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Punk Subculture

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With the high pace of modernization since the 20th Century, people tend to be mechanized into living where they live. Concerned with the erosion of identify and distinct ways of life, large quantities of subculture emerged,especially in the late 1960s and 1970s. Bourdieu has already coined the term ‘cultural capital’ to explicate the cultural asserts available within society. As provided with unique habitus and subcultural production, diverse subcultures often distinct through different subcultural capitals. This essay will interpret the notion of ‘subcultural capital’ thoroughly and analyses how it assists subgroups differentiate themselves from other social groups, especially focusing on the punk subcultural capital and its contemporary …show more content…

Influenced by this punk subcultural capital, the punks distinguished themselves from the mainstream code of behavior. The subcultural capital not only differentiated from the widely accepted ‘popular culture’, but also discriminated themselves from the ‘high culture’ as well. Hebdige (1976) has argued that subcultural knowledge often include class consciousness. As a matter of fact, the assertion of subcultural distinction partly bases on the ideal of classlessness (Thornton, 1995). Storey also points out that the class divides indeed exist between the subculture and the elite culture (Forgan, 2002). Opposite from the high culture, which is often appeal to the taste of the elite class, the subcultural capital is always less class-bound and concerned more about the interests of lower class. Therefore, it shapes people’s dispositions against the dominate stereotypes, such as class, gender and religion. As an illustration, the punks can come from all works of life and the diversity help to develop the punk tastes and contributes to the accumulation of subcultural capital, these tastes may give a guide to punks preference. In this way, the subcultural capital assists to develop its uniqueness.
Last but not the least, the subcultural capital singularise the culture through practice on the subcultural production, which mainly are the music, fashion, art and literature. The subculture always identified by practice on these expressive forms under

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