Subculture: Where have all the rebels gone?

by Akilah Russell

Let’s admit it, at some point in our lives we have all rebelled, whether it was getting that tattoo or piercing that your mother forbade you to get, dyeing your hair that horrid pink colour, and let’s not forget smoking a crumpled cigarette around the back of the school gates in year nine.

While others may have opted for the occasional staying out past curfew or slamming a few doors, all in all it is a way of expression – airing discontent, pledging allegiance or belonging to a certain group, or just to separate oneself from the others.

Fuelled by adolescence and angst, rebellion is indeed a ritual of each generation that cannot be helped. So much so, that some of the most infamous and legendary rebellions of the past, can actually define that decade, some even influencing mainstream society forever.

But with our decade fast approaching its end, it seems that the generation ‘noughties’ has not been that naughty at all, thus begging the question: Where have all the rebels gone?

The rise in rebellion and its coherence with mainstream - defying subcultures can easily be put into chronological order, starting with the 1950’s teenage delinquent. These delinquents became more than just an attitude and developed into a distinct subculture that went beyond music and jukeboxes, extending to film, fashion, hair, cars motorbikes, and even slang - think Grease.

Conflict over the vast contrasts between the parental generation and the budding youth culture, is said to be exemplified by rock and roll, which caused a stir in society as many feared that social rebellion was on the rise.

The following decade saw the emergence of sex, drugs and rock and roll in an unsuspecting, conservative and paranoid world, and it was thanks to the power of the youth culture then, that the power of music - and the way it is consumed - would change forever.

Fight for a Cause

The 1960s saw the dawn of rebels that would question everything that the world they lived in stood for, in the shape of the free spirited, free loving, technicoloured, tree hugging, 'hippie'- protesting against war and vigorously advocating love.

These 'free loving' teenagers then became nappy changing parents to the wild disco dons and the anarchy loving, safety-pin adorned punks of the 1970s, and theatrical synth-sirens and pink haired rebels who asked God to save the Queen of the '80s.

This brings us neatly to the nineties, and when rebelling and adversarial way of dress slowly begun to grind to a halt. Honourable mentions must be granted to the grunge generation, originating in Seattle, North America, whose unkempt appearances and teen spirit rebelled against the popular 80s glam-rock era and repelled everybody who did not live in their Nirvana.

When critically evaluating the evolution of subcultures a red thread is visible. Many subcultural ways of dress has quickly trickled across to the dreaded mainstream and made into ‘cool’, although its antics, original meaning and purpose have been discarded.

Many trends have originated from the streets: Marc Jacobs put grunge on the fashion charts in 1992, Vivienne Westwood has since, long had an intricate relationship with punk, and more recently we have seen the upswing of gothic fashion on the catwalks.

Rebellion gone AWOL?

Taking everything into consideration, it seems that we are the generation that know better - or at least the ones who should.

For example, we now know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer with the possibility of a slow and painful death. We know that ‘free love’ can lead to getting a STD or STI and we are now cleaning up after the overconsuming that happened in the '80s and '90s.

So, where have the rebels gone? Well, the answer is green. In the past decade we have been told that our food is slowly but surely killing us, that we are overweight, damaging our health; our children; animals; the planet; fluffy bunnies and everything else that is cute. So as it stands, the world as we know it is about to end because of the wicked ways we lived in the past.

What is there left to rebel against when, at the moment, the general consensus seems to be that it’s not brilliant, but it is ‘ok’? The changes brought about by our rebellious forefathers have paved the way for equal and civil rights in a time when change was desperately needed – and protesting was fashionable. But ours is a generation where change has left us somewhat apathetic and subdued by the argument of political correctness.

Another argument worth taking into consideration is the fact that our parents - of the very same '60s generation - are bound to be slightly more lenient (Supernanny aside), than their parents.

Thus, it comes as no surprise, that we are a more obedient generation, as it is quite hard to stick the middle finger up to the establishment, especially when we are now paying for our education out of our own pockets.

However, throughout history prolonged fear and paranoia breed contempt; and those are the perfect conditions for rebellion to be born. With the ongoing strikes in mind, are we perhaps heading towards a new decade of rebellion?