Subcultures have always existed within a certain relation to dominant cultures in society.
Society is a complex phenomenon which is not influenced by a single universal ideology, but
rather by more ideologies as a consequence of many social groups that compose it. Certain
groups have a bigger impact on the formation of the social world, while others, such as
subcultures, present a threat to dominant cultures, because they challenge dominant ideology
on a symbolic level. Hence, the dominant culture fights against subcultures in several ways,
such as the commodity and ideological forms of recuperation. Rave, a prototypical twenty-first
century, postmodern, millenium youth subculture, can be taken as a model of a subculture that
fought a battle with dominant ideology. It was at its peak in the eighties and then it slowly
became a part of the dominant youth culture, also due to falling victim to systematic attacks by
dominant culture on the one hand and economic pressures of the market on the other.
|
