Anti Commercial v Commercial Success

Although a subculture may be revolutionary, differentiating itself from parent culture, eventually it will be brought back into the system. The subculture will be turned into a commodity, a style which people can buy. Everything that is 'different' will become normal by making it familiar or part of mass culture e.g.

i) Motorhead amongst other bands/designers taking Jamie Reid's original design and making it their own.

ii) Punk Rock fashion becoming mainstream with places like 'Claire's Accessories' selling safety pin jewellery and studded dog collars to kids and teenagers as fashion accessories.

People become more aware and have more common knowledge about subcultures making them popular. The subcultural elite then has a loss of power as it is taken into the mainstream.

Punk Music had a very anti commercial sentiment which then turned into commercial success.

Anti Commercial v Commercial Success

 DIY became popular in the 50’s, which later emerged into DIY fashion and bricolage in the Punk subculture as an anti-consumerist statement. Bricolage is a postmodern term to represent taking elements and regurgitating them to create something new. This means incorporating items typically utilised for other purposes e.g. the safety pin shifting the purpose from practicality to fashion and bin bags were warn as part of the bin men strike during the ‘winter of discontent’. Although a subculture may be revolutionary, differentiating itself from parent culture, eventually it will be brought back into the system. The subculture will be turned into a commodity, a style that people can buy. Everything that is 'different' will become normal by making it familiar or part of mass culture e.g. punk rock fashion becoming mainstream with stores like ‘Claire’s Accessories’ selling safety pin jewelry and studded dog collars to teenagers as fashion. Globalisation plays an important part as brands have strong associations and become a ‘sponge’ to subcultures but sometimes they also get absorbed by the mainstream. A great example is Dr.Martens. Once being adopted by the punks, they are now part of the parent culture with high street stores like Topshop selling them. People become more aware which makes them popular, usually influenced by celebrities.

When people in the subculture started making money and becoming successful themselves it made them go against their ideology. Punk fashion was then in advertisements and high street stores or magazines. Punk music had a very anti-commercial sentiment that then turned into commercial success. They started making money and becoming successful which meant their ideology lost all meaning. Punk fashion was then in advertisements and high street stores or magazines. This idea of Punks being anti-commercial is contradicted by The Sex Pistols reforming on many occasions.