For the project research I asked around a youth demographic of 18-22 year olds to fill out a short survey on general subculture and surprisingly the vast majority of them did.
1. 1. Britain has a rich history when it comes to youth subcultures but where do you think you fit? You could be a punk, a skater, emo or one of the many others or do you think you are a part of mainstream culture?
About half the people managed to assign themselves to a youth subculture a lot of these were varied and some assigned themselves to more than one subculture which leads me on to the people who mentioned that they didn’t want to say that they where mainstream one going as far as to just to say “I don’t want to label myself” which is probably a yearning not to be placed in the ‘boring’ mainstream in some attempt of youthful rebellion. On another interesting note one person answered with “not chav” this is him associating what he is by what he is not a clear way that subcultures are formed. The rest have reluctantly said they were mainstream and they all seemed the need to justify it as if it is an embarrassing secret.
2. 2. Would you agree that modern youth subcultures are an evolution of older ones or they are new and fresh with different ideals?
By an overwhelming majority most people believed that modern subcultures are evolutions of older ideas rather than fresh new ones, some also suggested that they were “cheap knock offs” of older ones. Most people suggest that the subcultures have changed due to change in society and technology.
3. 3. Do you think subcultures are still prevalent today?
Everybody bar two said that yes they are still prevalent in today’s world however a minority said that it is hardly compared to how it was in the past.
4. 4. If so do you think they have the same impact as they did in the past, are you afraid of subcultures like punks or do you think they no longer threatening?
This question got a very inbetween answer of yes they are threatening but no ware near as much they were in the past. Some have suggested that the subculture chav has now taken the threatening role in society. Some then said that subcultures were now about fashion and hair not a political stance or the anger of youth.
5. 5. Do you think subcultures are dying out, if so do you think this is because people are happy with society or have nothing they feel then need to rebel against?
Most people would say subcultures are not dying out however they differ on what they are doing, about half the people who agree that subcultures are not dying out and they will always have something to rebel against, some used the example of the student riots last year. The other half said they thought that it they don’t have things to rebel against and that subcultures have changed to be more of identity thing to do with the cloths they wear and their hair.
6. 6. What do you think subculture means?
To a pleasant surprise most people answered with a very accurate answer saying that they were groups of people who rebel against a mainstream culture usually with a cause on a political level. However there were a couple of people who got the answer very wrong, one even suggested that it was completely to do with music.
an example of a complete surveyBy Toby
