Juice15, Hebdige

“We have seen how subcultures ‘breach our expectancies,’ how they represent symbolic challenges to a symbolic order” (Hebdige 154).This section by Hebdige discussed subcultures and the ways they are perceived by the media and the market.

The media is attracted to events that involve fighting, “anti-social” acts or anything that causes a scene or goes against the grain and can make subcultures look more or less ‘exotic’ than they really are.. Subcultures grab this media attention a lot of the time because they are typically considered different or the other. “…the other can be transformed into meaningless exotica, a “pure object, a spectacle, a clown.” This goes along with the example of how a news anchor referred to soccer hooligans not as humans but as animals. Where I live back home people that are part of the Insane Clown Posse are considered this “other” group and were typically exploited on the different form of mass media. The idea of them being “unnatural” was a common occurrence.

Media can also turn subcultures into a market for consumption and/or trivialized, naturalized or domesticated. The media can run stories to try and show people how a certain subculture is really not that different from you and I. The example of Punk families shown in magazines as a normal everyday family was used to show that they might dress different, but besides that they are typical. As subcultures appear markets can turn up to satisfy the needs of their clothing or jewelry choices. When this occurs they become codified, made comprehensible and become profitable merchandise. I feel this happens when a lot of music groups who are considered others become popular and their style become a commodity form. Overall I feel the media has an influence on how subcultures are perceived and treated by the general public today.