A response to D. Hebdige's Subculture, selections from The Subcultures Reader
Perhaps a framework for discourse would be best constructed not around the primary text in question, but rather upon another theoretician's response to it. The criticism most applicable in this instance is most certainly that of Gary Clarke, whose brief commentary on Hebdige and the Birmingham tradition in "Defending Ski- Jumpers" brings to the foreground many of the limitations of this canonized text, which has become a method itself. Using this as an outline, our discourse should allow for the introduction of a new set of subcultural actors, the object of this particular inquiry, the subterraneans of the Lincoln/Omaha, Nebraska independent music scene.
Of course, of greatest concern to Clarke, and perhaps the legacy of Cultural Studies itself, is the role of class position and upward mobility within youth styles that are, as Jock Young would argue, merely extension of the leisure practices of the dominant culture itself (Young, pg. 75). Young's structuralist diagrams are certainly thought-provoking and yet unarguably imperfect, given to fluctuations, and it is this continued practice of putting forth "imprecise" models of reading culture that Clarke takes issue with, arguing that "the connection between actual structural location and the problem solving option" is often left in the realm of ambiguity (Clarke, pg. 176).
Within our own context, there is grounds to explore this terrain, for while the Saddlecreek scene of this region presents itself as an oppositional movement against the politics and capitalism of the music industry, a solution to the hyper-capitalism, mass marketing of youth culture, is it itself problematized by its actual structural location, which threatens the very limits of subcultural inquiry itself. Centered primarily around the lower rungs of the class ladder, this discipline seems unable to account for the stirrings of revolt on the other side of the tracks. The Saddlecreek movement itself is indeed an return in some senses, to the hippies, to the punks, but it is with the latter that they believe to share the greatest cultural similarities with, though their class position is closer to those of the former.
Here is where Clarke's criticism of a method which "works backward to uncover the class situation and... corresponding styles" seems most fitting. The subcultural signs of these upper class youths are truly an example of altered meanings, demonstrations of Clarke's contested connection, as they exaggerate indifference, poverty, and (un fashion, but unlike the punks they do so to invert their connection to their origin class. Princes playing paupers. Certainly, this corresponds with the "''autonomy and difference from parents'" model, however, it expands the "problem solving option" to include an imagined escape from class itself. As a result, we see these youths shopping at the imagined strip-mall of the subcultural past, taking notions of artistic intent and hedonism from the beats and the hippies, elements of dress from the mods, as well as working class styles from the skinheads with little or no awareness of their previous meanings. And because the bricolage of this particular group often includes a subcultural revival of the punks themselves as "magic" parents, signs ripe for an infusion of new meanings, it helps to reaffirm the political impotence of punk rock since its incorporation, and, more recent commodification into the dominant culture.
Having pushed politics aside, perhaps as a result of the internalization of Hebdige's assertion that style is the only political platform available to youth, this group is able to adopt the aesthetics of the movement, which are politically feeble, and, as fully realized products, yield mere art, yet another consumable object. Again, we find a confusion of options and location, as a result of the expansion of the former. Because these youths subscribe to a culture of options which disregards class distinction, their referential treatment of punk, encoded in the style of their music, and they themselves, are free to pursue advancement; thereby answering Clarke's question: what of the upwardly mobile skinhead? (Clarke, pg. 176) Well, in this case, the ladder day skinhead can find work amongst his mates, on a conveyor belt in a factory that perhaps manufactures proletariat garb not unlike his own. In our context, the Saddlecreek youth culture can pursue advancement of its own set of signs, its own actors, through a record label, a factory owned by the workers themselves, of the same name. It seems that, divorced from their original meanings, or at least their class origins, these signs, be it punk or otherwise, are subject to the free play of signification.
The explosion of options and the betrayal of class is not without its legacy however. The punks, having failed to pass on their class politics, merely gave this later generation its myth of originality, which has, because of the work of Hebdige and others who have idealized the punks, become, through the course of history, yet another installment in the story of the avant-garde. Hebdige's narrative serves as an ideal reference point along the path, with the author tracing his heroes' evolution back to Africa, the realm of the Other, often cited as the roots of progressive art. Aware of this supposed history, the Saddlecreekers have made themselves a part of this legacy, at least its artistic, stylistic components, descendants of Becker's "extreme 'jazz' musicians" (Becker, pg. 57). And because the sign is now without its class referents, structural location of any kind, the only politics left are those of style. The empty signs, of music, of dress, are the only combatants in the arena, with the former assuming highest priority so as to further perpetuate the evolution of what the actors perceive to be, the avant-garde, the only revolution left. Thus, mobility must be pursued under the pretensions of artistic achievement, conducted within the hierarchy of the larger "artistic" community, an imagined retreat to liberal humanism, where actors live, completely unconscious of class distinctions. Here we see the "free space" of postmodernity, its meanings removed via choice, returning the subculture to its modernist roots, to a structural location of mystification, that of the ambiguous artisans.
With the problem solving options now limited by the doctrines of artistic credibility, the Saddlecreekers find themselves free only to promote themselves in ways which seem legitimate artistically. This is, of course, done with an eye on the dominant forms of popular music, which have, in their eyes, fabricated a rise of artistic innovation within the mainstream, a false revolution which simply mimics a sound previously unfit for popular consumption. Recognizing that, as Clarke notes, and Hebdige touches upon, style must exist prior to the origin, the Saddlecreekers and the 'indie' community at large have concluded that commodification must have taken place on the macro level, with the dominant culture, via major record labels, absorbing these smaller scenes, and thereby providing the origin (Clarke pg. 179). The work of Simon Frith and Sara Cohen validate this circa-1989 tendency on the part of local musicians (Frith, pg. 174). Accompanying these domesticated musicians, of course, is their sense of style, their notions of "art," which have become commodified themselves and spawned dominant simulacra. In this way we find Saddlecreek acting oppositionally, for it seeks a return to a time prior to the origin, for artistic reasons, in an attempt to emulate the ethics of these earlier actors. To maintain a closer proximity to the source, the true originals that Hebdige idealizes, the business of style, music production, is conducted on the micro level, with these youths establishing their own means of distributing their sound to an audience now conscious of local "scenes, " more willing to embrace regionalism, as opposed to the faceless hordes of mainstream culture.
Here again we find ourselves taking issue with the work of Hebdige, contesting this concept of the original, which has, even in the eyes of the actors at hand, become lost with incorporation, and yet, spawned itself anew, perhaps as a result of Clarke's theory of "flux" (Clarke, pg. 178,9). What's even more, the project of independent music now renews the debate on the exact perspective from which youth subcultures should be examined, for in this instance, we have an example in which forces and modes of production can indeed be traced back to the source. Like the skinhead working in the Doc Martin factory, this subculture is literally responsible for the production of some of its own signs, and though the base is somewhat displaced, its surface is often scratched on the photocopy machine amid a flurry of low-fidelity cassette covers. On the symbolic level, we see the Saddlecreekers embracing this return to production, to work as a reality, fetishizing musical instruments of the organic sort, vinyl and record players, which are valuable because, as one member noted, "I like to watch my music being made." Perhaps as a revolt against the miniaturization of electronics and the shift towards a hyper-capitalist world free of the physicality of labor, this modernist backlash goes beyond simply the world of style.
Of course, to help further our definition, we must conclude with a more general discussion of the Saddlecreek style itself, which has, in some ways, not only limited political meaning by pigeonholing it into art and mere empty representation, but come to betray the very motivation of punk--"shocking the straights." Perhaps Clarke was correct in his condemnation of Hebdige, or perhaps he was simply prophetic. By giving the punks shock value as their only weapon, Hebdige allowed for the evolution of movements like that of the Saddlecreek, which have taken style to relatively innocuous levels. Dressed in mere shabby clothes of muted tones and given to pretty conservative hairstyles, these youths tend to only further validate the tacit agreement to mimic the characteristics of the dominant culture (Hebdige, pg. 86). And yet, they also fall between the cracks that exist on that level, into the broken signification of the man on the street, the elderly gent who is beyond analysis because of his ambiguity. The notion of style as something that '"you either have or you haven't'" achieved is, as Clarke notes, not simply keen enough, and the Saddlecreek subculture has clearly identified the escape clause implicit within the constructs of this purely aesthetic system of values (Clarke, pg. 178).
What's even more, their language also leaves little to be uncovered. Although Afro-American slang can occasionally find its way into expression, perhaps as an extension of Hebdige's sympathetic, white liberal tradition, its use is rather tongue and cheek, dismissed with a chuckle just as easily as the terminology of independent rock doctrine. These fables are somewhat embraced on some level, with rap occupying a position of respect and the corporate machine a place of infamy, but rendered meaningless on the surface of mere discourse. Empty signs for an empty bunch. Even within their own element, during a show, we can see little need for the teasing out of meaning. Bands have shed the "rockstar" approach to performance, even the elements of spectacle inherited from punk, opting instead for a living room-like stage presence, suggesting an indifference which has lost all pretensions of coffeehouse apathy and come instead to mean little more than a means to an end, the presentation of music. Perhaps there is a bit more to this however. Taking a glance at the audience, which is a bit more engaged, it might be that the performers themselves are mimicking the art world in all of its professionalism, giving up stage-diving so as to make themselves more legitimate. The listeners, who have done away with the antics of Fonarow's Zone 1, in favor of a more "civilized" atmosphere, are wholly serious about the activities on stage, unwilling to talk but between sets lest they should interrupt the text unfolding on-stage, as reserved as an audience at the opera (Fonarow, pg. 361).
Whatever the case, in the end, we find ourselves with little material to decode — no safety pins or pogo-ing; what would appear to be, good, clean fun to "the straights. " What we are left with is the (un)style of dirty khakis and pea coats, vaguely reminiscent of the proletariat, disguises for a cult devoid of meaning, stewing in the dominant and subcultural signs, all the while hinting at a return to the modernist project. The joke is not, as in previous subcultures, on the straights, or the squares, but rather on the entire social institution which determines their respective positions, as well as those of the actors themselves.