What is a youth subculture? youth subculture

Top 10 youth subcultures, according to the American agency toptenz.net

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a youth subculture that emerged in the United States in the 1960s. The movement flourished in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Initially, hippies protested against the Puritan morality of some Protestant churches, and also promoted the desire to return to natural purity through love and pacifism.

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stylistic direction in rock music (a variant of “new wave grunge metal”) and youth subculture, which became one of the most noticeable phenomena of alternative rock in the late 1980s - mid-1990s. The birthplace of grunge was the city of Seattle (USA, Washington state), the most prominent representatives of which are four Seattle bands: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Soundgarden. These groups are known as the "Seattle Four". Grunge refers to heavy music along with heavy metal and hard rock.

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the emo subculture can be classified as the latter a new style, although it looks very similar to Goth and Glam Rock. Inspired stripes with long names, such as The Day My Dog Went to Town, sickly young men everywhere decided to wear their hair slicked to the side, neckerchiefs, black eyeliner, and jeans hugging their legs.

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youth subculture that emerged in the mid-70s in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, characteristic features which are a critical attitude towards society and politics. The name of the famous American artist Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground group he produced. Their lead singer Lou Reed is considered the founding father of alternative rock, a movement that is closely related to punk rock.

Chick,
This style is revived every few years, with the most recent being back in in full swing, Johnny Depp and Justin Timberlake are prominent representatives, plaid trousers, sneakers and a T-shirt tucked into trousers.

Rockers,
Rockers emerged in the mid-60s and reached their peak in the late 60s and early 70s, both in England and on the continent. Rockers come primarily from families of unskilled workers, without education, and often from single-parent and “problematic” families.
A rocker's clothes are a leather jacket, worn jeans, rough big shoes, long hair combed back, sometimes tattoos. The jacket is usually decorated with badges and inscriptions. The main element of the rocker subculture is the motorcycle, which is also decorated with inscriptions, symbols and images. The motorcycle is a symbol of freedom, power and intimidation, the main source of intense sensations. At the same time, rockers highly value technical knowledge and driving skills.

Gansta,
Gangsta Rap began its development in the late 80s. This trend originates in hardcore rap. The gangsta rap style featured a hard, noisy sound. Lyrically, it was as sharp as the rappers' crude tales of urban unrest. Sometimes the texts were different accurate display reality, and sometimes they were just comic books filled with exaggeration. This direction became the most commercially successful in the history of hip-hop from the late 80s to the early 90s. During its development, gangsta rap became the source of considerable controversy, as some conservative organizations tried to ban the distribution of albums by these musicians.

New Romantic (Glam Rock),
musical movement that emerged in Britain in the early 1980s and (as part of new wave) had a significant influence on the development of the English pop and rock scene. “New Romanticism” arose as an alternative to the asceticism of punk culture and not only did not carry social protest, but also (according to the Virgin Encyclopedia of 80’s Music) “celebrated glamor

Oiler,
an outgrowth of British Teddy Boy culture - can be described as: Skinny jeans, tight T-shirts and slicked back hair. Jukeboxes, cocktail bar and travel in cars.

Dandy Flapper,
Dandy Flapper girls prevailed. Red lipstick, hair stuck to the head with hairspray and sequined dresses were the order of the day for girls, and for men only a tweed suit with a bowler hat.

The world is colorful, diverse and unpredictable. In every era, there were those who were opposed, who went perpendicular to the majority and challenged. In the last century, communities of such individuals were called subcultures.

Youth subcultures were initially hermetic communities that opposed themselves to the majority and were reluctant to assimilate into mass culture and were equally reluctant to accept people from the outside.
However, nothing stands still. The once marginal groups, which in Soviet official language were called informal associations of youth, gradually ceased to be something alien. Such processes are easiest to track at the level of accessories and elements of external style. Mohawks, bangs, wristbands and tunnels, which once caused consternation, sidelong glances, scandals and fights, now in one form or another happily exist on the streets, in offices, on catwalks and are no longer a cause for noise. And even questions.

Youth subcultures list

Punks are the most well-known and odious of subcultures. Over the history of its existence, an innumerable number of varieties have grown within punk culture, which differ strikingly: both in the sense of external surroundings and in terms of ideological content. Nowadays, many attributes of the punk subculture have become popular and are no longer considered something out of the ordinary, even when exploited by representatives of pop culture. However, punk culture is alive - thanks to ideological adherents, for whom punk is not a fashion of the day, but a way of thinking.

Modern youth subcultures

Visual Kei - “Our answer” to the glam rock culture that originated in Japan. If KISS had not performed at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan Stadium in 1977, visual kei would probably not exist at all. However, this event caused a surge in the popularity of glam rock and related genres, and then the formation of a local subculture.
In visual-kei, the image component seems to have become even more important than in its Western predecessor...

The history, features and list of modern youth subcultures around the world are in our “Subcultures” section!
Don’t forget to check in regularly - and our experts will tell you not only about goths and role-players, but also about many exotic trends in culture. You'll be surprised!

Content:
Subculture concept

What are modern youth associations, what are they based on and how do they influence the formation of the personality of adolescents and young people - these are the questions that most teachers ask. The answers to them, we hope, will tell adults how to use the attributes and elements of youth subcultures in pedagogical purposes.

Subculture concept

On one of the Internet sites there is a list of common phrases of a modern person, for which in 1990 a person was threatened with ending up in a psychiatric hospital. For example, “I’ll call you back from the forest.” Another example: in a bookstore, up to two-thirds of books have titles and genres that were impossible a couple of decades ago.

In the lives of teenagers, boys and girls, young people, these socio-technical innovations and cultural influences take shape in the form of modern youth subcultures and activities.

Subculture – these are patterns of behavior, life styles, specific values and their symbolic expression of any social group.

Not only age cohorts and special layers of youth have their own subcultures, but also professional groups. Subcultures Doctors, astronauts, actors, TV people, teachers have them... The usual teacher words “window”, “clock”, “rusichka”, “extension” are not understood by all representatives of other professions. Try to decipher the slang of TV journalists: “brick”, “canned food”, “live”, “ruler”, “parquet”... Distinctive cultural features are also inherent in political associations: the subculture of the same communists is not very similar to the subculture of liberals.

youth subculture – These are patterns of behavior, clothing styles, musical preferences, language (slang), specific values and their symbolic expressions characteristic of groups of young people (12−25 years old).

Youth subcultures have existed for a long time, at least since the second half of the twentieth century. In our country they attracted the attention of society and funds mass media in the 1980s. In those years, bearers of such special cultural practices were usually called participants in informal youth associations. Most famous examples– hippies, punks, rockers, metalheads.

The main socio-psychological feature of informal youth associations is the symbolization of appearance, lifestyle, behavior, in particular, clothing, speaking style. For example, long hippie hair is not only long hair, but also a symbol of freedom; the English-language layer of hippie slang is an orientation toward Western patterns of behavior; an apartment where informal people gather is not just a room, but a flat, where everyone is their own, united by an unpretentious style of everyday life.

Gromov Dmitry Vyacheslavovich, candidate of psychological sciences “Youth subcultures”

The predominant orientation of those youth and youth groups was asocial. Asocial, but not antisocial! Asociality in this terminology is interpreted as non-acceptance of the norms of appearance, behavior, communication, and pastime prevailing in official society. While antisociality is the orientation of an individual, a group that contains an aggressive principle opposing society and tends to merge with a criminal culture.

The number of young people, teenagers belonging to youth subcultures 15–20 years ago, even in big cities there were few. According to a number of surveys in the early 1990s, 1-3% of boys and girls definitely considered themselves to be informal groups.

In the 2000s, significant changes occurred and are occurring in youth culture. First of all, this is the increase, the growth of youth groups, united by new, sometimes very unusual, types of activities, such as role-playing games (role-playing games), mountbacks, fire shows, photo crosses, city games (watches, encounters, quests), parkour, street dances, street balls, graffiti, paintballs, bikers, stretchers. Some of these groups, the same bikers and racers, significantly go beyond the youth age.

Sometimes a subculture of its own arises around such activities: its own clothing traditions (the same cap for mountain bakers or the gloves of fire fighters), its own idols, gathering places, traditions, rules of “hanging out.” But often young men and teenagers, getting carried away new activity, do not perceive themselves as belonging to any special group. For them, activity is just activity.

Modern youth subcultures

The main distinctive features of modern youth subcultures are, firstly, an increase in the number of activity associations (that is, those in which some specific, relatively new youth activity is organized); secondly, the immersion of modern youth subcultures in the vastness of the Internet, where they look for “their own,” organize meetings and events, identify idols, and use its capabilities to organize relevant activities.

From a pedagogical point of view, several bases for classification can be identified modern subcultures.

First of all, this is the attitude of a particular youth subculture to those accepted in society social values. We can talk about three social and value orientations of youth subcultures:

procultural (prosocial) subcultures: majority musical styles and role-playing games);
antisocial: hippies, punks, metalheads, emo;
countercultural (antisocial): youth groups close to the adult criminal subculture, skinheads in their radical form.

Another basis for classification is the degree of inclusion of activity in a young person’s lifestyle. Based on this criterion, it is possible to divide youth subcultures into behavioral and activity-based.

Behavioral subcultures include those in which the main features (the core of the subculture) include styles of clothing, appearance, behavior, and communication characteristic of representatives of these groups. For these communities of teenagers and young people, constant engagement in any activity is not an important group characteristic (for example, goths, emo, hipsters).

Activity subcultures include those teenage, youth, youth communities in which the main feature is a passion for specific youth activities that require individual activity to one degree or another (for example, role-players, parkour artists, graffiti artists).

Modern youth activities themselves, which are more or less subcultural in nature, can be divided into sports, art activities and games.

Sports activities:

parkour – cross-country with natural obstacles in a populated area;
mount bake – jumping and “acrobatic” exercises on special (“mountain”) bikes;
frisbee - throwing a plastic disc;
sox (footbag) - games with small balls filled with sand;
skateboarding – exercises on a board with rollers;
snowboarding – exercises on a board on a snowy slope.

Art activities:

streetdance – dance styles that develop the traditions of breakdancing;
fire show - juggling with luminous objects, including fire;
graffiti - drawing on buildings, fences, etc. in a specific visual technique.

Games:

role-playing games - role-playing by a group of people of situations based on the content of a book (or film) in the form of spontaneous actions of player characters corresponding to the original plot;
historical reconstruction - role-playing games played out on location historical events;
urban orienteering (encounters, photocross, patrols, etc.) - games in the form of competition between teams in orienteering in a real rural or urban environment, completing tasks along the route;
computer online games.

But let us repeat: participation in these types of activities does not necessarily mean that a boy or girl belongs to one or another subculture; often the activity remains just an activity.

Reasons why subcultures are attractive

At the personal level, youth subculture is a way of compensating for a negative attitude towards oneself, lack of self-esteem, non-acceptance of one’s own body image and behavior style (including inconsistency with masculine and feminine standards).

The fact of joining a subcultural group allows you to exaggerate your dissimilarity, giving yourself an aura of exclusivity and specialness.

Socio-psychological reasons are associated with the emotional attractiveness of the informal lifestyle, which does not (unlike the normative, school one) impose increased demands on focus, dedication, and responsibility.

We can talk about three groups of probable consequences, trends in the influence of youth subculture on the socialization of a young person:

a positive trend is evident in the development social roles in a group, social and cultural self-determination, creative self-realization (in specific subcultural forms), social trials and social experimentation;
a socially negative tendency is found in joining criminal or extremist subcultures, alcohol and drugs;
the individual negative tendency manifests itself in the avoidance of social and cultural self-determination, self-justification of infantilism, and escape from social reality.

Determining which trends prevail in a particular subculture, and even more so in the life of a particular young person, is very difficult.

Sources and influence

There are several sources for the emergence of a subculture in Russian youth reality.

It's no secret that over the past 15–20 years, the daily lives of adults and children have changed a lot. The transition to a market-oriented social system, accompanied by openness to Western (Europe, the United States of America) and Eastern (Japan, Korea) cultures, has shaken and even dissolved many traditions, values, and stable relations of Russians. No less a force changing people's lives was the new scientific and technological revolution, embodied, first of all, in the phenomena of the computer, the Internet, mobile phone.

One of the ways of broadcasting youth subcultures is their relatively spontaneous spread. However, spontaneous spread is often a by-product of quite purposeful activity. social institutions: Media, parties, fashion distributors, etc.

Another way is for youth and commercial organizations to take it spontaneously. existing forms youth leisure activities and turn them into completely organized ones (for example, a commercial street dance competition). And this process requires special technologies. According to experts, when interacting with potentially positive informals, it is necessary to adhere to at least three rules: negotiate with leaders, provide them with funds and opportunities for actions, events (time, platforms, technical means) and agree on restrictive standards of behavior and activity (which should be minimal!) during organized actions.

From the standpoint of social education, that is, education in schools, camps, structures additional education, we can distinguish three main pedagogical strategies in relation to specific types of youth activities: not to notice, to expect spontaneous penetration into social life and then work with it or purposefully analyze the educational potential of youth activities and use it in the interests of personal development.

Educational potential of youth subcultures is that the forms, types, directions of teenage and youth activities that have arisen in the non-pedagogical sphere, including in the sphere of free communication of young people, which have the potential, with appropriate pedagogical instrumentation, of a socially positive nature.

Practice modern education rather timidly comes into contact with such teenage and youth realities. Moreover, most often this contact occurs in situations summer camps, in children's public associations and much less often at school.

Mikhail Lurie “Youth subcultures are the path to yourself or an escape from reality”

Probably one of the main questions, the solution of which will show whether practical pedagogy is coming to terms with the lives of modern teenagers and high school students or whether they (pedagogy and life) are increasingly moving away from each other, is whether class teachers and educators will acquire the desire and ability to see, pedagogically comprehend and involve new youth activities and hobbies into the circle of their actions.

Sergey Polyakov, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk.

youth subculture is the culture of a certain young generation that has a common lifestyle, behavior, group norms, values and stereotypes. Youth subcultures can be defined as a system of meanings, means of expression, and lifestyles. Created by groups of youth, subcultures reflect attempts to resolve contradictions associated with a broader social context. Subcultures are not some kind of foreign formation; on the contrary, they are deeply accelerated in the general socio-cultural context.

The core of any youth subculture is street style. Slang is one of the main distinguishing features of the subculture. Knowledge of a specific language is a pass to the group.

Entering adolescence, an individual withdraws from his family and seeks new company, which allows him to undergo socialization. Official youth organizations group teenagers of the same age, but often claim only “social (public) life”, without affecting personal life. That is why young people prefer not the official structure, but the youth subculture, where they have the opportunity to realize themselves at the level of social communications in their social environment.

Conflict of youth subcultures

The subculture, to which mostly young people belong, is a certain choice about what clothes to wear, what music to listen to, what values to believe in, and, above all, what group to belong to. IN big city young people can choose from a variety of such groups. They arise even within national communities.

The huge variety of youth associations entails certain conflicts, which are mainly personal in nature and result in confrontation between young people who consider themselves to be different subcultural associations.

Any youth subculture has certain rules, sometimes “unwritten” traditions, values, even views on the same situations or incidents of several subcultures can differ radically, and each subculture considers its opinion the most correct, accurate and relevant. The main difference between conflicts in youth subcultures and conflicts occurring among adults is that the older generation is able to be more tolerant and correct in their attitude towards outside opinions, or at least only respond verbally to the identification of any obvious contradictions or differences in views (controversy and seek compromise). Young people react more temperamentally to such manifestations of “otherness” of someone directly from their social group and try with all their might to change this, but, encountering opposition and the reluctance of the opposite side to submit, they try, again thanks to youthful egocentrism, to solve a similar problem physical strength. It is from such situations that youth conflicts, intergroup showdowns, determination of right, wrong, guilty and victims arise.

Conflict within a culture always has a subordinate place, since it destroys the traditional mechanisms of its self-preservation and sustainable development. There is also a possible conflict here between the cultural and civilizational foundations of society, represented by different social groups. In particular, between different subcultures.

Our society consists of various social groups, differing both in the number of individuals included in it and in the nature of the group orientation.

Football fans

Communities of football fans are one of the most common forms of subcultural youth activity, which has a long origin. The specificity of this subcultural form is that identification is situational, which requires a minimum of effort from participants and does not deeply affect the way of life. The game itself on the football field inspires them, but more significant are the moments of general emotional release, the opportunity to “break away”, to express their feelings to the fullest (yell, rowdy).

The compensatory purpose of rioting at the stadium and vandalism after the match is obvious. But the subcultural meaning of football fan communities, of course, does not end there. Young fans get the opportunity, among their peers, to model their behavior as a group and, at the same time, not experiencing pressure from the main social control authorities (parents, school, etc.).

Football fans are a complex community to organize. Among Dynamo Brest fans, a group that stands out is the informal organization “Blue-White Devils”, numbering about 300 people.

Within the framework of the fan movement, different attitudes and lifestyles are combined. "Devils" are guided by the philosophy of "clean living." Physically well developed, its members avoid fights, but protect the “little ones” - the youngest part of the fans, the newcomers.

In a certain sense, communities of football fans make up for the shortcomings of social experience of intergroup interaction, including the experience of large-scale confrontation. IN Lately Such communities, under different commands, are increasingly concluding agreements on “non-aggression” and joint actions against other communities:

Friends: fans of BATE (Borisov), Dynamo Minsk;

enemies: fans of Dnepr (Mogilev), Gomel, Shakhtar (Soligorsk), Slavia (Mozyr), Belshina (Bobruisk), Vedrich (Rechitsa), Vitebsk Lokomotiv;

neutrality: Torpedo Minsk fans.

Fans can receive personalized cards to purchase tickets to their team's matches at a discount .

Bikers versus motorcyclists

In Russia, it is mainly wealthy people who can imitate Western bikers. Having special motorcycles (in Russia - unaffordable even for the “middle class”) and other iconic signs of bikerism, Russian bikers are most often just consumers of a certain cultural assortment. According to expert estimates, most of them are not able to fix even simple breakdowns in a motorcycle; for any reason they turn to a service station.

The lifestyle associated with a motorcycle is different. Young people who adhere to it do not have any ideological platform; identification occurs within small communities that do not have a sign system or even a self-name. They adhere to a special lifestyle: these motorcyclists create their own motorcycle: they buy an old motorcycle very cheaply (usually in the village), which they supplement with parts from motorcycles, cars, thrown into a landfill, various kinds industrial waste. Such an updated motorcycle with an original design, which is not capable of developing too much speed, costs about 10 times less than a motorcycle in a store. When the work is finished, small groups (friends) ride quite calmly (without breaking the rules) on motorcycles along the roads. They do not set any special travel goals - they “just go.”

This undefined movement is being formed among young people from families with little income. The opportunity to freely ride on equipment made with your own hands creates the basis for self-affirmation and a creative attitude to life. It should also be taken into account that in Russia, with its roads, the motorcycle has long become one of the main (along with the bicycle) means of transportation in small towns and villages, much more important and often more prestigious than a car. In this regard, the practice of the said movement of motorcyclists is very old, not at all biker, still weakly fixing its symbolic space, but, undoubtedly, associated with a special subjective construction of social reality.

Ravers

“Rave” (from the English rave - to rave, nonsense, incoherent speech, also: to rage, roar, howl, rage, speak with enthusiasm) is interpreted in T. Thorne’s Dictionary of Modern Slang as “a wild party, dancing or situation of desperate behavior » The source of life guidelines for ravers was the musical style, or more precisely, the examples of the life style of the most popular musicians who act in the charismatic role of idols - carriers (creators) of the corresponding sociocultural models. Breaking away from its source, rave acquired international features, which are also characteristic of our followers among young people. Ravers basically borrow the behavior model of nightclub regulars. According to this model, the raver's lifestyle is nocturnal. The idea of man’s departure from nature is realized in the appearance of ravers and their style of behavior. Industrial rhythms, characteristic of the musical style of ravers, are a kind of alternative to rock music.

Hip-hop culture

Hip-hop is a “street culture” that has become widespread since the mid-1970s in the United States and then in many countries around the world as one of the subcultural forms of youth mastering social subjectivity through the creation, mastery, dissemination, and development of four main directions: breakdancing, rap, graffiti and DJing. The elements of hip-hop culture are also considered streetball(street football), rolling(certain roller skating technique), etc.

When supporting events in the field of hip-hop culture, it is taken into account that, by origin, hip-hop is associated with the selfless interest of urban youth in self-expression and mastery of the surrounding world in unique subcultural forms. Since the characteristics of hip-hop culture are associated with actions in open areas, in parks, on sports grounds, it has become a kind of alternative to youth gangs of a criminal nature.

Brakedance (English: Breakdance - “broken dance”) is a type of “dance in a circle” associated with hip-hop culture. The words “breaking”, “rocking” (the original name of breakdancing), and “b-boying” are also used to designate it. It emerged in the late 1950s in New York as a youth "street culture" phenomenon in immigrant neighborhoods. Dissemination of new dance style was directly related to the activity of youth groups and the division of territory big cities into areas controlled by breaker teams. The competition of groups gave rise to the complication of breaking as a dance and its growing importance as a value among young people. In this part, breakdancing became a compensatory means of teenagers’ aggressiveness (“dance battles”: one of the hip-hop leaders Afrika Bambaataa suggested that street youth groups “fight not with guns, but with dances: whoever danced worse loses”).

Rap (or recitative). The meaning of the text in rap is crucial, since it was originally formed as a protest subculture, so rap took slogan forms. In fact, rap can be called melodeclamation. The main thing in rap is the rhythm of words and text. With skillful selection of sounds in rap, the effect of melody in the simple pronunciation (reading) of texts is achieved. Despite the apparent simplicity of the approach, it is very difficult to become a master, since reading texts should not be monotonous, but memorable, so the correct selection of rhymes, intonations, and the principle of alliteration are of great importance.

Graffiti (Italian graffito - “scratched”) - view artistic arts, wall symbolic painting, giving text information a certain figurative form. In this sense of the term, graffiti is a phenomenon of hip-hop culture. This is a unique direction of art design, which has become widespread among young people and has become a fact of counterculture, which has grown into a sustainable social and artistic practice.

Initially, the passion for graffiti was formed not only in opposition social norms, public decency, but also as a competition with “our own”, where it was significant to draw your “tag” in a more visible, most unexpected place. Developing from street culture, graffiti changed in the manner of execution and the technique used. If initially the main tool for writers were homemade markers, and shades were added with paints for shoes and stamps, then later aerosols for painting cars appeared, and “tags” became colored everywhere. The peculiarity of the artistic image depended on the steadiness of the hand, since the image could not be corrected, and on the selection of atomizers, often stolen from stores.

DJing(the term comes from the English “disk jockey”) - type creative activity, the main components of which are:

- Mixing(Mixing). This is the name for the process of smoothly mixing, combining, mixing, connecting, blending or transitioning one musical composition to another using a DJ console (mixer) and music players. This, in fact, is what the DJ does, trying to provide the highest quality of work in order to keep the audience on the dance floor for as long as possible.

- Scratching(Scratching, from the English word “scratch” - scratch; associated with scratching a record with a turntable needle.) This is the name of the process of creating individual rhythmic sound patterns using a special performance technique using music players and a mixer.

The highest, final and only goal of a DJ is to encourage people to dance. A good DJ is not at all the one who has good gramophone records, and not the one who knows how to put them together into a long gut, but the one who is able to control the mood of the dancers, turn on the audience, bring them to a state of ecstasy.

Diggers

Diggers are researchers of underground communications. The dangers of being in underground passages, the closed nature of digger communities, the mystery of the dungeon world, devoid of everyday life - these properties of diggerism determine the internal motives for the interest of a certain part of young people in such forms of activity. Diggers, as a rule, have no desire to advertise their activities. Only some groups allow representatives of the media. In many cases, diggers cooperate with the executive branch and local governments when they discover life-threatening phenomena in underground communications (subsidence of building foundations, leaks in the water supply system, various environmental violations, etc.). In this aspect, diggers manifest themselves as part of environmentally oriented youth movements.

Tolkienists

The Tolkienists’ connection with a foreign source is obvious - the images of John Ronald Rowell Tolkien’s books “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarilion”, the plots of which were used as the basis for role-playing games that gave rise to a kind of social movement. Tolkienists are mostly young people, 13-17 years old, but there are also mastodons among them.

There are many things that distinguish a true Tolkienist from all other fantasy lovers:

· These people are very well aware of their difference from their other fellow citizens, so that for compatriots who are not part of the system (and this is all normative society) it is sometimes not easy to understand and integrate into it;

· Careful attitude to the game, to fantasy literature, up to philological interest in the study of Elvish languages, great interest in history, mainly of the early Middle Ages, martial arts, fencing, etc.

· A vital worldview combined with a very humorous assessment of his own activities (a person is capable of heatedly, passionately and in all seriousness arguing about the genealogies of hobbits, but a minute later the same hobbits will become the object of his ridicule - in general, a Tolkienist who always takes himself seriously is bad) ;

· A significant part is characterized by symbols of an amazing willingness to believe with a minimum of reasons for belief (belief in magic, etc.). For example, there are those who consider themselves atheists, but do not doubt the existence of elves.

Tolkienists themselves identify in the structure of their crowd several types of people who came here, in accordance with the reasons that led to Tolkienism.

1. Firstly, these are people who, for whatever reason, have not been able to establish themselves in the big world, or have managed to, but they don’t like what they did. They hold on to the new world like polar explorers hold on to a radio station, since loss means the final collapse of life. Over time, such people constitute the elite of Tolkienism; they close themselves in their narrow circle, and here religion actually grows, but it is directed inward - therefore, the influx of new flock is extremely undesirable, because the system is hermetic, fresh blood can destroy it.

2. Another part of Tolkienists are those who simply like to play. Role-playing allows a person to find himself in the shoes of another, while remaining himself at the same time - and this is a most interesting emotional experience. Unlike theater, play provides virtually unlimited opportunity for action. For the most part, such individuals lead a normal “civilized” life, and consider games as a hobby, a means of relaxation from the harshness of everyday life.

3. The third category is those who need to feel their otherness. In fact, the Tolkienist with his fancy costumes, swords under his arm, and medieval style of behavior really attracts attention. As a rule, such individuals are carried away by a lot of other things at the same time and, in general, do not stay long in Tolkien society.

Conclusion

Participation in a subculture is a “game of adulthood”, where young people construct some semblance of life situations and learn how to behave in them. The only thing worth considering is that subcultures are often influenced by commercial companies that dictate fashion and consumer behavior patterns to them. At the moment, sociologists, marketers and social psychologists face an urgent problem - the replacement of the social model among young people with consumer behavior.

Youth subcultures create their own culture, which helps young people adapt to life, takes on some of the functions of socialization of individuals that family, school, formal youth organizations and the state cannot cope with.

In conclusion, I would like to note the positive consequences of youth subcultures:

The overall aggressiveness of fights between street gangs decreased, the negative energy of confrontation was realized in a different form;

Young people who were passionate about hip-hop were distracted from drugs and alcohol, since breaking requires athletic training;

The situation in the criminal, disadvantaged neighborhoods of large cities in America and Europe and other regions of the world has noticeably improved;

In its non-profit forms, the subculture does not require large financial investments from young people;

It makes it possible to organize active leisure for a certain part of young people, focused on the values of a particular subcultural construct.

Any civilized society presupposes the existence, implementation and organization of people joint activities. The methods of its organization can be both formal and informal; they do not replace each other and proceed according to significantly different laws.

For example, in formal groups, relationships are seemingly impersonal: people act according to prescribed laws or rules. In informal relationships, people or groups of people, communication and communication occurs through public opinion or a system of interpersonal relationships.

In other words, “formals” are members of society who adhere to the norms and laws of this society, and “informals” do not comply with these norms, “go beyond” social stereotypes and templates.

Teenagers are informal

At the heart of any informal movement is the idea free community like-minded people, preserving emotional warmth and at the same time providing each member with a certain individual freedom.

Informals are those who break out of the formalized structures of our lives. They do not fit into the usual rules of behavior. Destroys all patterns and stereotypes not only in appearance, but also in relationships. They strive to live in accordance with their own, and not other people’s interests imposed from outside.

In the 1980s, with the first gusts of freedom, the so-called “System”, a youth association of mainly punk rockers and hippies, gained strength. It existed as a protest or rebellion against the communist system.

The informal youth subculture and its “System” movement collapsed along with the collapse of the USSR, but the new way of life of people, the desire for a better life and gradual disappointment formed a large number of other informal youth and teenage groups.

Features of the youth subculture

In the modern world, whether we notice it or not, a fairly stable youth subculture has already formed. It has its own internal and external features. Firstly, this is a common interest and one ideological program for all participants in the informal youth organization. Secondly, the informals have a desire to assert themselves, along with competition in a group of similar people.

At the same time, each informal youth group has a poorly defined internal structure and internal connections.

Modern youth subcultures

Another important feature and peculiarity of all youth movements is their external features. Each group has its own name, its own informal status and the so-called dress code. Those. a form of clothing or attribute that indicates that a teenager or young man belongs to one or another informal model of youth subculture.

Let's look at the classification of modern youth subcultures

So, to begin with, all informal associations are divided into groups, and those, in turn, into micro groups. When dividing, they are guided purely by likes and dislikes.

There are also exclusively informal teenage movements, informal youth and mixed groups. There are antisocial informals and positive ones.

General classification of informal youth organizations and types of youth subcultures

Sports-oriented informals

These are the so-called sports fans. Their movement is characterized by clear discipline and organization. Young people and teenagers who are well versed in a particular sport know its history. Promote healthy image life. Appearance they are recognizable – sports scarves, caps, T-shirts, etc.

Politically oriented youth subcultures

The most socially oriented youth subculture and informal group. They are distinguished by social activity, participation in all kinds of rallies and have a clear political position. These include: pacifists, Nazis (skinheads), punks, etc.

a youth subculture of pacifists that opposes war and endorses the struggle for peace.
the youth subculture “skinheads” (from the English Skin - skin, Head - head) is a spontaneously emerging marginal organization, which is characterized by nationalist views and a willingness to defend them. Skins are easy to distinguish from others: shaven heads, black and green jackets, nationalistic T-shirts, jeans with suspenders.
The punk youth subculture is basically an extremist informal teenage movement whose behavior is characterized by shocking behavior and an unbridled desire to attract the attention of others.

Philosophical youth subcultures

Prominent among them is such a youth subculture as hippies. Sloppy clothes, blue jeans, embroidered shirts, T-shirts with inscriptions and symbols, amulets, bracelets, chains are the distinctive external signs of hippies. Informal youth are in an eternal search for the meaning of life, knowledge of themselves and the world around them.

Musically oriented movement of informals

The youth subculture of rappers, rockers, breakers, parkour (street acrobatics), etc. Informals of this youth subculture are united by a strong interest in music or dancing. And this interest most often transforms into a lifestyle.

Other modern youth subcultures

Goths (they popularize the cult of death in every possible way, they look very similar to vampires);
emo (short for the word “emotions”). Their youth subculture is based on the idea that the life of a teenager is a very harsh test, and therefore the emo-informal is sad and sad. This is evidenced by the black color in the teenager’s clothes, combined with pink, which is a symbol of love and friendship.
The youth subculture of anarchists is distinguished by their demonstrative straightforwardness in their views and aggressive behavior. Black color in clothes, and a mandatory metal accessory.

Psychology of informality

Informal teenagers have their own psychological characteristics, first of all, the desire and tendency to imitate. This is understandable, because teenagers “do not yet know how” to be themselves, they are in search of the meaning of “I” and their purpose in life. Another characteristic of any informal youth subculture is the desire to stand out, the desire for autonomy and independence.

The realization of this aspiration is quite possible in a group of people like himself. But in fact, the teenager disappears into the crowd of his own kind. “The vast majority of informal groups of youth subculture are based not on conscious unity, which rarely happens among teenagers, but on the same loneliness of its members.”

One of the conditions for the existence of teenage informal groups is the presence or creation of opponents, ill-wishers, etc. Most often, the world of adults becomes enemy number one. An informal teenager expresses disagreement, dissatisfaction with the system and spreads this protest to all informals in the group.