Subcultures and My Life

Going into the semester, I was pretty interested in subcultures, it's always been something that I've thought about. I knew a lot of stereotypes about different subcultures, but I wasn't sure what the definition of one was or how they interacted with the mainstream. There were always groups that I associated with because of various activities I participated in, but I never considered myself a member of any particular subculture. I never had much exposure to radically different subcultures, but I was excited to learn more about them.

I definitely learned a lot this semester. Deviance was never something I thought about with subcultures, I always assumed it was a group of people with similar interests. Due to my heavy influence in music, I assumed the mainstream was inherently evil - the mainstream meant Justin Bieber, deviance meant James Blake. I never had an insane hatred of the mainstream culture, but I'm happy to say that through learning more about deviance and subcultures, I've gained an appreciation for the mainstream as much as I have for subcultures.

So anyway, does it mean anything? Have subcultures affected my life? I would say definitely yes, but not in any direct way. I'm not a member of a subculture, nor do I really know anyone who is, but I see the effects of youth cultures everywhere I go. Whether meeting people in a subculture or existing totally in the mainstream - whatever that means - subcultures reaching all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century have affected youth culture in general the way it is. The effects of subcultures on the mainstream (including its responses to them) has affected the way the mainstream developed over time.

I can't say I'm any more or less tolerant to different subcultures, since my real-life experience with them is still very little. However, I can say that I have a better understanding of why people decide to join a subculture and resist mainstream ideals - whether they do it intentionally or not. Through learning about my specific subculture (jamband), I've come to the conclusion that one doesn't have to be in a subculture to resist the mainstream. I've also decided that by resisting, it doesn't mean you're some kind of alternative-minded social rebel. Resisting is healthy in any form or fashion, and it keeps society fresh.

Subcultures in my life

For the most part, I find subcultures too constraining. The exact pressures of conformity and popularity found within the mainstream are also found within subcultures. There's the risk of being seen as a poser or casual participant. If you leave the mainstream to find belonging just to be rejected by a subculture, where does that leave you?

I like the idea of being influenced a little bit by multiple subcultures better. I like lots of different music and books and sports, and I like the ideals the cultures set forth of empowerment and questioning the power structures. I can't say that I do or have ever belonged to a specific subculture, because such membership involves a high level of dedication and commitment. The really interesting thing to me is that each subculture has it's own fairly rigid set of qualifiers. They may not be maleness, wealth, heterosexuality, Christianity, etc, but each subculture sets forth its own requirements for participation. To me, this plays into mainstream culture more that anyone would care to admit.

I still believe that the ideals of subcultures--finding community and belonging amongst a like-minded group of individuals--are good. I've just never felt such a strong draw to any singular culture to pledge involvement.

Subcultures

When discussing subcultures, my mind always wanders back to that cliche movie we know as Mean Girls. High school is all about forming your close-knit group of friends, and then having people label you as how they see you. At the lunch tables in Mean Girls, there were the cool asians, preps, varsity jocks, sexually active band geeks, etc. I think the concept of a group of people who congregate and share similar interests is threatening to some people, hence specific, often erroneous stereotypes become affiliated with them. In the long run, life is all about feeling accepted and finding a place where you're part of the in-crowd, as opposed to being an outcast. So, have youth subcultures played a part in my life? I'd say so. In high school, I was quick to judge people based solely on who they hung out with or how they dressed. However looking back, these separate groups is what makes youth so unique. I'm happy that I was exposed to different groups throughout my youth, because homogeneity would've bored me to death.

Subcultures' Influence in My Life

Like some other people who have posted already, I don't consider myself a hardcore member of any particular subculture. However, I definitely share ideals and interests with several subcultures, and they have shaped my life in a deep way. From little things like skimming the fan websites of “cult” TV shows I love, or bonding with new people over music genres we listen to, to larger ones like changing my daily diet to avoid meat, I think that my personality and my interactions with others over the years have been changed and enriched by the subcultures I associate with. They remind me that it's important to keep your passions alive, even—or, in my opinion, especially—when they require that you resist the easy, mainstream road. Too many people hide their quirks for the sake of fitting in, or follow thoughtlessly the rules and restrictions set up by the dominant culture. My associations with my subcultures of choice help me stay true to myself and to remember to second guess the mainstream culture that many people take for granted.

Ponderings..

In the beginning of the semester I struggled to find and define my own relationship to the topic of subcultures. I wanted a label for myself (something that I hadn't looked for or wanted since high school!) and couldn't even remember what my label would have been in high school. Watching the presentations, I realized what interested me most about individual subcultures is the way that they form a community, the development of individual members' relationships with each other. I find that I don't fully grasp a youth subculture until I understand the group dynamic and what that says about the ideology and point behind the subculture. This makes sense to me because dancing for me has always been about being an individual in a specific group. Both in high school and in college, being a dancer meant being a part of a close knit group of girls who are around each other all the time by nature of the activity, and tend to know each other very intimately because we watch each other sweat and work hard at what we care most about. Because to my knowledge dance has so many various facades, I never thought of "dancer" as my label. But that's exactly what my exterior identity is (and interior for that matter) Perhaps dance is not a full fledged youth subculture, but it does exist as its own lifestyle that is foreign to those not involved.
On another note, over the past four years of being at Temple youth subcultures have had an important effect on me by constantly reminding me to ask questions, to not be complacent, and to challenge the mainstream. I don't consider myself an authentic subculturist but I do identify more with my peers who are; I see them as people making empowered choices about themselves and being around them reminds me to avoid complacency and blind following.

Effect of Subcultures on my Life

I never really thought of myself as belonging to a certain youth subculture, but I suppose I have been shaped by interactions with different ones. I remember that in middle school and part of high school I thought that I had to be a part of some subculture, but I didn't fit comfortably into any particular one. I guess they were too constraining for me. For example, although I listened to a lot of hip-hop during my adolescence like many kids around me, I didn't feel like a true member of the subculture because it didn't consume a large area of my life. Likewise, I have been in love with the Harry Potter series since the third grade, but I don't think I would ever try out for a quidditch team. Although I've never quite fit perfectly into one, I think it's cool when I meet young people who very much are engrossed in some subculture. It's as if they're in some kind of exclusive club where they feel free to express themselves in ways that they wouldn't feel comfortable otherwise. I respect that.

Cultures

I think that subcultures are what make society more interesting. Without them, everything would be mainstream, which would not only be impossible, but also very boring, because there would be basic standards that everyone would adhere to and no one would challenge the status quo. Even though I have never thought of myself as a participant in any particular subculture, I think that subcultures are necessary and important in the overall culture and many things can be learned from them.

Does any of it matter?

We talked in class today about whether youth subcultures have changed the mainstream. Closer to home, how would you say youth subcultures have influenced your life?

My 10 Favorite Albums of 2011

It's that time of year again, when I like to sit for hours with my headphones on and review all the awesome music that's been released in the last 12 months and decide which albums are my favorite. If you're like me and like to see where you compare to the rest of the indie music-obsessor crowd, then I suggest you head over to Pitchfork and complete the 2011 Pitchfork Readers Poll. In the meantime, here are my top 10:

10. Yuck - Yuck

This pick stems from my total nostalgia over 90's fuzz-pop music. While I'm a huge fan of the grunge scene from this wonderful decade, bands like Pavement, Guided By Voices, and Dinosaur Jr. are the ones that truly won my heart. Yuck somehow manages to channel this vibe without being bland and unoriginal. This album is catchy, melodic, kind of twee, and totally caught up in the whole coming-of-age motif. I'm particularly partial to the tracks "The Wall" and "Georgia".

9. Panda Bear - Tomboy

I was only an occasional fan of Panda Bear, who makes chilled-out electro-pop. Tomboy to me sounds like the Beach Boys had sex with Animal Collective and then raised their love child by making it listen to the Velvet Underground at all hours of the day. My favorite tracks, like "Surfer's Hymn" channel this "dude-let's-just-chill-on-my-couch-and-have-our-minds-blown" vibe. This album was great for a pre-summer jam, and tracks like "Last Night At The Jetty" go great thrown in with any reggae-jam playlist.

8. Cults - Cults

Let me preface this by saying that the first time I heard "Abducted" I was really stoned. I probably said something like, "Holy shit this is really good." Then I heard "Go Outside". Then I heard "You Know What I Mean". At this point, I wasn't saying anything. I had absolutely no idea that something this catchy could ever be written. The latter is my favorite track on the album, but the entire thing is poppy as fuck. Theirs is a one-of-a-kind sound, and I'm really excited to see them in January.

7. Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse

Thundercat (Stephen Bruner), who worked with Flying Lotus, put out this clusterfuck in September, and I still don't know what the hell this whole thing is about. But as far as clusterfucks go, this one is utterly brilliant. The album is experimental, crossing jazz fusion with techno and Afro-pop. The track "Daylight" is saturated with synths and smooth vocal harmonies, and foreshadows the rest of the album, which is textured and layered beyond all belief. Tracks like "Walkin'" remind me of Toro Y Moi's 80's pop flow. Now that would be one hell of a collab.

6. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Girls are fantastic. The gender of human, yes, but the band...YES. Their first record, the annoyingly-titled Album, was a nice work of 60's-inspired pop, and was one of my favorite albums of 2009. Their second record, Broken Dreams Club, was a mini-album of equal quality, and began to take the band's sound in a new direction. Father, Son, Holy Ghost defines where that direction is. Still poppy as all hell, as album opener "Honey Bunny" exhibits, but now with more substance. The vocals smoothen out, and the band uses their nods to past influences to their fullest, displaying color and sharp songwriting. My favorite track? "Vomit" - especially the fuzzy guitar solo, vintage organ, and choral arrangement.

5. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

I'm going to sound a little pretentious here, but I listened to St. Vincent before Strange Mercy was released. In fact, even before her breakout sophomore album Actor. I was a big listener of her debut record, Marry Me, way back in 2009. She's got a great sound, totally fresh, but grounded in fantastic songwriting. The track "Cruel" is one of the catchiest things ever to grace my eardrums. Obviously, "Surgeon" is a great track as well, but my favorite is "Strange Mercy", which is so melodic it's almost lullaby-like.

4. Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine

Toro Y Moi's Chaz Bundick is one of the best-looking men I've ever seen, no homo. His music is just as handsome. One of the pioneers of the "chillwave" genre, Bundick creates electro-pop that makes you want to get down. "New Beat" is catchy and dancey, and I had a lot of fun getting down to it when I saw Toro Y Moi live. The whole album is warm and groovy, with tracks like "Still Sound" funking it up. This is impressive stuff, and again, catchy as all hell. Dance your ass off.

3. Washed Out - Within and Without

When this record came out in July, I knew there was only one way to do it justice. I bought it on vinyl, popped it on my record player, and it's been a regular on my turntable since then. I was a fan of Washed Out's Life of Leisure EP, but didn't listen to it regularly. Within and Without opened my eyes to chillwave, with tracks like "Amor Fati" leading the way. The dreamy, steamy sound of this record is an amazing listen front-to-back. "Soft" is an incredible listen, as is "Far Away". This record is really something else.

2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Bon Iver's songwriting has always impressed me. Debut For Emma, Forever Ago was heartbreaking and personal. After all, he did record it alone in the woods. Comparatively, Bon Iver is much more complex, with sounds building out of nothing and then crashing to a dramatic end. Album opener "Perth" is incredible, and only continues from there. Justin Vernon' earthy harmonies are hypnotic, and make the lyrics something other-worldly. "Holocene" is one of the most breathtaking performances on the album, which climaxes with "Calgary".

Vernon adresses a state of mind on this album; a state of confusion, trying to escape, to put words to a place in time. The more you listen to these tracks the more surreal they become, and the more you find yourself becoming attached to them. These songs are rich and layered, and the album demands to be listened to in its entirety: to do otherwise would be doing it an injustice to its flawless structure. Of my top 10, this album is the best contender for runner-up. It truly stands out, and if it weren't for a certain English producer, Bon Iver would stand atop this list.

1. James Blake - James Blake

My favorite album of 2011 - James Blake's self-titled debut record. The position of best album (in my opinion) was a difficult choice. 2011 has been full of records that harken back to the music of old. Whether it be 90's indie rock throwback, 60's pop laced with surfer sounds, or chilled-out 80's electro-pop, the music of the last year has been sampling and borrowing sounds from all over the place. However, what makes new music truly great (again, in my opinion) is it's ability to stand against everything else that's being created, and throw the rules out the window. To stand the test of time, great music reinvents sound and wordplay into something that no one has ever heard before. 

Enter James Blake. A dubstep producer with a effects-heavy obsession and an ear for the soft touch of a piano, Blake crafted one of the most stunning bodies of music that I've ever heard. The album opener, "Unluck", tells what's to come - quick, syncopated rhythms, smartly auto-tuned vocals, and spine-tingling harmonies. "Wilhelms Scream", my favorite track on the first half of the record, opens with the lyrics "I don't know about my dreams/I don't know my dreaming anymore/All that I know is that I'm falling, falling, falling, falling/Might as well fall". More progressive harmonies and a slow-building synth sound, the track crescendos with a gentle wave of sound that numbs the soul.

"I Never Learnt To Share" is stunning in the way that the previous track is stunning: introspective, building, and bass-heavy. The dissonant chords shouldn't work, yet they beautifully magnify the impending sound-gasm that is the final minute. This album is best listened to through high-end headphones with lots of bass. "Lindesfarne" is a two-part melodic lullaby, which ends the first half slowly and with grace. 

The second half picks up with the brilliant "Limit To Your Love", which starts off with a slow piano intro before breaking into a wobbling bass refrain that sounds like your head exploding when listened to live. Eventually the track expands the vocals with dark harmonies and subtle drum instrumentation. Again, brilliant. "Give Me My Month" is a short, beautiful piano tune that highlights Blake's mastering of a great chord progression. "To Care (Like You)" takes Blake's vocals to a new level, slightly unsettling in the artificially-high register. The lyrics are brief and soulful, and the glitchy vocal sample and drum loop make the track a highlight on the record.

"Why Don't You Call Me" is another short, piano-driven tune, but with a production style that sounds like a bad record skipping. "I Mind" fills out the piano motif with more spacey synths and a mamba-like drum loop. This sets up the incredible "Measurements", which starts with synths and contains a subtle bass melody, but is mostly an a cappella track with multiple harmonies of Blake's voice. He plays with his vocal style here, and creates a smart, melodic finale to the album.

The difference in quality between the albums on this list is nil - they are all fantastic in their own right. Deciding which ones were meant to be higher up on the list than others was like deciding in what order I should eat a handful of the same-colored Skittles. A weird analogy, I know, but in all seriousness this list contains some of the best music of the year. Unfortunately, this list contains only ten records, and there are many more excellent albums that have been released this year.

Just to be fair, I complied a brief list of my Honorable Mentions:

Atlas Sound - Parallax

Neon Indian - Era Extraña

The Field - Looping State of Mind

Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

The Black Keys - El Camino

Spoken Word Presentations

I thought that the other presentations that went on Thursday were all really interesting and that the videos shown were all really helpful. I was particularly struck by the spoken word/slam poetry videos. It was so impressive how much emotion and what issues and feelings people could get across through just speaking. I had no idea that there was still a culture of people doing things like that, even though I'd always seen it in movies. I think that the performers shown had an incredibly effective way of getting their message across, and I think more people should watch things like that and think about the issues they brought up.

Skyrim

So after seeing numerous tweets and Facebook status concerning Skyrim, I became very curious and eager to see what exactly it was. Skyrim is basically the newest phenomenon in the realm of gaming. After reading a brief synopsis on it, I discovered it was a RPG game that sounded very much like WOW. Medieval and mythical characters set out to slay a dragon or perform other feats of greatness. This game is the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls. I can not say that I've tried out the game, but it has definitely become very popular. The game was released on 11-11-11. I know a lot of my guys friends have experienced a sharp decline in their grades due to the excessive amount of time they spend playing Skyrim. I am definitely prone to the effects of video games, especially the time consuming aspect. So, I think that if I still have a desire to engage in the game and see what all the hype is about, I'd best wait till Christmas break. Here's a short clip about the new game that has everyone talking and tweeting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqsYzBrP-M

I'm not RPG buff, but I have to say the graphics for this game look amazing, and the trailer definitely sold it to me.

Gangsta vs. Redneck

While looking up subcultures, I came across a website that was comparing gangsters and rednecks. I thought it was interesting because I know a few rednecks from back home.

Some comparisons that they made were these:

-they are immediately identifiable by their distinctive style of music

-they both have a showy culture

-they take pride in their low-income lifestyle

-criticized for sexism and homophobia

-they identify as being persecuted

-attracted to gaudy and tacky things

-attracted to guns and violence

Hip-Hop today

I would just like to post about the artist that we saw a video of today - Topaz Jones. I'm a fan of hip-hop, not just old-school stuff, but anyone on the scene today who can really rap and say something important and fresh. I checked out some of Topaz's other videos today, then I downloaded his mixtape, and I've literally been listening to it all day. He reminds me a lot of Kanye West in his flow and a lot of the things he talks about. I like a good rapper with a social conscience, and he mentions a lot of important topics in his music. Not only that, but the producing on his mixtape is out of this world, I'm really not sure who his producer is but all-around I'm really impressed. I'd love to see this guy get more hype, and the next time I see the cypher performing at the bell tower, I'll stop over and ask around about Topaz.

Check it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fb2v7z0bwg