Did anybody here identify with a particular subculture when growing up or nowadays? By subculture, I mean goth, hipster, scenester, emo, rockabilly, nerd etc...

I was a preppy nerd who dominated the self-proclaimed Reject group.. the non-cool kids who did well academically and thought it was great fun to have Jane Austen birthday parties (I played Elizabeth Bennett ). As a result, I never touched drugs... not even a cigarette. Actually, we didn't even drink (back in the day, that was the 'cool' thing to do... thank goodness we grew up in a time when drugs were still hard to get a hold of).. we just got high on red fizzy soda.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the various subcultures around? Is it ironically conformist to be part of a non-conformist subculture such as punk? Which type is most likely to be comfortable as part of a subcultural movement?

I don't identify with any group, subculture or not, despite always wanting to feel like I belong somewhere. There is a big gaming subculture now, and I certainly don't identify with that at all.

I think that's just part of being avoidant though, not belonging anywhere but desperately wanting to.

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~I'll think of a witty comment later, or not. Maybe something to do with clouds?!~

I guess people tend to consider me a hippie now, but personally I'm not into paganism, random sex, or dangerous drugs. I've had a lot of friends who were.

I think I'm just an eccentric, and depending on the time period, they will always have a different name for people like me.

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Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.
~Benjamin Disraeli

In high-school many of the people I hung out with were pretty deep into certain "punk" type subcultures. Punk in quotes because they weren't punk in the true sense, but they were in the same genus at least. I hung out with people who identified as "mods", mainly influenced by the movie Quodrophenia (sp?). They would mostly wear parkas with stuff written on the back and Doc Martins and listen to 80's ska (The Specials, Madness, The Selector) and The Who, and maybe The Jam too - mostly Brit bands because that's what they were influenced by. They cut their hair short, box tops, mostly. For some reason they didn't seem to like skin heads; guess everyone needs a nemesis.


Also at that time the industrial music scene was starting to blossom, and I had some friends who were deep into that culture, so I would go to clubs and concerts with them. They wore a lot of black. Black trench coats and big boots were popular. Kinda pre-goth in style, but not so much in attitude, I think. WoreListened to bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Legendary Pink Dots, Front 242; music of a mixture of electronic and metal type influences - some stuff you can dance to.

I never dressed up like these people did,although some of my fashion choices were certainly influenced by them. I wouldn't really say I was part of the sub-cultures but more associated with them.

I think at the time the whole thing struck me as both fascinating and silly, which is why I never fully subscribed. I mainly liked the music.

Both these groups were a type of counter to the typical "cool" kids and jocks cliques.

Before I cut my hair down to the wood, I had grown it long. I was living in Eugene, Oregon at the time - something of a hippie sanctuary - and some people thought I was a hippie.

I never thought of myself as a hippie, but I suppose I share some philosophies with that group.

I can relate to a lot of that, I was always an "On the outside, looking in." kind of kid.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Aye DC, that's how I always felt, and mostly continue to feel.

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~I'll think of a witty comment later, or not. Maybe something to do with clouds?!~

I can relate as well. Likely a good reason I never really considered myself a part of any group in my above examples - Just never really felt I fit in well enough to consider myself a part of it, which is kind of strange since those groups were already rather fringe groups. There are probably only a handful of times where I felt I was an integral part of a group. That doesn't mean I wasn't a solid member of a group at times; I think the important thing was how I felt about my place in the group.

When I was a teenager I really related to the lyrics in Suzanne Vega's song 'Left of Center':



I felt like she had written that song about somebody like me, or was possibly 'somebody like me' herself

I never identified with a particular sub-culture but did used to find goths hilarious, partly because of their non-conforming en masse but also because, well, goths just are hilarious, aren't they?

I always wanted to be part of goth culture, merely for the satisfaction of confronting people with the idea of a nerdy asian goth.

But I didn't really fit into the mindset.. I did like my crushed velvet and long black necklaces with silver pendants though. I had the most beautiful deep red crushed velvet dress (knee-length--no floor-length for me).

Nowadays there are too many asian goths and emos around.

I was surprised to find out that some people considered me as part of the bohemian rich kids club. I never did drugs or booze at parties. Although I did dress unconventionally, I usually just kept to myself and stayed in the library reading the classics. A seemingly very boring, but very satisfying school life for me. I'd gotten letters from a lot (actually all) my blockmates asking why I never hung out with their groups. I guess I was just too happy being me, and too happy pursuing my intellectual goals, that I didn't notice I wasn't part of any subculture. Although, now that I think about it, I guess I was a bit of a hippie, as I was one of those kids promoting ecological awareness in school. I wonder though, how it might have been like if I had been one of those kids obsessed with Japanese pop culture.

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I suppose that would have been my clique in high school. We smoked pot, did mushrooms, read Henry Miller and listened to God Speed You Black Emperor, but that was 10 years ago now at 29 I'm just me, painfully boring yet happy.

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The world moves on a woman's hips
The world moves and it swivels and bops
The world moves on a woman's hips
The world moves and it bounces and hops
A world of light...shes gonna open our eyes up

-Talking Heads

Ne, Ni, Ti, Se, Fe, Fi, Si, Te

I liked (and still like) bits of different subcultures here & there.....most of it is related to my taste in music, and I find some of the visual aspects & general philosophies that go along with them interesting. As a teen I listened to a lot of late 70s to early 90s alternative/indie/college rock & dance music & all of its various subgenres (darkwave, shoegaze, dance rock, punk rock, etc). I've never been into very angry subcultures so much as the ones with a more, er, "intelligent", dreamy vibe.

My personal dress style as a teen did not fit any genre, & I was never intentionally sensational, but I did stand out for being somewhat "unique". In my pre-teens to early teens, everyday I wore one of my grandpa's old flannel shirts & rotated 1 of 2 pairs of jeans & had plain, long straight hair because my family was poor & that was the best I could do. It was also oh so early 90s.... ByHS my family had a little more money & I started developing more of a style.

My trademarks as a teen in HS were red lipstick & a pair of silver doc martens I wore a lot; I also recall wearing a fur coat to school once and leather pants another time (seriously). I've always liked fashion that is a bit offbeat, and tended to try the riskier stuff the trendy girls didn't venture to try until it became somewhat watered down & safe. In my teens, there was this revival of retro styles in both music & clothes ("neo-swing"), and I was influenced a bit by the rockabilly & swing styles, as they were girly, but sort of "different". A few of my friends were a lot more into it & dressed in that style with far more consistency than I was interested in doing.

I wasn't in a click at school though; I kept to myself & was very much a loner. Outside of school I had a few casual friends I'd hang out with sometimes, but none were close; there were times I would say I had no real friend. I didn't do drugs, drink, date or go to parties. I spent most of my time in my room listening to music & reading.

I also don't think fitting neatly into a subculture would ever suit me; I like too many things & always want to do them in "my way" so that the authenticity of the look is lost (although, ironically, that makes it more authentic ).

As an adult I am drawn to more bohemian things than when I was younger, but it needs a bit of an elegant touch, and I still like stuff that's a bit dark, rebellious, and/or retro.

Interesting to note how varied the responses are, yet also the common themes running throughout. As to be expected, I guess.

I don't think I fit into any of the subcultures per se, but I felt most comfortable with the nerdy kids, definitely. I was vaguely aware that there was a social scene happening around me at the time but it was only looking at pictures of parties my friends showed me, that I never knew were happening, or especially looking back in retrospect that I realised how much I was 'missing out' on. At least half of that was my own choice, though. I was mortified by the prospect of meeting people that didn't come to our school as the odds were in favour of them judging me badly, and I also wasn't comfortable around alcohol. (Still don't like it.) Heh, Orange, I think you and I were fairly similar in that way.

Though I was also very obstinate about my refusal to dress to impress because I considered anyone who judged by appearance to be shallow. I liked wearing shorts and jogging bottoms when I was younger in particular because they felt freer and easier to move around in. The adoption of tracksuits by chavs (or merely my discovery thereof) in addition to a few more years' worth of life experience have led me to soften this stance. That said, I still haven't really made an attempt to 'discover my style' yet. I assume that if I did, I would be paying out of my budget. I prefer the more 'elegant urbanite' look.

At least I now have the social skills to venture further out of my comfort zone should I choose to, but back then it would really have been a trial by fire. I was perfectly content with my small group of friends, and blissfully ignorant of the rest. In fact, the degree of... breadth? of which people socialised outside of school baffled me when I was younger, as derogatory names and insults being flung around my Junior School (grades 3-6 for you Americans) followed me to High School on my first day. I was like... how is that even possible?

Because school uniforms are mandatory in the UK I never really saw who was into the whole goth/emo/alternative business. Though if I had, I suppose I would have found it hilarious or pathetic depending on how I chose to look at it. I always had an awareness of how much of an absurdity the microcosm of high school life was, but the full overwhelming brunt of it would never hit me until after having been at University for a year.

Still, I had some fun times with a few people. Boring to some, but I remember it fondly. A friend and I transforming peoples' wrongly-saved school projects into pisstakes and hiding the originals in obscure directories, leaving a signature (hey, they shouldn't have left it in My Documents, they were explicitly told to use network drives. fair game if you ask me). My discovery of how to change network printer ports, which made for some hilarious results in the IT lessons. (You could print from one side of the building to the other!) Also in Sixth Form, one of my friends created the 'Weekly Word Committee', whereby we would vote from a selection of words, real or fictional, to determine the word of the week. Among those featured were 'planker' and 'discombobulated'. The same person also dressed up as the guy from the 118 adverts in our sponsored walks, and I think he even brought a piccolo or an oboe. The winner of our year group's mock election was also the Monster Raving Loony Party.

As far as subcultures in general go, I'm ambivalent towards them. I appreciate that they can be a way of finding people to relate to in less mainstream ways, but I also think they can be disingenuous and misleading re: the rest of life or "the real world". I also think the concept of wanting to be nonconformist to be pretty retarded, without meaning to be too judgmental, because you can't be a nonconformist if you conform to alternative standards. I prefer the term 'counterculture'. I guess the most postitively I now see subcultures is as a way of expressing alternate sides of oneself, as people really are multifaceted. Just as with MBTI or anything else though, if you identify a little too strongly with the label, problems can occur.

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We are beyond our own ability to define ourselves - we can only describe what we think we are.

in high school i wasn't motivated enough to be one of the smart kids. B grades with occasional A's were fine. i hung out with a mixed group of punks and independents.

in college i was a GDI but in my fifth year i fraternised with a low end frat of asians, ROTC, and kids from the capital (which was a small city suburbia). i did some raving with them and other friends.

then there was a clubbing crowd after college, then my corporate coworkers. my ex-gf's social worker school friends were a really good crew. now i'm hippie at heart and i play one once a year but i hang out with europeans, mostly french, and my writing group with is typical nyc--people who've escaped other cities.

I was born in 1949 and in the 1950s and for most of the 1960s I didn't identify with any subcultures. For about five or six years from 1967 I wanted to be a hippy. I guess I am still a hippy at heart.

I guess I'm unique in this forum to still be in high school, though leaving pretty soon.
What am I.................... I guess if I had to choose I would put myself loosely in the "indie geek" category. I don't dress with the "in" fashions, but I have my own laid-back looking style. However, I wouldn't leave it at geek only...

Yeah, I'm another person who feels like they're looking in at something from the outside.
It's kinda fun sometimes.

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"I reject your reality, and substitute my own!"
-Adam, from "Mythbusters"

I've been obsessing with people, like musicians, humanitarians, intellectuals, dreamers.. but I don't think I've ever been trying to fit into some subculture standard. Not that I by any means are some master of independence, I'd always tried to be like the individuals I obsessed about, sometimes patheticly so. Hmm..

Can this be a Fi vs Fe thing? Individual vs Group?

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Is the cup half-full or half-empty? Neither, the cup is the rightful domain of air,
and water are the imperialistic invader that must be fought by all means neccesary.
Drink it.

I was always kind of "yo" (baggy jeans, nike's and sports apparel). I liked hip-hop from an early age and wanted to dress "cool", thinking that if i blended in with that kind of style, i could remain shy and quiet without being made fun of. Then the grunge explosion happen and i didn't really follow. Use to get made fun of some for dressing like "yo", "wigger", or what-have-you. Then i got enough courage to play high school football so, i was kind of "jock" then (high school football is a HUGE thing where i'm from). Kind of played that card quietly for a year until i started smoking weed all the time and decided it wasn't worth my time doing all these extra things i had to do just to play football.

I was seen as a "traitor" then. You'd think i left my platoon behind or something. People calling me "quitter" all the time and basically turning on me. Then i switched to a "Technical School"(this was where most of the people who hate school went because you had to do less work) to take computer repair. I guess i kind of turned into a "stoner-nerd". I played up the "stoner" card to avoid getting messed with for being smart. Then i turned into a "partier" after high school. I partied for probably 8 straight years.

I don't really identify with anything in particular now because i don't have to fit in and i'm getting tired of partying. I would say that i am probably a product of the "Nirvana" generation though. The band seemed to symbolize sarcasm and cynicism in a hopeless romantic sort of way and, i am chalked full of that. Over the years i'd say that i've used whatever i could to avoid standing out.

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"...he must bring forth values which are an equivalent substitute for his absence in the collective personal sphere. Without this production of values individuation is immoral and, more than that, suicidal..." Jung

I remember, when I got into the age in which this played a role in my life, I always was fascinated by those people standing out - even when not knowing them in person. I always wanted to be like that ... I always liked dressing in a way that made me stand out then, the more unique the clothes, the better (mainly, but not only, printwise).

When I was approximately 13 or 14 years old, I suffered from bulimia and was extremely depressive, because I was bullied in school and life at home was a disaster. I thought of the disease as a way of escaping life in a way that I "deserved", and because the bullying didn*t stop, I tried to dress in a way that made me not stand out any longer. I happened to do this for one week or so ... Until one of my dear classmates criticized the way I looked, because the colour choice wasn*t that trendy. In this moment, I noticed that I could do whatever I wanted - I*d never fit in and be accepted by the people who didn*t like me beforehand.

So I started finding my own style more and more. First of all, I dressed kind of hippy-like, but by the later 1999 and early 2000 I discovered my love for the goth scene. I started dressing in all kinds of styles, started talking to other goth people, and happened to find them very tolerant, intelligent, open-minded, and interested in several things I liked as well (philosophy and questions of that, mythology, alternative religions, etc.). I also deeply fell in love with the music.

When I finally got to know some people into that scene in the place I lived in, I felt accepted, like in a family I have been searching for for so long beforehand. No-one of them ever criticized me for the person I was; I could argue for my opinion, and listen to others without getting the feeling I was attacked because of my ideals.

However, several years ago, I got to know somebody who was very fed up because of this scene, and I paid way too much attention to what that person said. I started seeing the "bad sides" about this subculture, and because of several reasons, went on a great distance to them. Which then was accelerated when I was diagnosed with a mental disease and had to be hospitalized; because they took all my clothes away then and gave me clothes that looked better and whatnot. Okay, but to get back to the subject ---

I then tried getting into the visual kei scene somehow as I loved a lot of the music, but I had my problems with that. If you ask me, even though I am not a totally cliche goth, I do belong in this scene with all my heart. ^^ Even though I don*t go to many parties of that, especially since I had to move, I try to keep in touch with my former friends even if it is hard, and I do love the fact that those people are really faithful to their friends.

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"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people ... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing ..."