Subcultures
...when that chick in the tight black slacks, matching jacket and with that damned lock of hair hanging in front of her eyes butts in and blurts something to the effect of: "Yeah, I just love emo bands, I'm going to a concert this Saturday, everyone who's anyone in the scene is gonna be thereĀ
" Or you're waiting for the bus, dressed in your best baggy jeans, Metallica shirt and army-green combat jacket (complete with chains adorning the reverse) when the bus driver pulls up, informs you that his bus is for football supporters and not for "fucking goths" and drives away. Or even, after you've immersed yourself in such terminology and you think you know what you're talking about when you start differentiating rave from trance, or screamo from hardcore for that matter, and one of your know-it-all, subcultureder-than-thou buddies completely and totally refutes your hard-gleaned knowledge.
Does this sound familiar to you? If so, you're probably in a similar situation to myself: Mr. Alvin Toffler's Third Wave of society, having advanced in a rush of cliques and posses, is well above your head and you're floundering to get a grip. While not necessarily wanting to belong to any of these so-called subcultures, you find yourself wanting to learn more about the groups you see forming around you. Often, this is a matter of sheer self-preservation: to mistakenly label a certain group as one which is mutually exclusive to it is sure to bring down hostility onto one's head. While this may not pose such a great problem when applied to any of the more peaceful subcultures (hippies come to mind), hostility from, for example, a crowd of jocks is most likely equal to a reasonably savage pummeling. It is for this purpose that I've put together this guide, as a sort of reference for when you simply cease to understand. It is by no means comprehensive (by their nature, some...
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