Early 1980s youth subculture - imagined from 1971
from Disc and Music Echo, March 1971 - it's a sweep of youth cults / looks from the beginning ie. rock'n'roll to the present - and beyond!
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Futuromania - the paperback
The paperback edition of Futuromania has just come out Older eyes will recognise the graphic design's nod to this best-seller of t...
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I do like this kind of book that attempts to sum up a moment in cultural time, especially when the author is also rash enough to predict t... -
"Schlock" here used in the Yiddish-derived sense of "inferior or shoddy goods" Oops, here's an earlier Hawkwind -rel... -
....is a bit too huge of a question for me to tackle but briefly* 1/ I’m not as depressed about music and lack of futurity as I was when I...
In sheer appearance, I most resemble the Beatnik (2), and I think the Hippy girlfriend is closest to my type (though I wouldn't turn down the Nupe girlfriend).
ReplyDeleteNot super-prescient about the subculture of 1980, but some of the themes were right. "Total unisex" is accurate. And I guess you could say the "handicrafts" idea did actually emerge in DIY culture: home-made fashion, zines, "this is a chord, now form a group".
ReplyDeleteIt actually says the nupe was born in 1980, so i'm guessing they are talking about turn of millennium subcultures.
Deleteunisex was a thing in postpunk to some extent - not many skirts and dresses - but it's drastically reverted since then in terms of polarized clothing for the genders. i mean, the return of false eyelashes! i went to the doctors last week and all the women working at the front desk had false eyelashes like enormous moths stuck to their eyelids. and this for the fairly staid environs of a medical office.
Ah no looking at the other ones, the date is when the culture was born. Not the exponents of it.
DeleteThe false eyelashes trend is a great spot. Who is writing well about those style and fashion trends through the lenses of sociology and gender politics these days? Feels like it is a lost art.
This much-discussed article about today’s American youth culture is terrible in many ways. But “dinergoth” is a real thing, and I would love to read someone writing thoughtfully about it.
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/american-diner-gothic
Oh you are right - and in fact that's what i originally had and then changed it in the post. Now i have to change it back.
DeleteThe Nupe looks a bit like how the kids in The Tomorrow People looked.
There's a writer for Washington Post (although she might have been let go in the big letting go) who did great style/fashion analyses of public figures, sort of the look of politics / politicians. I forget her name though.
I'm sure there must be tons of great acerbic commentary on style out there, given how dominant it is and how obsessed the younger generations are. I feel like the general look of people - including young people - was a lot shabbier in my day. obviously you have your hardcore style cults. but generally. but now everything is hyper-groomed and precise, whether it is the lumpen / Love Island end of things, or the more chic trendy strata.
Robin Givhan is her name - looks like she's still at the Post, which a shame as I stopped subscribing on account of shitty Bezos.
DeleteActually the Nupe doesn't look anything like the kids in The Tomorrow People. I think the Nupe's look is more like how people dress in Logan's Run.
DeleteThere were definitely times when you would see the Tomorrow People in that polo neck-plus-utility belt combo. See for example: https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/the-tomorrow-people-1.jpg?w=700
DeleteIt’s also a bit reminiscent of the fashions from Space 1999: https://gerryanderson.com/cdn/shop/articles/spy1mm002.jpg?v=1736428247&width=1100
The jumpsuit aspect comes straight from Bowie, presumably.