Club Culture

(Outline of lecture by Morgan Gerard)

 

Sarah Thornton Club Cultures (1996)

 

-main theoretical focus on subcultural capital, subcultural hierarchies, and the discourses of clubbers and ravers' concerning identity

 

MINORITY VS. MAJORITY

 

• community vs. public: ravers and clubbers define themselves as communities both against the mainstream public as well as against other club or rave 'demographics'

 

• media exposure threatens to de-stabilize culture

          (see Ian Brown, "Adventures in Clubland")

 

• original minority attracted by music and dance

 

• new majority attracted by media, drugs, sex, 'latest thing mentality'

 

US                                                              THEM

 

Alternative (Underground)     Mainstream

 

Hip/cool                                                      Straight/square            

 

Independent                                      Commercial

 

Authentic                                          False/phoney

 

Rebellious/radical                            Conformist/conservative

 

Specialist genres                              Pop

 

Insider knowledge                            Easily accessible info

 

Minority                                           Majority

 

Heterogeneous                                 Homogeneous

 

Youth                                                         Family

 

Classless                                           Classed

 

Masculine culture                            Feminine culture

 

 

 

CLASSLESS VS. CLASSED

 

• we are classless (class doesn't define us - insider

knowledge, participation and subcultural capital does)

• they (public society) are classed

• we transcend class

• they (outsiders like Sharon & Tracy, B&T crowds, Ginos) display a certain class-ness in their dress and behaviour

 

 

MASCULINE CULTURE VS. FEMININE CULTURE

 

"among youth cultures there is a double articulation of the lowly and the feminine: disparaged other  cultures are characterized as feminine and  girls' cultures are devalued as imitative and passive. Authentic culture is, by contrast, depicted in gender-free or masculine terms and  remains the prerogative of boys." (Thornton, p. 105)

 

• U.K. research indicates music is more "central and personal" for boys and more "instrumental and social" for girls

 

• club and rave culture is definitely a boys' club: more male DJs, more male media, more male promoters, and more male participants

 

• if ladies get in free before midnight does that not place them in a commodity-like position?

 

•masculine/feminine distinctions exist within the cultures themselves

 

•for example, House music is (perhaps because of its gay origins) considered music for the ladies whereas Jungle is considered boy's music

 

 

INSIDER STATUS

 

SUBCULTURAL CAPITAL

 

"Subcultural capital can be objectified or embodied. Just as books and paintings display cultural capital in the family home, so subcultural capital is objectified in the form of fashionable haircuts and well-assembled record collections ....Just as cultural capital is personified in 'good' manners and urbane conversation, so subcultural capital is embodied in the form of being 'in the know', using (but not over using) current slang and looking as if you we born to perform the latest dance styles."

 

examples....

 

- records carry more subcultural capital than                 do CDs

- white label records or advance promotional                 copies carry more subcultural capital than                       other records

-a closet full of Snug, Phat Farm, or Fiction                            clothing carries subcultural capital; Gap and             Club Monaco have no value in this scheme

 

SHARON AND TRACY

 

•refers to a standardized ideal of the high-heel wearing weekend warrior secretary-type

 

•brings her purse on the dancefloor

 

•likes the most commercial or cheesiest of dance music

 

•out to pick up boys

 

 

THE B&T CROWD

 

•a similar term used in Manhattan's club scene

 

•refers to people living outside the city who have to take the bridge or tunnel into the city for clubbing

 

•similar signifiers - big hair, lots of make-up, working class to yuppie

 

GINO

 

•a term particular to Toronto with obvious racist implications against Italian-Canadians

 

•has been a long standing term that most people living here are probably familiar with

 

•in the context of rave a club culture it refers to muscle-bound, tank-top wearing boys who are prone to pick fights at clubs and cruise for girls because they don't know the rules