Club cultures - music, media and subcultural capital - Sarah Thorton.pdf - Culture - lady_kitty

CLUB CULTURES:

MUSIC, MEDIA AND SUBCULTURAL CAPITAL

Sarah Thornton

Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995

CONTEXT

The subject of this book, ‘club cultures’, refers to the youth cultures based first

around raves and then around dance clubs from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

The main sociological context for Thornton’s research was the approach to the

study of youth subcultures developed in the 1970s by the Centre for Contemporary

Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in books such as Resistance Through

Rituals . This approach saw subcultures such as skinheads as expressions of class-based

cultures that were rebelling against the dominant ideology of a capitalist state.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there were a series of what have been called

‘spectacular’ youth subcultures: mods, rockers, skinheads, punks, and so on. Every

subculture had a distinctive style of dress and appearance and particular tastes in

music and usually in choice of drugs. Many of these subcultures were analysed by

sociologists along the lines suggested by the CCCS – that is, seen as representing a

primitive kind of resistance towards capitalism.

From the 1980s onwards it became much more difficult to distinguish youth

subcultures. Instead, there seemed to be a variety of styles that were short lived and

shaped by the music and fashion industries. These could not be seen as authentic

expressions of the anger of working-class youth in the way the CCCS had suggested.

Thornton’s research focuses on a subculture, or cluster of related subcultures, in the

late 1980s and 1990s.

Thornton takes from Pierre Bourdieu the concept of ‘cultural capital’ and develops

from it the concept of ‘subcultural capital’. Bourdieu (1977) argued that the most

privileged groups in society are distinguished by their possession not only of

economic capital but also social and cultural capital, and that the class system is

perpetuated by these various forms of capital (not just wealth) being passed from

one generation to the next. Cultural capital in Britain, for example, might include

possession of a particular accent, and having attended an independent rather than a

state school. From this Thornton explores the idea that a subculture may also have

forms of cultural capital (such as knowledge of the latest music) that give status

within the subculture.

At the outset Thornton makes a series of points, derived from earlier findings but

supported by her own, which establish the importance of club cultures.

• Admissions to clubs and other dance events are higher than those to sporting

events, cinemas and ‘live arts’ combined; clubs only go relatively unnoticed

because they concern only one particular age group and the activity is mainly after

the rest of the population is in bed.

• There are few, if any, boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in

dancing, but relatively firm lower- and upper-age boundaries. Young teenagers are

excluded by parental rules about being out late and by lack of money, while older

Age and Youth Culture | SOCIOLOGY SINCE 1995

clubbers lose interest as they leave home and enter cohabiting or marriage relationships.

• Clubbing is an integral part of growing up, providing a space where the young can

act like adults in some ways and can achieve a distinct identity. Clubs are

particularly empowering for girls. Dancing is the only out-of-home leisure activity

that involves more females than males.

• Music is an essential aspect of youth cultures. Young people buy and listen to more

music than any other age group

METHODS

Thornton used two main methods in her research.

1 Ethnographic research (participant observation and unstructured interviews) in

which she went to raves and clubs and interviewed those involved in club cultures.

2 Secondary research involving the study of a wide range of sources both on club

cultures and on earlier forms of youth culture.

Over four years Thornton was a participant observer at over 200 clubs, discos and

raves and also attended at least 30 live gigs. She was therefore carrying out an

ethnographic survey of dance cultures rather than a case study of one particular club

or group of people. She was unable to find a way of constructing a random sample

of clubs, and does not claim that the clubs she visited were a representative sample.

She did, however, feel that she observed a very wide range of crowds, clubs and

dancing styles; there was nothing that could be called ‘typical’, and the cultures were

also in constant change.

One of the problems facing ethnographers is the relationship they have with the

people they are studying. The nature of ethnographic research means that Thornton’s

background and values are important to evaluating her work. Thornton is Canadian,

and came to Britain to research dance culture for her PhD. She says in the

introduction that she had been an avid clubber. However, in studying British club

cultures she felt herself an ‘outsider’, or as she puts it, ‘a stranger in a strange land’,

for several reasons. She began her research at the age of twenty-three, but the

research took several years, so that she became older than many of those she was

studying. Her nationality was also important, because the kinds of youth cultures she

describes are often localised (although the music can be global, the dance and style

associated with it will vary between places). She was also working (doing her

research) in places where almost everyone else was having a good time, and where

the ethos of ‘lose yourself in the music’ opposed her commitment to research and

analysis. These factors combined to make it possible for Thornton to keep a distance

from her subject matter.

Thornton needed the help of members of the club cultures to carry out her

research. She contacted people through the letters columns of the style magazines

The Face and iD and the London listings magazines City Limits and Time Out. She used

the replies she received to make contact with guides and informants, and as a source

in themselves of information about the values of club culture.

Thornton’s book contains extracts from her research diaries, describing visits to clubs

on one night, Saturday 22 September 1990. The style of the description (in the present

tense) suggests that it was written soon afterwards, based on memories still fresh. It is

also clear that Thornton was asking questions as well as recording her impressions of

the clubs. The extracts also tell us Thornton’s answer to a problem faced by those doing

ethnography with groups among whom drug use is normal: she shares a capsule of

MDMA (ecstasy) with ‘Kate’, her companion and informant for the evening.

‘I’m not a personal fan of drugs – I worry about my brain cells. But they’re a

fact of this youth culture so I submit myself to the experiment in the name of

thorough research.’(p89)

SOCIOLOGY SINCE 1995 | Age and Youth Culture

Thornton’s archival research covers a wide range of documents that she uses to

describe the development of particular aspects of youth culture. For example, she uses

the archives of the Musicians’ Union to describe how the union, representing musicians

who played in clubs and other places, responded to the threat to their livelihoods

posed by the arrival of recorded music, and the musical press ( Melody Maker, New

Musical Express, Billboard and so on) to describe the evolution of the disc jockey.

KEY

FINDINGS

Thornton reaches very different conclusions about club cultures from those that

might have been reached by a researcher from the CCCS tradition.

SUBCULTURES

Popular culture is a space in which cultural differences are not about resistance to the

power of the ruling class. Rather, groups create distinctions between themselves and

others on the basis of subcultural capital. They acquire status within their own social

world through possession of subcultural knowledge and through making distinctions

between themselves and other groups of young people. This often involves a

distinction between their own culture and that of the ‘mainstream’. Thornton’s

respondents were contemptuous of the ‘chartpop disco’ where ‘Sharon and Tracy

dance around their handbags’. But this mainstream of ‘them’ doesn’t really exist

(after all, the charts are an eclectic mix of many kinds of niche music) and is defined

simply as the opposite of ‘us’.

ROLE OF THE MEDIA

The earlier tradition had assumed that subcultures began as authentic and subversive

expressions of youth, then were taken over by the mass media and turned into

commodities. Thornton argues that the media are implicated from the very

beginning. Condemnation by the mass media is actively sought, while micro media

(flyers, listings, fanzines, pirate radio, e-mail lists, and so on) are the sources of

information that can supply subcultural capital. Clubbers produce these, and clubbers

turn to them for information. Niche media (mainly the music and style consumer

magazines) often try to identify and develop subcultures; New Musical Express was

strongly associated first with punk and New Wave and later ‘Madchester’, while the

established magazine that linked itself most closely to clubbing was iD . Subcultural

capital relies on the media (but not mass media) which, in turn, means restricted

accessibility. Subcultural capital is about ‘being in the know’.

Thornton also notes how the media make use of sociological discourse and concepts

in making sense of club cultures. They use terms like ‘subculture’ and ‘moral panic’.

This is an example of what Giddens (1991) has called, ‘the reflexivity of modernity’.

IMPORTANCE

Thornton’s approach to studying subcultures is very different from that of the Centre

for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the following ways.

1 She regards empirical research as more important than the elaboration of theory.

2 She regards the mass media and popular-culture industries as inextricably bound up

with cultures (for the CCCS, subcultures were constantly trying to avoid being

incorporated, swallowed up and effectively neutralised).

3 She is concerned with social changes, particularly how club cultures were constantly

changing

4 She treats the knowledge and values of club cultures as subcultural ideologies, as

ways in which young people assert their differences from the mainstream.

By adopting this approach, Thornton gives an account of contemporary

subcultures that readers are likely to find more convincing and relevant than earlier

studies. This book should provide a wide range of ideas for further research.

Age and Youth Culture | SOCIOLOGY SINCE 1995

EVALUATION

Thornton’s book provides a wealth of information and ideas on popular music and

dance cultures and subcultures. Her own primary research is personal, immediate

and very readable. Her analysis of the media, with the useful distinction between

micro media, niche media and mass media, and her history of dance music with the

accolade of authenticity contested by live and recorded music, are also very

informative. To all of this she brings an illuminating theoretical analysis, though here

the reading may become challenging for A-level students.

In considering Thornton’s ethnographic research, we need to be aware of the

inevitable issues raised by such methods. Her findings will have been shaped by her

age, gender and nationality and people’s responses to these, her selection of

‘guides’, her recording of data (when and how notes were made), how she dealt

with issues such as drug taking, and so on. As will all ethnographic research, these do

not invalidate the findings but need to be borne in mind when assessing them.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

1 Why were the youth subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s sometimes referred to as

QUESTIONS

‘spectacular’?

2 With which sociologist is the term ‘cultural

capital’ associated?

3 How does subcultural capital differ from

cultural capital?

4 Why is dancing in clubs particularly important

for girls?

5 What is meant by ethnography?

6 What are micro media?

ANALYSIS

1 What problems might a researcher face in

carrying out ethnographic research on

subcultures?

2 To what extent do you think the facts that

Thornton is (a) female and (b) Canadian

affected this study?

3 Compare and contrast Thornton’s approach to

studying subcultures with that of the Centre for

Contemporary Cultural Studies.

4 How useful is the concept of ‘subcultural

capital’ to an understanding of club cultures?

References Bourdieu, P and Passeron, J-C (1977), Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture ,

Sage, London

Giddens, A (1991), Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age ,

Polity Press, Cambridge

Hall, S and Jefferson, T (eds) (1976), Resistance Through Rituals , Hutchinson, London

SOCIOLOGY SINCE 1995 | Age and Youth Culture

Club cultures - music, media and subcultural capital - Sarah Thorton.pdf

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