"Subculture: The Meaning of Style"

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A book I found lying discarded in the street a little while ago: Dick Hebdige's "Subculture: The Meaning of Style". Is anyone familiar with this book? And if so, opinions please - I've found it rather amusing/curious for a couple reasons. First, it was written in 1979 and attempts to apply a Roland Barthes-style analysis to various British subcultures leading up to and culminating in "punk" - I have never seen anything written so early on that picked up the Situationist/Dadaist threads in Brit punk, much less something that slathered it on so thickly and academically. Second - it focuses an awful lot on RACE, on the affect of West Indian immigrants on British youth cultures (mods, teddy boys, skinheads, etc.), which I don't usually see discussed much when it comes to punk. Usually everyone just gets in a snit over who's more authentic/less of a sellout, nihilism vs. sloganeering, etc. There's some lame apologetics in it (the use of swastikas, etc.), and an inordinate amount of fawning over Jean Genet, and of course an ultimately cynical dismissal of punk as a political and social washout with little to show for itself. Anyway, I'm curious if this is something that's a standard text when it comes to punk meta-criticism...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a standard text when it comes to cultural studies courses I think.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

It was assigned to us in the one "cultural studies" course I ever took. I never read it though.

― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 22:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Aye, It brings back memories of my Media and Cultural Studies degree and no mistake. In my first term we had a unit called 'Popular Music' and this was one of the main text we were referred to. It's part of the canon so to speak.

The main lecturer on this subject, Fred Vermoral (mentioned in passing in a Johnny Rotten Biography as 'Malcolm McClaren an his sad mates Fred Vermoral etc.) had an endless fascination with Punk and Dada no doubt triggerd by ver Dick culminating in one of the most tedious lectures I encountered in my three years at Southampton Institute. Shame really, considering the potential.

Every week we had one lecture which was a video screening. One week came Spinal Taps inevitable turn. He introduced the film beforehand pointing out it was a parady, the reason being that in the previous year many people had referenced Spinal Tap in their essays as an actual non-fictitous band!

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 23:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd like to point out that the last paragraph of my previous post is supposed to be separate from the previous. It reads like they run into each other, and for that I apologise. I Also apologise for my spelling, 'parady' indeed.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 17 October 2002 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Friend of mine had Hebdige on her PhD committee. I thought that was pretty cool, though I've only read part of the book (and yes, a very standard text, I gather).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 October 2002 14:53 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Yes the book is standard text when it comes to "punk-meta criticism," I am currently reading it for my Cultural Anthropology class. Focuses a lot on race, hedgemony, ideology, and subcultures being an essential part of mainstream culture.

― Yesenia, Monday, 26 January 2004 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

It was used in my course on "Culture, Politics, Ideology." Very interesting, especially the treatment of race.

― Kevin Erickson, Monday, 26 January 2004 20:34 (twenty-two years ago)

It's pretty good, the first text I read in my cultural studies classes.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I had it for Comparitive Studies/Cultural Literature I think....I liked it....it was probably over my head.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

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