Day Five

Change- Identity and Rebellion

Can you have a genuine subculture anymore? Or is the power of marketing and exploitation too dominant? The commodification of subcultures, in which the key defining aspects are sold back to the consumer, deeply undermines the initial values and sense of rebellion that initiated the 'trend' aspect.
Sarah Thornton attempted to argue against Dick Hebdige, suggesting that the creative and the commercial can live side by side, and that the boundaries between mainstream and alternative cultures are not distinct. It is views such as this that make it seem acceptable to sell out authenticity and turn it into a marketable profit. The rise of the teenage consumer, and the apparent disposable income that they possess, is a key tool in the selling out of the resistant group originally known as the subculture. The key value for a subculture is opting out of the mainstream, and opposing the dominant ideology associated with society. However subculture is not the same today, after Western consumerism is finished, being 'different' no longer exists. Youth cultures are watered down and transformed into a commodity that anyone can buy into, not necessarily understanding the initial development of the sub culture. It is almost contradictory in the way that a youth culture is developed as a resistance to consumerism, as something new, innovative and original, but is taken almost as public property and is resold in the mass market as something 'cool' and 'fun'. This is why subculture can't survive in its modern context. The adoption of a subculture in an ideological form however, is it's only chance for survival, a glimmer of hope. To actually understand a culture for what it is keeps the values alive, as opposed to selling out the image that it associates with. Subculture as a commodity is likely to have fuelled the Australian 'trend' market, as nothing can be original for too long, therefore people are constantly searching for the next new style that they can adopt before the mainstream catches on.