an in depth case study of a culture or subculture

Introduction: Researching Subcultures, Myth and Memory

• First Online: 31 July 2020

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• Bart van der Steen 11 &
• Thierry P. F. Verburgh 12  

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music ((PSHSPM))

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The introduction takes as its starting point that an analysis of subcultural myths and myth-making can contribute valuable insights to subcultural studies. In the past decades, memory studies and the study of myths have gained prominence in the social sciences and humanities. Memory studies investigate the ways in which past and present phenomena are remembered, commemorated, and imagined. Myth studies examine the ways certain representations come to be shared as true or exceptional. As subcultural studies finds itself at a crossroads, with prominent scholars questioning the very existence of subcultures, these notions can open new avenues for research. For subcultures are not only built around shared passions and interests—either for music, politics, board games or anything else—but also around shared stories, imaginations, and memories.

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The relationship between youth subcultures and memory is among other discussed in: A. Bennett, ‘Popular Music, Cultural Memory and Everyday Aesthetics’ in E. de la Fuente and P. Murphy (eds.), Philosophical and Cultural Theories of Music (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 243–262; M.S. Gorbuleva, ‘Phenomenon of the Memory and its Role in the Marginal Subcultures’, Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin vol. 11 (2013), 188–193; C. Strong, Grunge: Music and Memory (London & New York: Routledge 2016); A. Danielsen, ‘Aesthetic Value, Cultural Significance and Canon Formation in Popular Music’, Studia musicologica Norvegica vol. 32 (2006), 55–72.

For critical discussions of myth studies, see W.G. Doty, Mythography: The Study of Myths (second edition; Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2000); E. Csapo, Theories of Mythology (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2005); R.A. Segal, Myth: A Very Short Introduction (second edition; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

See for a case study: A. Medhurst, ‘Punk, Memory and Autobiography’ in R. Sabin, Punk Rock: So What? (London & New York: Routledge 1999), 219–231.

J. Patrick Williams, Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts (New York: Polity Press, 2011); S. Blackman and M. Kempson (eds.), The Subcultural Imagination: Theory, Research and Reflexivity in Contemporary Youth Cultures (London: Routledge, 2018).

This process of elevation, also referred to as ‘sacralization’, is seen as one of the defining and distinctive characteristics of what makes a myth, and of what separates them from mere stereotypes or archetypes. See among others E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1915); M. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion (London: Sheed and Ward, 1958); Ibid., Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (London: Fontana, 1968); G. Bouchard, Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017).

See for example: A. Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?: Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste’, Sociology vol. 33 (1999) no. 3, 599–617.

For discussions on subcultural research, see among other K. Gelder and S. Thornton (eds.), The Subcultures Reader (London: Routledge, 1997); S. Blackman, ‘Youth Subcultural Theory: A Critical Engagement with the Concept, its Origins and Politics, from the Chicago School to Postmodernism’, Journal of Youth Studies vol. 8 (2005) no. 1, 1–20; J.P. Williams, Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2011).

Among the central CCCS texts are: S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds.), Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1976); P. Cohen, Subcultural Conflict and Working Class Community . Working Papers in Cultural Studies 2 (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1972); D. Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London: Routledge, 1979).

For critical discussions, see among other: D. Harris, From Class Struggle to the Politics of Pleasure: The Effects of Gramscianism on Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 1992); Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’.

For important contributions and reflections on post-subcultural studies, see: R. Weinzierl and D. Muggleton, ‘What is “Post-subcultural Studies” Anyway?’ in D. Muggleton and R. Weinzierl (eds.) The Post-Subcultures Reader (Oxford: Berg, 2003), 3–23; S. Redhead, Subcultures to Clubcultures: An Introduction to Popular Cultural Studies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997); R. Huq, Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World (London: Routledge, 2006).

D. Muggleton, Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style (Oxford: Berg, 2000).

T. Polhemus, ‘In the Supermarket of Style’ in S. Redhead (ed.), The Clubcultures Reader: Readings in Popular Cultural Studies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 148–151.

Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’.

J. Irwin, Scenes (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1977); See also: B. Green, ‘Whose Riot? Collective Memory of an Iconic Event in a Local Music Scene’, Journal of Sociology vol. 55 (2018) no. 1, 144–160; K. Spracklen, S. Henderson and D. Procter, ‘Imagining the Scene and the Memory of the F-Club: Talking About Lost Punk and Post-Punk Spaces in Leeds’, Punk and Post Punk vol. 5 (2016) no. 2, 147–162.

S. Redhead, The End-of-the-Century Party: Youth and Pop towards 2000 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), 25.

For studies on subcultures and memory, see among other: Bennett, ‘Popular Music, Cultural Memory and Everyday Aesthetics’; Green, ‘Whose Riot? Collective Memory of an Iconic Event in a Local Music Scene’; Strong, Grunge: Music and Memory ; L. Kube, ‘We Acted as Though We Were in a Movie: Memories of an East German Subculture’, German Politics and Society vol. 26 (2008) no. 2, 45–55.

For introductions to memory studies, see: A. Erll and A. Nünning (eds.), A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (Berlin & New York: De Gruyter, 2008); J.K. Olick and J. Robbins, ‘Memory studies. From “Collective Memory” to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices’, Annual Review of Sociology vol. 24 (1998), 105–140.

M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Ibid, The Collective Memory (New York: Harper & Row Colophon, 1980).

S. Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Picador, 2003), 76.

See Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi and Levy for a defense of the original term: J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy, ‘Introduction’ in J.K. Olick and J. Robbins (eds.), The Collective Memory Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 3–62.

J. Assman and J. Czaplicka, ‘Collective Memory and Cultural Identity’, New German Critique vol. 65 (1995), 125–133, 132.

G. Bouchard, ‘Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries. Some Afterthoughts’, Philosophy and Public Issues vol. 8 (2018) no. 3, 2–15, 5.

As stated earlier, myth studies gained renewed attention as memory studies rose to prominence. For critical discussions on the relation between myth-making and history writing, see: P. Burke, ‘History, Myth, and Fiction’ in J. Rabasa, S. Masayuki Sato, E. Tortarolo, and D. Woolf (eds.), The Oxford History of Historical Writing , vol. 3, 1400–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 261–281; L. Cruz and W. Frijhoff (eds.), Myth in History, History in Myth (Leiden: Brill, 2009); J. Mali, Mythistory: The Making of a Modern Historiography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

G. Bouchard, Social Myths , 13.

G. Bouchard, ‘Social Myths: A New Approach’, Philosophy Study vol 6 (2016) no. 6, 356–366, 356.

See among other: E. Durkheim, Sociology and Philosophy , translated by D. F. Pocock (London: Cohen & West, 1953). (Originally published in 1924); I. Strenski, Malinowski and the Work of Myth (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

G.A. Fine and S. Kleinman, ‘Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis’, American Journal of Sociology vol. 85 (1979) no. 1, 1–20.

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van der Steen, B., Verburgh, T.P.F. (2020). Introduction: Researching Subcultures, Myth and Memory. In: van der Steen, B., Verburgh, T. (eds) Researching Subcultures, Myth and Memory. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41909-7_1

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Published : 31 July 2020

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