What are the similarities and differences between subculture and counterculture
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The term popular culture refers to the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in mainstream society. Popular culture events might include a concert, parade, a baseball game, or the season finale of a television show. Rock and pop music – “pop” is short for “popular”–are part of popular culture. Show Popular culture is usually spread and expressed in commercial media like TV, movies, music, books or corporate websites. Pop culture tends to be known or at least familiar to most people (if they have media access) and tends to represent mainstream cultural ideas. Most often, representation of marginalized groups is lacking in popular culture.
Like-minded people who often feel left out of the dominant culture sometimes come together and create subcultures. A subculture will have symbols that differentiate themselves from the dominant culture. These symbols support the subculture’s identity. These symbols show up in style, image, tastes, and perceptions. A subculture can function quite well within the dominant culture. Here are some examples of groups where subcultures form:
Can you think of any other subculture groups? Have you been in any subcultures over your lifetime? Counterculture groups are also smaller groups of like-minded people who gather within a more dominant culture. However, different from a subculture, a countercultural group goes against the mainstream culture. In fact, the key difference between a counterculture movement and subculture is the strong desire to change the dominant culture. These groups are created to fight against the pervasive values of a larger culture. They are formed around interests, dislikes, and disdain. To understand the essential difference between the terms counter culture and sub culture a basic understanding of Latin roots is needed. The prefix ‘counter’ means against and ‘sub’ means under. Let’s take an in depth look at the differences A counter culture is one that reacts against the prevalent culture in place and swings the pendulum in the opposite direction. In fact the term counter culture has a political implication that it is working directly against the mainstream culture in place to cause societal change. A counter culture is different to the mainstream culture in their politics, norms, social beliefs, way of dress and social structures. A counter culture generally develops a large enough following to challenge the dominant culture of the time and they are actively working at odds with the mainstream culture. A clear example of counter cultures throughout the last century might be the suffragettes and feminists, hippies and punk movements. All of these counter cultures have specific beliefs and values that fought to affect some kind of essential change to mainstream culture. The suffragettes fought to have the vote for women and later equal rights; the hippies broke down previously held gender stereotypes and protested against the Vietnam War and the punk movement of the seventies and early eighties sought to be anti-establishment and anti-capitalist. A sub culture can have its own beliefs, norms and values, but they are generally able to exist within mainstream culture. That is, their political beliefs and social structures may not be as outspoken as those of a counter culture. Their beliefs or manner of being may be different enough to make them stand out, but they are not at odds with society. Examples of sub cultures might be goths, emos, surfies, homies etc. Many sub cultures are based around aesthetics or common interest. Goths for example tend to identify themselves by dressing in black or dark colors and wearing pale makeup. Homies wear loose clothing and baseball caps or afro wraps. Sub cultures tend to also share common interests and experience. For example you cannot be accepted as a homie if you don’t listen to rap music. Surfies like obsessing over weather and wave conditions and are often environmentalists. Culture encompasses the ideas, values, norms, practuces and obects that allow a group of people, or even an entire society, to carry out their collective lives with a minimum of friction. We are immersed in a diversity of cultures and subcultures and countercultures are active parts of them. Subcultures include people who may accept much of the dominant culture but are set apart from it by one or more culturally significant characteristics. Some examples of subcultures are LGBT, bodybuilders, nudists, hip hop, grunge. On the other hand, countercultures are groups of people who differ in certain ways from the dominant culture and whose norms and values may be incompatible with it. Some examples are: Englightenment, Suffragettes, Romanticism. What are the similarities between subculture and counterculture?Similarities. Countercultures and subcultures both identify themselves in juxtaposition to the dominant culture of a society. Members usually dress and behave in different ways than average citizens of a society and are usually identifiable by their different appearances.
How is a counterculture different from subculture?In contrast to subcultures, which operate relatively smoothly within the larger society, countercultures might actively defy larger society by developing their own set of rules and norms to live by, sometimes even creating communities that operate outside of greater society.
What is the difference between counterculture and subculture quizlet?What is the difference between a counterculture and a subculture? A subculture's beliefs stand in opposition to the mainstream, whereas a counterculture's beliefs exist in harmony with the mainstream.
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