Popular Culture and Cultural Capital free essay sample

One problem in analyzing a type of youth culture is measuring the extent to witch it is a response to a culture deliberately manufactured for marketing and consumption of cultural products. Would say to some extent all subcultures consume part of popular culture, but it does vary from which culture a person is apart of, E. G you can look at the Goth type of culture and think it not to be very commercialese at all. But I would argue differently, cause Goth is one of the most commercialese types of culture in the world. The Director Tim Burton makes huge blockbuster films that have been filmed in a gothic style. So why is Goth not popular culture? The Hip Hop culture was discovered in 1 asss America, It involved a very unique form of dancing called break dancing, and was based on the genre of music called Hip Hop.Most people would argue that Hip Hop became commercial when the Sugar Hill Gang released a single called Rappers Delight, but I would argue that the Hip Hop style of clothing consisted of high street clothing, which in a way made he subculture commercial even when it was deemed not to be. We will write a custom essay sample on Popular Culture and Cultural Capital or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page My argument is that all of the subcultures we have are commercial but within the subcultures there is a sense of resistance towards commercialisms. The types of subcultures in Britain today are vast in quantity. You can look around on a busy weekend shopping and see lots of different styles of clothing, and lots of different tastes of music and attitudes towards life in one city. Subculture can be dated back to the 1 asss, where people were first frightened of the Teddy boy look. The public then became swamped with what they thought were bizarre street styles. There came the Moods and Rockers in the sasss, then in the 1 sass came the skinheads and punks.These sub cultural groups were a product of a modern global zing world, In that the look of moods was based on an Italian look of suits and scooters. These subcultures were considered to be resistance of the norm, where youths would try to look different to be different. Within these subcultures there are differences between them. For example Moods and rockers were separated by their tastes in music, as a result of this there are sometimes ritual fights that have outraged Straight society like shopkeepers, the police, searchers and most importantly the media.Today though society is more accepting of these subcultures in and around where they live. It has in a way become part of culture. This maybe because the old school Deeds, Punks and Rockers have grown up, had children and they are now taking the same course but with a different subculture. But how have subcultures been labeled with distinct features, how have they generally been stereotyped by so many people as types of hooligan groups.Today we have a mix of the new breed of sub culture and the old school types of subculture. To name a few that I have noticed are Moshers, so called cause of there love of rock music and the way they moss to it, they also tend to wear baggy clothes and do sports like skateboarding. Indy boys, so called because of there love of Indy music. Indy boys tend to wear the type of clothes that Noel Gallagher wears and they tend to like the main types of popular sport, like football and rugby.Moshers and Indy boys fight mainly because of their differences in clothing and music, they prefer not to moss. And the chap, the chap is the most interesting of the nevus breed of subcultures and the most heavily commercialese, the clothes a chap wears and the music he chap listens to is extremely commercial, the clothing the chap is most commonly associated with is Barberry, which on the news recently has been linked with a clothing worn by football hooligans.People have picked up on these subcultures in fashion, TV and newspapers etc. And as such have tried to cater for their needs in order to make a profit. Fashion shows dedicated to a popular twist on these groups styles. E. G remember seeing a fashion show that Was showing a type Of fashion based on the types of clothes that punks wear. But the models on the cat walk were all good looking with rips in clothes that were fit to measure and the safety pin that went through one of the models eyebrows was made of gold.Through that example you can see the difference between the commercial punk and the punk. Subcultures also have a relationship to the overall dominant culture which, because of its pervasiveness, in particular its transmission through the mass media, is unavoidable. We can therefore distinguish a subculture, for example that of the hippies, which has connections with, but is distinct from due to its deviant lifestyle, the progressive middle class culture.The hippy subculture also has connections with the bohemian tradition of the artistic avian-garden, but its use of illegal drugs, and its value of instant hedonism means it has connections with other urban, more delinquent subcultures. In this quote Brake argues that the hippie culture has connections with the progressive middle class culture, but it is distinct from due to its connections with a deviant life style of taking illegal drugs and the pursuit of pleasure.Firth (1978) also argues that the middle class children are interested in the alternative values expressed in the lyrics of rock music. Think that people ho are borne in to a middle class environment have more options of culture available to them and they can afford to experiment with different cultures. As such they will buy the music of that culture and buy the clothes of that culture. This is a very shallow way Of experimenting with culture because one of the main elements I feel of a sub culture is that it is not standardized.You buy the single of a rock group because you belong to the culture that follows rock music, you would be funding the label that produces that music. And the music industry has been totally standardized; it is hard to find ba nds on the helves of record stores that are produced by a small corporation. So you would still be funding the same company that has boy bands and general popular music. Also the example that I gave earlier on the difference between the commercial punk and the punk comes in to play.Because the middle class buys the clothes that they see people on TV wearing who are part of their culture they are apart of, they will only see the commercialese version of that type of clothing, as a result they will tend to go for the easier option and buy the same pair from the high street. It is hard these days to blend in tit a culture without looking the part and the music and fashion industries have noticed this and catered to it, as a result people feel they are out of the norm and are resisting popular culture, when in fact they are apart of it.This can be seen when looking at the music industry today. Only only a few big corporate production companies own the music industry. This has put them in a great position to make as much money as possible when targeting these sub cultures. The audiences tastes are carefully monitored over time by measuring what is selling. By doing this they can measure how much reduction is needed for each genre of music by having reserve musicians on stand by to cater for the needs and tastes of the audience.It is said that subcultures arise from a common ground of experiences that youths share. The sharing of these experiences makes it easier for youths to communicate with each other and thus a collection of people all in the same boat is understandable. This could be the very reason why subcultures can be founded by popular media culture. Liberalizing of media companies on the government I feel plays a big part in why so many different subcultures have been produced over time.If different aspects of the county we live in can be changed by the media then it is bound to affect the way we live. As such, a common ground is formed among people affected by this. Since a characteristic of why subcultures are formed, is that they form because of a shared common ground then a subculture is formed to confront this. So you can see that if the subculture is seen as a rebellion of thing that have happened it is actually happened because of the media industry and has consumed what the media company changed.As for the style of the subculture, it is thought that the subculture is a billion towards the dominant style of clothing off the high street. Elements are drawn from the synthetic manufactured culture of popular music and artifacts, but these are relocated and transformed (fibrillate) (Brake 1980) Brake states that although clothing that is popular and sold on the high street, it does not necessarily mean that it belongs to a popular for Of subculture. Clothing is bought and made to fit the critiques of the subculture to form the desired statement.This can be seen with Levi Straus s jeans. The new subculture of the Mosher that introduced to the beginning of the essay ill buy the jeans and turn them in to a type that is suitable for that subculture by buying jeans that are a size too big for the person and will make tares where the knees are, this changes the perspective of what the jeans represent. So even though the person is apart of a subculture, that does not necessarily mean that they do not buy non-popular products.It has been argued that what ultimately defines cultural capital as capital is its Convertibility in to cultural capital (Graham and Williams 1 986) There are three main Popes of capital, cultural, economic and social. What I want to look t is the relationship between economic capital and cultural capital in subcultures. Cultural capital of subcultures refers to someones knowledge of the subculture, normally accumulated through upbringing and education. Sub cultural capital is defined by what Sarah Thornton (1995) refers to as hip news which slang voc abulary is above all a sign of aristocratic distinctiveness.Thornton also refers to what objectifies subculture capital by using examples like fashionable haircuts and record collections which would be apart of the subculture. Sub cultural capital is embodied in the form of being in the know y using slang and looking the part of the subculture. But this can not be over used as it look like your trying too hard. The media play a role in governing the circulation of the subculture because it acts as a network of cultural knowledge that distributes and in ways defines the subculture.So to be apart of the subculture people with economic capital would get the haircut, buy the records and buy the relevant news updates to be Din the know about the subculture. Thus weather you are apart of Cultural capital or economic capital you would still be buying in to a common form of popular products. This can be seen when you look in to how you can make a living from having a strong cultural capital of Din the know information on subcultures. Dads, club organizers, clothes designers, music and style journalists and record industry professionals all make a living from sub cultural capital. They do this by defining the subculture and creating. Economic capital rewards sub cultural capital. Music is a strong defining aspect of what sort of culture or subculture you belong to. Weather it be popular Goth, Punk, dance or any of the others they all have their own types of music. Gender plays a big part in what music gets played. Girls on average spend more of their time working at school, boys on average spend more time and money on leisure time activities like going out, listening to records and reading music magazines.Girls generally have a greater taste in pop music than boys and will often defend their tastes in pop music and acknowledge their low sub cultural status. Thus people are apart Of a subculture, they dress the part and generally look the part, but they do consume in to the popular culture, weather it be directly (buying pop music) r indirectly (buying a rock magazine that is owned by the same company that distributes a pop magazine) you are still consuming in to popular culture.