Subcultures

Style-based subcultures, scenes and tribes - along with their music genres - have pulsated through the history of social, economic and political change. From 1940s zoot-suiters and hepcats; through 1950s rock 'n' rollers, beatniks and Teddy boys; 1960s surfers, rudeboys, mods, hippies and bikers; 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and punks; on to the heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave and clubber styles of the 1980s, 90s, noughties and beyond; distinctive blends of fashion and music have become a defining feature of the cultural landscape.

Research into these phenomena has traversed the social sciences and humanities, and this Network aims to bring together recent studies, insights and methodological approaches in this rich, interdisciplinary field.

Find out more on the Subcultures Network website.

• To promote and facilitate research exploring the ways in which subcultures and popular music serve as mediums for social change.
• To encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to the study of subcultures, popular music and social change.
• To initiate and sustain a dialogue between scholars whose work focuses on subjects relating to subcultures, popular music and social change by way of regular workshops, symposia and conferences.
• To provide support and opportunities for peer-review towards funding proposals related to the study of subcultures, popular music and social change.
• To instigate and amass a significant body of scholarly work examining the relationship between subcultures, popular music and social change.

The Interdisciplinary Network for the Study of Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change has published research in many academic scholarly journals:

• Hebdige and Subculture in the Twenty-First Century
• Ripped, torn and cut: Pop, politics and punk fanzines from 1976 (Manchester University Press, 2018)
• 'British Youth Cultures and the Wider World', Special Issue of Britain and the World (Volume 11, Issue 1, March 2018)
• Youth Culture and Social Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
• Fight Back: Punk, Politics and Resistance (Manchester University Press, 2014)
• Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change (Cambridge Scholars, 2014)
• Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End of 'Consensus' (Routledge, 2014)
• 'Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End of 'Consensus' in Post-War Britain', Special Issue of Contemporary British History, vol. 26, no. 3 (2012)

Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music: Call for Proposals.

The proposed series will be international in scope and is designed to explore the social and political implications and development of subcultural forms; place youth cultures, subcultures and musical cultures in their historical, socio-economic and cultural context; assess the motivations and meanings applied to the aesthetics, actions and manifestations of youth and subcultures in national and international perspective.

In other words, the series intends to build on the pioneering work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) established by Richard Hoggart in 1964 and developed by Stuart Hall and others thereafter. That is, to facilitate a genuinely cross-disciplinary and transnational outlet for a burgeoning area of academic study.

More information on these publications and the opportunity to purchase them can be found on the Palgrave Macmillan website.

• Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain
• Youth Culture and Private Space
• Images of England through Popular Music
• National Myth and the First World War in Modern Popular Music
• Hugo Chávez, Alí Primera and Venezuela. The Politics of Music in Latin America
• Quadrophenia and Mod(ern) Culture
• Youth Culture and Social Change
• The Connected Lives of Dutch Punks. Contesting Subcultural Boundaries
• Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism
• Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media
• Youth and Permissive Social Change in British Music Papers, 1967–1983

The founding committee of the Subcultures Network comprised Jon Garland, Keith Gildart, Anna Gough-Yates, Paul Hodkinson, Sian Lincoln, Bill Osgerby, Lucy Robinson, John Street, Pete Webb and Matthew Worley.