Subcultures - Who are you and why are you?

reallyrose

I was just chatting to someone on irc, and he is writing a paper about subcultures. He was asking me questions about what I thought about subcultures, what ones would I belong to, etc. I thought it was interesting, so I'll post some of the questions here to get the Nocturnal perspective.

Questions:
What is a subculture you belong to?
Which values and ideas that are part of that subculture are important to you?
What do you think steered you into this subculture?

I'll post my answers once I extract them from irc and edit them to be a little more eloquent.

cyberwolf77

I feel like a subculture of one. I enjoy so many different things I can't really identify as a member of one.

Nevyn

Many subcultures, prolly too many, I get called the superconnector by friends.
I think they all boil down to the same essence, respect and having fun.
My curiosity is what tends to steer me in their directions.

Doctor DooM

I GUESS I technically belonged to the goth/gamer/ nerd subcultures but I never stated I did.

Well, nerd I did. I felt more people needed to wear that on their sleeve at the time

I don't like over genrefication. It smells too much of morkeshing to me.

The important thing to me though was a love or at least a level of understanding or respect of the things I personally had interest in rather than a blasé dismissal or outright rage/ hatred of what you don't understand.

I hate when I look in the mirror and find I've done that. There's things I hate irrationally too. But whe I see myself doing it, I try to change it.

Doctor DooM

As to what steered me into these sub cultures: my teens hit in the early 90's, where pop culture consisted of 2Unlimited and EA where beginning to take grip of the world of gaming. Cinema was in an epic lull and most of the world was becoming money mad as they were clawing out of a recession.

These things just seemed the logical choice when I looked around, tbh.

Handsome Bob

I suppose that I fall within the average joe category. I'm not particularly talented at anything, and I'm not particularly passionate about anything either. Thus, I never really had any strong enough interests to draw myself into a subculture such as goth, jock or nerd.

At the risk of sound like a pleb, I was also too real to fake anything just so I could attach myself to a group. I mean growing up I knew a lot of people who didn't really share the same interests as their peers, but just pretended that they did so they could fit in somewhere.

Futurecrook

I think my interests are far too varied for me to say I belong to any subculture really. They're all just going to have to share me. :P

Baggly

Ditto. A girl i went out with once said i was a bit of an enigma to her (she was polish and its all very clean cut in terms of groupings and subcultures there) in that i love reading, i love comics, i love sports, i love computers and im quite articulate.

She later dumped me but thats neither here nor there.

BaconZombie

I've always floated on the edge of "subcultures".

I'm part ;

Nerd - { Anything tech, 42, "No Boot Rom Found" }

Geek - { Run *nix, Win7, DOS, and other random programs/OS's }

Metal{er} - I've been living in black combats, leather trench coat, black tshirt and NewRock/Grinder 22 hole boots}

CyberGoth - I love Rammstein, CombiChrist, Laibach and most other Industrial music. Plus I wear customized goggles / Gasmasks to gig's clubs.

Hacker/Phreaker - I know my brain is wired differently from some "people" and have always need to know how and why stuff worked.

[RivetHead] - I'm prob more this them CyberGoth/Metal{er}

.... Ok, I need more beer, my post something that makes scene later.

entropi

I would be somewhat a mish-mash of many sub-cultures I guess...I read, play team sports, watch cartoons, really like music of all genres and am just happy to be in the company of people who are content in what they do/keep an interest in.

I am me.

Aoibheann

Like the others, I'd be far too much of a mix of various subcultures to define myself solely by one. I love pretty much any sport, yet I study (and love) maths and physics. That's unusual enough as it is! Then I love reading (sci-fi/fantasy mainly, but anything from that to regular fiction to classics to history, and everything in between). I'm part loner in that I really, really value my own free time. Then I also love spending time with people. I'm a complete and utter nerd, but I also happen to enjoy "normal" TV programmes like Grey's Anatomy, Glee.. These things need not be mutually exclusive!

I've never really gone through any phases in my life like goth/emo/alt/etc, so it's hard for me to ever try to label myself as anything. I'm me. \o/

Delirium

Like others I don't think I fit into a subculture, although I would have interests in some of the groupings mentioned.

In national school and secondary school I was only interested in comics and books. Spent lots of my time reading or making my own comics/ stories. I can remember writing a really long story that was a rip-off of the chronicles of narnia, even though I'd never read it.:D

I also wrote stories about cyber-cowboys in outerspace.

The highlight of my year was my own version of christmas. I'd visit my cousins in London every summer, and as part of that trip I'd get to spend a day in Forbidden Planet.

In secondary school I finally discovered some music that I liked, grunge music. So that started to take over the comic obsession as it was easier to get music in the midlands.

I'd have an interest in computers and programming, mainly due to work.

With regards to gaming, I was big into mario bros., street fighter, mortal kombat and fifa. but that interest kind of faded after I left secondary school.

EDIT: just thinking back, I actually talked my uncle into taking me to some fantasy/sci-fi/comic con in Dublin in the mid 90s. Ended up doing a comic workshop with a group of college students( I would have been about 15) with a marvel artist who drew Thor and X-Factor. Nearly spilled ink all over one of his pages:eek:

EDIT 2: just remembered I wrote 2 short stories on my blog.

First one is a re-working of Rapunzel and the other is complete original called The Wolf and The Pig

Just posting the links as I think they're something the Nocts would enjoy:)

Captain Scarlet

The only "subculture" I every really identified with was the Mod revival of 1979-1980. I had a 1966 Vespa 90cc scooter, a Parka, all the two-tone suits, etc. Then in early ´80 I went on a holiday to London to visit a Modette I knew there. The clubs and the music were cool, but the Mods were psychopaths, going on a "scooter run" after each club-night to find a punk, skin, rockabilly, rocker, hippy or whatever to beat the s--t out of. So I gave up.

Serephucus

I really don't know where I belong to be honest... I'd assume I'm in the goth/gamer/techie/nerd/just ****ing weird catagories...

Baggly

Serephucus wrote: »

I really don't know where I belong to be honest... I'd assume I'm in the goth/gamer/techie/nerd/just ****ing weird catagories...

i.e. you are a boardsie :pac:

ToniTuddle

I'm the same as the majority of folks here in that my interests are too varied to belong to any subculture. All forms of music,reading,bit of sci-fi,plenty girlie type telly too,cars,MMA,cartoons,rugby,football, going out and being socialable, anything from the 80s!

One interest of mine would be...crime! Love reading or watching films about gangs, the mafia(not just the Italian lot) and criminals in general. Anything to do with Vietnam as well. Not just recent crimes but ones from back in the early 1900s seriously interesting stuff!

Definitely a bit of a loner(which surprises people) and love time to myself don't feel the need to see folks for days or few weeks at a time, doesn't bother me! :pac:

But despite being quite odd(in fairness I get called odd and weird a good bit-but in kinda nice way!) I seem to be popular with various groups of people. Most of the mates don't mix so I have to hang out with the rockers seperate to the dance/trance heads etc

Not in anyway shy and could talk to a friggin tree!

Hate the whole labelling thing as I take a person for what they are. Doesn't matter how long their hair is or what music they listen to.
If they nice and friendly then why wouldn't I be friends with them

Unfortunately because I'm one of those people that can blend in with any group I have had backlash from some folks, mostly rockers who have an opinion of themselves and don't see me as one of them because I'm not dressed like them. The odd dance head who looks upon me as too much of a rocker. Load of utter bollocks! Ya can't win :pac:

I'm happy being me and the true genuine folks in my life are also happy with me being me. That's all that matters.

Doctor DooM

I used to date a girl who was fascinated with serial killers.


She was always made feel this was a wrong thing to do by those around her, she was from a small town in the north of Yorkshire.

She was a total goth that girl under the skin

ToniTuddle

Doctor DooM wrote: »

I used to date a girl who was fascinated with serial killers.
She was always made feel this was a wrong thing to do by those around her, she was from a small town in the north of Yorkshire.

Aww poor girl.

I don't see why folks would not be fascinated with serial killers. It's soo interesting and messed up. Trying to figure out why they turned into what they did esp if they had a normal background....feicing fascinating stuff. I don't think it's creepy at all. We need to figure out what the hell is going on inside these folks minds. Arrgghh I could rant on about it
Hope she left that wee town! :pac:

Baggly

People fear what they dont understand. Interest and curiosity should never be shunned though.

FewFew

I don't think I'm part of a sub-culture, I'm like most people here in that I enjoy a broad range of activities that stereotypically "clash".

If anything I'm an anti-sub-culture chancer. I spent years playing rugby, but not dressing like the other jocks... to the point where one of the most Ross O' Carroll Kelly cliches actually told me I had to choose between being a rocker and a jock. Funny times. At this stage I used to move in a number of groups, the amount of times I diffused situations between jocks and geeks... oh my

Whenever I stroll around with a guitar on my back I get looked down on by real "rockers" or "indie" types, despite being a recording musician with a big ol portfolio of critical acclaim clippings etc. Just because I don't look like a stereotype people think I'm not.

When it comes to music, like most people here I have pretty broad tastes, so it annoys me when people just assume I won't like something, either because of the way I dress or the music I make.

I wear a suit everyday yet I don't work doing anything traditionally associated with a guy in a suit.

Honestly I'm glad no-one here has shouted "I'm X sub-culture", because as Hayseed Dixie kinda said "Does anybody know someone with one type of music in their cd collection? Cause that's somebody I don't wanna have a drink with!"
I'm glad us nocs are all a big ol melting pot of interesting things

Queen-Mise

my hubby calls me a nerdy hippy or a hippy nerd... which I think is utterly ridiculous.

I have some serious nerd tendencies. Not a gamer. Loves reading - english lit, philosophy/existentialism but particularly fantasy since a very young child. My childhood reading was the Stainless Steel Rat.... I have a particularly dry/dark/black sense of humour - which makes interacting with the hu-mans more trouble than it is worth.

Love sci-fi, fantasy, horror movies. Seriously anti chick movies & dumb ones. So much so - I won't even say some of the huge comedies I have intensely disliked.

I am sure I fall into a box perfectly - not sure really which one it is.

liah

If I had to label myself I guess I'd be some kind of gamer/nerd/hippie, but I don't consider myself any of those things.

I don't really buy into the whole subculture thing, I think it just makes people put up barriers with one another and get a bit cliquey and judgey, e.g. Star Trek nerds vs. Star Wars nerds, or posh kids vs. goths. It's all a bit.. I dunno. Silly, I guess. Not that all people in subcultures are like that, I just tend to find them alienating and exclusive. I think it's much more important to be well-rounded, but that's just me. If it makes them genuinely happy, fair play to them! It just strikes me as a bit insecure sometimes. Like they're not confident just.. being, and have to subscribe to something.

Personally, my interests range from everything to everything so I can gel pretty well with most people on social topics. Political or religious topics are a different story entirely though :pac:

Queen-Mise

liah wrote: »

Personally, my interests range from everything to everything so I can gel pretty well with most people on social topics. Political or religious topics are a different story entirely though :pac:

Spot on there. I have been caught rotten a few times on that.

Note to self: keep mouth shut on your religious/political beliefs.

amacachi

Queen-Mise wrote: »

Note to self: keep mouth shut on your religious/political beliefs.

A lesson I hope to learn some day. :pac:

Queen-Mise

amacachi wrote: »

A lesson I hope to learn some day. :pac:

Not being smart - but jeez I have really put my foot in it sometimes. I have been rude & very offensive - without realising it. I see things from my point of view and forget other people have theirs.

I now have a policy where I don't discuss the existence of God/or the merits of the Christian church with anyone. I will never out discuss bigotry so why try :p:p:p (exaggeration there).
There are a few people who will try and draw me out - as they know I studied a bit of theology, but I just don't engage.

randylonghorn

Cleaning thread ... please do not adjust your positions. :pac: