The Sub-Cultures – Staight Edge & Hardline

Posted February 5, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Culture / 13 Comments

Disclaimer: While I don’t agree in the whole Sub-Culture labelling it does play a big part in culture itself. So I will try to remain unbiased and not try to stereotype any sub-culture.

“Clear Body, Clear Mind”

The lifestyle choice of Sobriety and Chastity

Both Straight Edge and Hardline sub cultures are not only originated from a punk rock scene, it is more of a philosophical choice for them.

Difference Between the Two

The common lifestyle choices between the two are; no drinking, no smoking & no drugs (even in some cases no promiscuous sex) but Hardline take it one step further than Straight Edge; they also have a bio-centric view of the world and pro-life stance on abortion.

Why be Straight Edge or Hardline?

It is important to know that both cultures are not religious or political based.

It’s a lifestyle centred around personal development and well being, while encouraging fun and togetherness. The movements wish to attract people away from dependancy lifestyles centred around drug habits (legal or illegal) and unhealthy and exploitative eating and general living habits common in modern cultures.

While Straight Edge is not dogmatic, Hardline is.

The X on the hands

A common practice at all-ages punk shows was to mark minors with an “X” on their hands so they couldn’t buy alcohol. As the straight-edge philosophy grew popular, punkers who were older than 18 but didn’t drink for ideological reasons started to mark themselves with the X in a show of solidarity.

The Sub-Cultures – Emo

Posted February 1, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Culture / 3 Comments

Disclaimer: While I don’t agree in the whole Sub-Culture labeling it does play a big part in culture itself. So I will try to remain unbiased and not try to stereotype any sub-culture.

Possible one of the most misunderstood sub-cultures is the Emo movement. While there is a lot of stigma with this group there really aren’t grounds for it. The Emo movement is based around the rock genre of the same name, though no band claims to be an Emo band.

The Non-Existent Genre

The genre of music began in the mid 80’s as an off shoot of the Hardcore and Punk genre. In those days these styles and even grunge music was very political based and the people listened to it, while they enjoyed the music didn’t really care about politics. So a whole lot of bands started popping up that would start singing about something other that politics, they started singing something more personal. Those bands were labelled Emocore or Emo, the artists themselves never claimed to be apart of the genre, they just claim that they writing songs about their emotions and what’s going on in their world. If no band claims to be an Emo band, can it really be a music genre? Thus the reason why this is a non-existent genre

The Sub-Culture

“We’re all alone, together”

This is the response a girl said when asked about being an Emo. While amusing it does sum up the movement pretty well. The whole culture has been considered to be all about social withdrawal and suicide but the people that do claim to be Emo would probably say otherwise. They would probably say it’s not about self injury but more about expressing emotions, speaking out about the feelings of alienation, depression and angst.

Revisiting an Old Movement

The whole culture behind Emo’s is nothing new, in fact it’s almost modernising the whole Romantic Movement. There is so many connections between the two, both Romantism and Emo focus on the emotion and not order and both would be considered socially outcasts in there relevant societies.

Ultimately the whole movement is a much mocked, maligned, and misunderstood term for melodic, expressive people.

Tag: Sub-Cultures