Are Hippie Punk Mod Rockers Still Relevant in Today's Subculture Landscape?

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The discussion revolves around the evolution of subcultures, particularly focusing on punk and its various offshoots. Participants reflect on their experiences with past subcultures, such as punk, hippie, and rocker identities, and how these have transformed over time. The conversation highlights the diversity within modern subcultures, including emo, hipster, goth, and various punk subgenres, each with distinct characteristics and musical influences. There's a recognition that contemporary youth culture lacks the clear divisions of the past, allowing individuals to blend multiple identities. The significance of DIY ethics in punk culture is emphasized, illustrating its resilience and continued relevance. Participants also share personal anecdotes about their high school experiences with different cliques, noting the fluidity of identity and the challenges of non-conformity among teenagers. Overall, the dialogue reflects a nostalgic yet critical view of how subcultures have changed and adapted in response to societal shifts.
wolram
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Were you ever one? what are people nowadays or are there no more sub cultures.
 
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I was expecting a picture of a new combined sub-group!
 
I'm all four. :biggrin:

or so I've been called at least.
 
I bought "Bollocks" in 1979. It changed my life permanently. For me, U2 was an "Old" band in 1983, when "New Years Day" was released.
 
What is Bollocks?
 
Ivan Seeking said:
What is Bollocks?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Mind_the_Bollocks%2C_Here's_the_Sex_Pistols
 
The Sex pistels! Never mind the Bollocks, lol I bought it too. I was a cross between a hippy and a rocker.
 
Ivan Seeking said:
What is Bollocks?

Well we know Ivan definitely isn't any of the above. :wink:
 
I don't know. I had long hair, played guitar and sang in rock/blues bands, and my idea of dressing up was putting on a T-shirt with no holes in it. 40 years later, my wardrobe hasn't changed much and my hair is getting longer again.
 
  • #10
hypatia said:
I was a cross between a hippy and a rocker.

Huh? I never met a hippy who wasn't a rocker.

As for the OP.

TheStatutoryApe said:
Punks are definitely different now a days and there are several types of them, crusties being a derogatory term for a gutter punk. Emo is short for "emotional" and is more or less a variation on Indie and Punk. There are Hipsters which are mostly into the Indie music scene. Ska, sorry to say Evo, is pretty much dead. At least real Ska music is the 3rd/4th wave more or less melded together with punk. There are also Ravers and Gravers(goth ravers) also known as Cybergoths. There are RivetHeads, or just plain Rivets, who are into Industrial music which is more or less gritty aggressive sounding electronic music. Metalheads and Deathrockers. Greasers and Rockabillies. There are also subgenres there called Psychobilly and Gothabilly. Psychobilly is a more punk rock/metal version of rockabilly which apearantly incorperates zombies :confused:. Swing kids. Cyberpunks. Skinheads have become somewhat of a scene too. NeoNazi Skins are into Hardcore (really thrashy punk). Traditional Skins aren't racist just sort of "conservative youth" I guess you could say. Original Skins are anti-racists as well as SHARPs(skin heads against racial prejudice). OG Skins are supposedly originally from Jamaica so they are into Ska (real ska which came out of Jamaica, rock/raggea fusion) and hardcore aswell. "Conservative youth" type punks are sometimes referred to as Skunks, a cross of skin and punk.
There is probably a whole lot more out there too. You can read a bit about various subcultures at that forum I linked and erased not that long ago, the sykoforums. That's it's actual purpose really not just the random spouting of things that wouldn't be appropriate here. :wink:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=79875&page=2
 
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  • #11
Blimey Ivan that made my head spin.
 
  • #12
My punk collection is huge. I never really dressed like a punk though. Been to a ton of punk shows.
 
  • #13
Mosher! :devil:

mosh_pitlo.jpe
 
  • #14
wolram said:
what are people nowadays or are there no more sub cultures.

There aren't as many clear divides these days, and you can be more than one.

Basically, nobody knows what's "cool" anymore.
 
  • #15
Thats not true. People know what 'cool' is. I know what cool is.
 
  • #16
There isn't one cool really, different sub cultures have different looks and therefor different looks for 'cool'
 
  • #17
There never was 'one cool'.
 
  • #18
I was considered a hippie, but we preferred to be called freaks. It was a separation of the fake hippies that wore trendy clothes and said things like "groovy" and the more intellectual freaks that were into underground music and great sci-fi books. Some of my friends went to Woodstock, some moved to communes.

Funny, recently my girls were here and they found a picture of me when I was 14 and both went "OMG! You really were a hippie!

I was on the official volunteer staff at Pacifica radio when our tower was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. My name was on all of our Newsletters. I dated the former Vice-President of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDA) after Tom Hayden. I'm on video in the National Library of Congress on the PBS documentary "The Great American Dream Machine" about the KKK bombing.

I was probably on an FBI watch list, by association, not by subversive actions.

And all this by the age of 15. I guess you could say that I was a free range child. I had already finished high school at age 14.
 
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  • #19
Truthfully, I don't know how others might have seen me, but I never have considered myself to be a this or a that or part of any subculture. For as long as I can remember I have valued uniqueness far more than belonging.

Over the years I have fit in with a number of subcultures ranging from nerds [geeks] to jocks to hippies, from born-again Christians to the crystal energy crowd, and from The Young Republicans to the most liberal of liberals, but I have never considered anyone to be an identity.
 
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  • #20
Ivan Seeking said:
Truthfully, I don't know how others might have seen me, but I never have considered myself to be a this or a that or part of any subculture. For as long as I can remember I have valued uniqueness far more than belonging.

Over the years I have fit in with a number of subcultures ranging from nerds [geeks] to jocks to hippies, from born-again Christians to the crystal energy crowd, and from The Young Republicans to the most liberal of liberals, but I have never considered anyone to be an identity.
We were considered "non-conformists". We didn't fit into any classification, freaks we were, at least by societal labels. My best friend back then is now an Oceanographer, one is a psychiatrist, one an MD, some took over their family businesses. Lost touch with a few others, not sure what they ended up doing, but in some field of science or math, my boyfriend at the time was a math major at Rice, and another was studying Nuclear Physics at Rice.
 
  • #21
I joined the hippie revolution to get what was supposed to be free, i felt a right prat wearing a kipper tie flower power shirt and bell bottoms, i never found any.
The rocker days were more my thing still is i guess, and the girls in tight leather jeans wayhay.
 
  • #22
I listened to a lot of punk growing up, and went to a lot of shows. What I like about punk is that growing up in the 80s, and for me the 90s, a clear majority of the popular youth cultures were "apolitical" except for punk rock. So I was always kind of drawn to the fact that they used music as a form of expression and concern about issues, which kept me interested.

Punk has certainly been around for a long time; unlike some of the other counter-cultures mentioned, it is still relevant. I think this is because punk has defined itself in a lot of ways: anarcho-punk, crust punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, celtic punk, skinhead punk, horror punk,, street punk, christian punk, christian hardcore, krishna-core, posicore, etc. etc. etc. Punk bands never really "get old" and younger punks still listen to bands like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, MDC, etc.

Punks also seem to have worked harder at staying underground: opening their own stores, running their own record labels (of which there are many), managing their own bands, running their own zines, producing their own art and documentaries, and so on. These "DIY ethics" have helped punk outlast corporate sponsored trends like new wave, mods, etc., and even some other counter-cultures.

I also think it's cool many punks have gone onto other careers besides music, keeping some of their punk values. It reminds me of something some punk said on some documentary, that punk will still relevant as long as it's politically poignant and critical, but once it becomes merged with the system it will fade away. Of course, punk has managed to make its way into the system, but it stays relevant because the underground punk community is still there.

Punks also come from a variety of different backgrounds and hold a wide variety of radicial ideologies -- there are even some right-wing punks, but, of course, most punks are left-wing.
 
  • #23
Chi Meson said:
I bought "Bollocks" in 1979. It changed my life permanently. For me, U2 was an "Old" band in 1983, when "New Years Day" was released.


That's a good album. I think the Sex Pistols defined punk more so than the Ramones ever did, only because of their look and their more political attitude. They were accused by later punks of being "sell-outs" but many of those same punks tended to follow the lyrics (and musical styles) of the sex pistols rather than the ramones.

The Ramones were actually more traditional, "power pop" thank punk rock. Spin Magazine did an interesting interview with John Lydon in their october 2007 issue, called http://www.spin.com/features/magazine/2007/09/0710_spiritof77/ .

Anyway, these were some of my favorte bands:

Hardcore: Black Flag, MDC, Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., SS Decontrol, DRI, Reagan Youth, Youth Brigade.

Anarcho-punk: Crass, Antischism, Capitali$t casuatlies, aus-rotten.

Positive-hardcore/straight-edge: Turning point, Chains of Strength, Youth of Today, Stretch Arm Strong, Ten Yard Fight, Slapshot, Agnostic Front.

Mainstream punk: Pennywise, Bad Religion, Offspring, NOFX, Anti-Flag, and so on.
 
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  • #24
wolram said:
I joined the hippie revolution to get what was supposed to be free, i felt a right prat wearing a kipper tie flower power shirt and bell bottoms, i never found any.
The rocker days were more my thing still is i guess, and the girls in tight leather jeans wayhay.

Interesting.

I think the main difference between hippies and punk is that hippies wanted to change the system whereas punks wanted to destroy the system.

Punk shows were/are also more wild. However, there also was a large number of pacifist and democratic-socialist punks (the clash).

For those interested in punk history, which is just as interesting as the hippie movement imo, see documentaries and books like: The Filth and the Fury, Punk's not Dead, Get in the Van, American Hardcore (book and film), Hardcore Zen, Real conversations no. 1, many of which are available at your local library.
 
  • #25
OrbitalPower said:
Hardcore: Black Flag, MDC, Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., SS Decontrol, DRI, Reagan Youth, Youth Brigade.

Anarcho-punk: Crass, Antischism, Capitali$t casuatlies, aus-rotten.

Positive-hardcore/straight-edge: Turning point, Chains of Strength, Youth of Today, Stretch Arm Strong, Ten Yard Fight, Slapshot, Agnostic Front.

Mainstream punk: Pennywise, Bad Religion, Offspring, NOFX, Anti-Flag, and so on.
What, no Minor Threat?
 
  • #26
I am more or less all of the above. It's definitely still like that in our high school, I'll give a breakdown of the groups. We have the preppies (and cali girl types), the jocks, the skaters, the rockers (intermingles with skaters), emos, geeks/nerds, and the fairly regular people. But yeah, I'm not making that up, its pretty much exactly like that at my high school.
 
  • #27
binzing said:
I am more or less all of the above. It's definitely still like that in our high school, I'll give a breakdown of the groups. We have the preppies (and cali girl types), the jocks, the skaters, the rockers (intermingles with skaters), emos, geeks/nerds, and the fairly regular people. But yeah, I'm not making that up, its pretty much exactly like that at my high school.

Heck that sounds complicated do youyouuuuuuu
 
  • #28
I was waiting for someone actually in high school to post heh. That's what it was like in my school, too, actually, and I live in a conservative state. This was about 5 years ago.

And yah, skateboarding has always been connected with the "rockers" esp. punk (faction, nofx, etc.), as well as hip-hop.


And what about headbangers, aka metal fans? Do you have any of those in your school.

Never was a fan of metal but we had like one metal fan at our school that i remember.
 
  • #29
Cyrus said:
I know what cool is.

I'm sorry, that's the dorkiest thing you can possibly say.
 
  • #30
...what?
 
  • #31
Yeah, the headbangers are among the rockers and sort of over into the emos, a lot of the Native kids here are into either metal or hip hop/rap, those that are into metal are sort of the anti-establishment/ against white people types. Also, to append my previous post, I left out the gangsters and the wannabes, also there are the stoners, a sub-sub culture of the skaters/rockers. Mostly everyone interacts just fine, but there is occasional animosity because of these sort of boundaries. It's actually really interesting to see.
 
  • #32
binzing said:
. . . I left out the gangsters and the wannabes,
Don't you mean Gangstas!? :rolleyes:
 
  • #33
Cyrus said:
...what?

"I know what cool is" is like saying "I understand Quantum Mechanics".

It just shows you don't.
 
  • #34
Yes Astro, that's correct. Its also interesting to note that most of the individual groups listen to certain types of music.
 
  • #35
binzing said:
I am more or less all of the above. It's definitely still like that in our high school, I'll give a breakdown of the groups. We have the preppies (and cali girl types), the jocks, the skaters, the rockers (intermingles with skaters), emos, geeks/nerds, and the fairly regular people. But yeah, I'm not making that up, its pretty much exactly like that at my high school.
I never noticed if there were different cliques or groups at my high school (11 and 12 th grades) - at least it was not so conspicuous. Certainly the jocks stood out since they wore jackets with the school colors. There were those who had long hair, and tended to be more non-conformist than anything.

I went to a different high school in 11th and 12th grade than the one I attended in 10th grade, which had a number of social clubs. I just never cared to belong to a social club.

For the most part, I was a loner in high school. I had a few close friends, most of whom were in the same honors or AP classes, but there was no group. I worked after school (and on weekends) starting in 11th grade, so I just didn't have time to hang out or socialize. In my free time, I'd go bike riding or play soccer, or I'd head over to university or downtown libraries.
 
  • #36
Astronuc said:
I never noticed if there were different cliques or groups at my high school (11 and 12 th grades) - at least it was not so conspicuous. Certainly the jocks stood out since they wore jackets with the school colors. There were those who had long hair, and tended to be more non-conformist than anything.

When I was in high school, the cliques stood out mostly by what they wore, not the music they listened to. Yep, there were the jocks in the letterman jackets, and what we called "ginkers" (nobody else in my generation has ever heard of this, so it seems a term unique to our high school...don't fret that you don't know this term)...these were the kids who cut class to smoke, had big hair (it was the 80s), wore ripped jeans, black t-shirts from heavy metal concerts, and had their wallets attached to their belt loop with a chain (they were basically considered the low-lifes of the school). We had the ones who wore Benetton clothes, or had Gucchi purses (or at least good fakes), etc...I think they were the same ones who wore the Jordache jeans in junior high, but my memory isn't as clear as it used to be. Then there was sort of a skateboard punk group, but I can't even remember what they wore that distinguished them anymore. And then there were the rest of us who couldn't be bothered with any of that. You really weren't going to find the honor students hanging out with the ginkers, but other than that, the "cliques" weren't really that exclusive...I had friends in all those other categories.
 
  • #37
At my school only some of the groups are semi-exclusive. If you don't skate, your a poser if you hang with them. Preppies just sort of abuse each other pecking order style so that gets it the way they like it. Gangsters kinda..yeah... Emos..gotta have problems, then make them seem worse than they actually are.
 
  • #38
I remember at my high-school it was largly by race. Which is weird, because this is Washington State, not some backwater Alabama town.

This wasn't any sort of rule or even that general, since there was still lots of mixing. Still, the Latinos generally sat with the Latinos at lunch, blacks with the blacks, Asians with the Asians, and since whites were still a majority, they were all over the place and forming some sort of clique out of it was pointless.

Anyway, you still had other groups, like the jocks, preppies, goths, etc.

I was part of the nerd group. There was another nerd group, though. We weren't rivals, we kind of knew each other, but generally weren't friends. I don't know. Have you seen Shawn of the Dead? Where Shawn's group walks by his girlfriend's group, and everybody has their own counterpart? It was sort of like that. Except our group was totally better.
 
  • #39
Yeah, what you had as goths are now emos. Just to clear that up.
 
  • #40
No, goths and emos are different.
 
  • #41
Ehem, we don't have goths here. I didn't say they were the same. I said the whole thing morphed over time.
 
  • #42
No, it didn't morph, because they came from separate places. Goth and emos are based on what music they listen to. While both listen to crap, goths pretend to listen to metal whereas emos pretend to listen to alternative/indie music.

Goths might have went away at your school and emos then came in, but one didn't morph into the other.
 
  • #43
Fine, no sense arguing. Emos just like to stew in their problems, which are just like the problems everyone else has, they just can't get over them, that's my main reason for disliking them.
 
  • #44
binzing said:
Fine, no sense arguing. Emos just like to stew in their problems, which are just like the problems everyone else has, they just can't get over them, that's my main reason for disliking them.

Hmm...and I just call them, "Those whiney kids nowadays. :rolleyes:" Who knew, my mom is an emo. :biggrin:
 
  • #45
I was a closet big-band fan in high school...
 
  • #46
My school had the jocks (mostly hockey players), the cowboys, the stoners and the outcasts haha.
 
  • #47
Oh, the other thing that is annoying about emos is that they are trying to be non-conformist, but then they get in these big groups of similar emos, so...
 
  • #48
The goal of non-conformity is to stop seeking approval from others. Or at least, that's the only way you can truly be free to non-conform. This is a hard concept to live by, especially by teenagers in high-school.
 
  • #49
Poop-Loops said:
"I know what cool is" is like saying "I understand Quantum Mechanics".

It just shows you don't.

Should I even dignify this with a serious reply?
 
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  • #50
I gave you advise?
 
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