the Auestion of the social milieu hardcore kids come from. lthough " cannot fully explore thisAuestion here, a basic tendency emerges+ in post'industrial societies, (here the possibility of tra&elling at lo( costs, ofha&ing access to the "nternet and of listening to, or playing, music is nearly affordable by anyone, hardcore kids comefrom all kind of milieus. "n other Chardcore places, (hich are inscribed in other types of societies, for example SouthEast sia, being in&ol&ed in the hardcore scene might imply coming from a relati&ely pri&ileged milieu.



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other countries in South East Asia' especially $alaysia' Thailand and the 7hilippines)ne %ay to dra% this !hardcore map of the %orld" is to loo& at the tour schedules ofbands' %ho often %ish to play in as many as possible places around the %orld) Thefollo%ing flyer for the %orld tour of a band from =oston called :ave :earts can be

ta&en as a revealing example#

Figure 1: The flyer for the world tour of Bostons Have Heart (Taken from the websitehttp://wwwmyspa!e!om/haveheart"

T'( ,AT'S #- 'AR$C#R( T'I"*S: IM,#RT/(0,#RT

:o%ever' the circulation related to the hardcore scene is not only based on people)The circulation of !hardcore things" also constitutes an important aspect of theexistence of hardcore' as much for the collective construction of a !hardcore identity"as for the success of a hardcore career on an individual basis) To ma&e a lin& %ith myprevious example' the lyrics of the bands' %hich are one of the main vehicles andsources for hardcore+s repertoire of ideological conventions' also constantly circulate)They move mainly through the circulation of records or CJs' in %hich they are



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nearly systematically printed' and they are also' most recently' distributed throughthe Internet) In order to better understand the mechanism of the circulation ofhardcore things' let me examine a set of examples)

The first example leads us to To&yo again) $y first visit to one of the only t%orecord stores selling hardcore records' CJs and Tshirts in To&yo someho% thrilledme) I %as astonished to discover that I could find almost any ne%ly released CJ Icould thin& of' including many by European bands) @hereas a couple of days beforeI had been so proud to offer my ne% ;apanese friends the ne%est CJs released by thet%o most popular S%iss hardcore bands' thin&ing it %ould loo& li&e a small treasureto them' I no% found myself standing in this store' staring at piles of these sameCJs) Similarly' the To&yo hardcore &ids also export their musical production# %iththe help of %ebsites li&e $yspace they constantly trade their CJs through intensivecontacts %ith other hardcore &ids and distros around the %orld) I myself became a

vector of this circulation) @hen departing' instead of bringing typical ;apanese giftsbac& to S%it(erland' my luggage %as filled %ith numerous CJs and JPJs of thebands affiliated to the 24 Cre% to sell them in S%it(erland but also %ith things Ibought for myself# buttons' stic&ers and Tshirts of ;apanese bands' %hom Ibefriended during my stay) In exchange' my friends in ;apan started to sell my bandBsCJ and also to %ear the Tshirt of my band on pictures circulating on the Internet)The possession of these obects %ere' for me' as much as for them' a source ofcredibility' because they are the tangible evidence that %e %ere committed enough tohardcore to' first of all' &no% underground hardcore bands from different placesaround the %orld' secondly' to move around the %orld to discover them' and thirdly'

to support them by buying and selling their material in accordance %ith the JILprinciple)

This process of valori(ation of the possession of rare hardcore obects can be betterunderstood %hen trac&ing the ;apanese CJs on their route to Europe) Indeed'sometime after I came bac& from my first stay in ;apan' my band played together

%ith a band from Fe% Lor& called /1 Ta ife' %hich toured in Europe for a coupleof %ee&s) /1 Ta ife is a band &no%n for its singer#


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:ere again' for :http://musicandartsinaction.net/index.php/maia/article/ie!/hardcorescene


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Understanding Dislocal Urban Subcultures_ Example of Hardcore Scene_tokyo and Beyond

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