Slang, youth subcultures and rock music

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Starting in the late 80's, through present day, there has been a large resurgence back to the "traditional" values and appearance of the 1960's skinhead. This has occurred in Britain, America, as well as most of Europe. This has lead to even more tension, this time between "traditional," and "non-traditional" skins.

Influences of punk can be found in the skinhead culture. Skinheads were in existence long before the punk movement came around, and they were in healthy shape. The split in skinhead culture happened about the same time that the skinheads accepted punk. On one side was the traditional skinheads, known as “baldies”, and on the other was the racist skinheads, known as “boneheads”. Even today there is the negative connotation that skinhead stands for racism, which is hardly the case. But there is also a group that calls itself SHARPs (SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice; militantly anti-racist skinheads). Skinheads went for a clean-cut look, thus the shaved heads, jeans that fit, plain white t-shirts (sometimes referred to as “wife beaters”), and work boots (“shit kickers”). Tension between the two skinhead cultures exists still today, and an ongoing war is still going on between the white supremacist nazi punk skinheads and the working class anti-racial skinheads. The names of Oi! bands were sometimes cruel (Dead John Lennons, Millions of Dead Cops).

GOTH

Main Entry: Goth Pronunciation: 'gäth Function: noun Etymology: Middle English Gothes, Gotes (plural), partly from Old English Gotan (plural); partly from Late Latin Gothi (plural) Date: 14th century : a member of a Germanic people that overran the Roman Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era

Main Entry: Goth Function: abbreviation Gothic

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Goth emerged in the late 1970’s, branching off of the punk scene. A band by the name of Siouxsie and the Banshees are accredited with the starting of the Goths. Gothic music differs from punk to the effect that it eliminated the chainsaw sound of punk and replaced it with a droning sound of guitar, bass, and drums. The Goths also believed that society was too conservative, but they also felt that no one accepted them, so they viewed themselves as outcasts of society. Goths are preoccupied with introspection and melancholia. They are inclined to speak poetically of 'beautiful deaths' and vampiric sympathies. Theatrical as they are, goths are not (or not only) play-acting and self-dramatizing. The Goths wear almost nothing but black, perhaps with a little white or even red. Goth girls have a penchant for nets and lace and complex sinister jewelry; with their long black hair, black dresses and pasty complexions, they look positively Victorian. Boys have long hair and often wear black leather jackets and can at times be mistaken for heshers. Goths dye their hair black and wear black eyeliner and even black lipstick. They usually apply white makeup to the rest of their faces. The music they listen to also carries the name "goth" and seems to have descended from Joy Division, but typically the vocalist uses an especially cheesy 50's Count Dracula enunciation pattern.

Unlikely as it may seem, this movement, fostered at a London nightclub called the Batcave in 1981, has become one of the longest-enduring youth-culture tribes. The original Goths, named after the medieval Gothic era, were pale-faced, black-swathed, hair-sprayed night dwellers, who worshiped imagery religious and sacrilegious, consumptive poets, and all things spooky. Their bands included Sex Gang Children, Specimen, and Alien Sex Fiend, post-punk doom merchants who sang of horror-film imagery and transgressive sex. When Goth returned to the underground in Britain, it took root in the U.S., particularly in sunny California, where the desired air of funereal gloom was often at odds with the participants' natural teen spirit. English bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Sisters of Mercy cast a powerful spell over the imaginations of American night stalkers, and pop-Goth variants the Cure and Depeche Mode filled stadiums. Further proof of the movement's mass appeal was the success of The Crow horror movies (1994, 1996), both of which were suffused with Goth imagery. Goth provides a highly stylized, almost glamorous, alternative to punk fashion for suburban rebels, as well as safe androgyny for boys. The massive popularity of such industrial-Goth artists as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson has somewhat validated the Goth crowd's outré modus vivendi, though as industrial rock replaces heavy metal as the sound of Middle America, Goth's dark appeal is blanched. Goth enjoyed a spate of media coverage in late 1996 thanks to such peripherally related events as the Florida "vampire murders" of November 1996. To this day, the movement continues to replenish itself with the fresh blood of new bands and fans.

Реферат опубликован: 7/06/2006