It would be an understatement to say that opinions on the matter are divided. What’s more, defining subcultures has always been a complicated task. After Shang Salah sowed the SEED in our Contributors Forum, we asked five other members to share what subcultures mean to them and which ones, if any, they’re currently into.
Shang Salah
As a young creative, I’ve read too many articles pitying the current youth for their lack of subcultures. It’s made me question whether subcultures have truly died, or whether we’ve replaced them with something else. More specifically, have we swapped them for identity politics or identity-based groups? Or, on a more superficial level, have they been replaced with aesthetics?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that subcultures are dead. Take, for example, the shift from being part of a socialist punk group to now identifying with a creative Middle Eastern women’s group. The underrepresented are responding to decades of being unheard, and are prioritising the act of coming together through shared identity. We’re also living in an increasingly hyper-individualised society, so the more niche or specific a group’s description, the more likely we are to gravitate towards it.
That said, whenever I read about the subcultures of the ’70s or ’90s, it seems the real difference between then and now isn’t the youth’s lack of ideological stances, but the absence of spaces for them to gather and engage in meaningful discussions. I live in London, where even a simple coffee costs a lot of money – let alone the price of securing a space for regular meet-ups. As a result, we’ve adapted and now engage with our communities primarily online, through forums or social media. Many of my friends argue that this is the main reason why subcultures will never be what they once were. Another argument is that for many, it’s simply unaffordable to practice their art or creativity without commodifying it. Starting a band for fun seems impossible nowadays – the band needs to fit into a bigger plan of becoming a professional musician. We simply don’t have the luxury of time to pursue hobbies for the sake of the hobby.
Are subcultures truly long gone, or have we simply rebranded them? Personally, I lean towards the latter. I believe we’re more connected to our dimensionality now than ever before, with individuals able to be part of multiple communities – both superficial and profound – at the same time, often prioritising those that resonate with our identity. But the frustrating reality is that it’s prohibitively expensive to physically be part of a group on the regular, so instead, we engage online. That, I think, has become the new home for subcultures.
Shang Salah is a director, producer, video artist and researcher.
Jack Stanley
I think subcultures will always exist, they’re just going to change and shift a lot quicker than they used to. The interesting thing is that it feels like the age of dominant subcultures is over, and there’s a way in which all of these things can be huge and completely separate. I’ve been really interested in the hardcore crossover into mainstream, which I think a lot of people (myself included) didn’t expect.
