Youth and Subcultures

Youth subcultures: Modes of expression or lifestyles developed by groups in subordinate structural positions in response to dominant systems. 

There are many different types of youth subcultures that are used every day in order to stereotype people and also for people to be able to fit into certain groups within today's society. We usually determine these subcultures by what clothes the person wear and the music that they listen to. 

Popular subcultures of today’s society include:

•          Chavs
•          Emos
•          Fan girls

Chavs:

Chavs are stereotypically people that wear a lot of jewellery, tracksuit bottoms, baseball caps and trainers. Chavs may also stereotypically consume a lot of alcohol and cigarettes. An example of a Chav in the media is Catherine Tate’s character of 'Vicky Pollard' in popular TV comedy 'Little Britain'. In the programme she is seen wearing a tracksuit and quite a lot of jewellery, she also has a very distinct accent in the programme.

Vicky Pollard

Emos:

The term ‘Emo’ is short for emotional music and is an evolving and complex American subculture that listens to a specific genre of music, which is characterised by feelings of vulnerability and a willingness to express heart-felt confessions about adolescence. Artist that produce Emo titled genre music include; Paramore and Panic at the Disco. We tend to stereotypically say that Emo’s wear mostly black clothing, have big hair and wear dark makeup. Some may also argue that Emo’s are stereotypically known for self-harming as they have a lot of emotions going on inside them.

Fan Girls:

‘Fan Girl’ is a term that is used for a female fan, especially one who is obsessive about comics, film, music, or popular culture. A Fan Girl may stereotypically wear tshirts of the object/subject that they are ‘fan girling’ over and may collect items from the specific subject they are ‘fan girling’ over. For example, Fan Girls of pop band One Direction may attend many of their concerts and become overly emotional over the band, they may also wear the band t-shirts and collect the bands merchandise. The term ‘Fan Girl’ is fairly modern however the behaviour of theses stereotypical girls can be seen in the past with The Beatles and ‘The Beatles Mania’. There can also be ‘Fan Boys’ and these can be seen as boys obsessed with an element of video or electronic culture, such as a game, sci-fi movie, comic or anime´, music, etc; a person obsessed with a single subject or hobby.

The subculture that my music video is most likely going to be aimed at is the ‘Fan Girls’ as this is the subculture that I can mostly associate myself with, therefore I will have a clear understanding of what music they like and what things are involved with being in this specific subculture.