Cultures of Youth II

Today in Malcolm's lecture, we looked at Material Culture as Sub-Cultural Identity (1975-2015). Starting where we last off last week, the Punk movement was made to shock and to create anarchy. Vivienne Westwood's shop 'Sex' did exactly this. Free love was a huge factor of this time and still is today.

The disco movement also started in the 70s and 80s with films such as Saturday Night Fever and Fame. Fame also introduced the gym aesthetic and fashion (which also inspired out live project).

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/saturday-night-fever-gif

The lase 1980s were bleak with lots of concrete. The music videos echoed this, especially with John Foxx's Underpass. Foxx seems very enthusiastic and excited about underpasses in this video. Seems legit. 

http://giphy.com/gifs/john-foxx-underpass-DMrCUGjtpTW0w

Key events: Thatcher elected, The Royal Wedding, Faukland's War.

The term of 'yuppies' were also introduced and youths had cash to spend on luxuries. Free sex and AIDS were also huge in the 80s and a key event.

Tribal belonging started to be introduced and were made to break stereotypes but also fit in (makes sense). There were three main types: New Romantics, Androgyny and Goth. The goth movement is probably the only group that has survived today. New Romantics I love. Love their style and I was brought up to like their style and music (especially Adam Ant who I still love today).

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/adam-ant-gif

Rap and Hip Hop were also huge and gave black culture a voice (which was worrying at the time). NWA were one of the biggest groups with their name causing controversy (Niggas With Attitude), making people think that what is unacceptable is acceptable. We listened to Straight Outta Compton which seemed to be Brad's jam and was rapping along which amused us.

1990s music was a bit of all sorts: grunge, britpop, boybands... There was something for everyone and people started to fit in. There was also pre-Millennium tension with people thinking about the end of the world and technology. People thought that computers an the electric would crash as the date would change to 00.00.00 and they wouldn't know what to do. Films also echoed this (Fight Club being a huge one).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/fight-club-trivia_n_6425568.html

Malcolm then briefly went over the last decade and summed up news events such as bombings and Obama being elected. He then had a rant about Kim Kardashian ("whatever that is"). The big question is youth culture now normal?