Researching Subcultures, Myth and

Memory Bart Van Der Steen

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/researching-subcultures-myth-and-memory-bart-van-
der-steen/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

International And Comparative Legal Study On Big Data

Bart Van Der Sloot

https://textbookfull.com/product/international-and-comparative-
legal-study-on-big-data-bart-van-der-sloot/

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/

Animation And Memory Maarten Van Gageldonk

https://textbookfull.com/product/animation-and-memory-maarten-
van-gageldonk/

Lev Vygotsky First Paperback Edition René Van Der Veer

https://textbookfull.com/product/lev-vygotsky-first-paperback-
edition-rene-van-der-veer/
Fundamentals of van der Waals and Casimir Interactions
Bo E. Sernelius

https://textbookfull.com/product/fundamentals-of-van-der-waals-
and-casimir-interactions-bo-e-sernelius/

Narratives of Technology 1st Edition J. M. Van Der Laan

(Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/narratives-of-technology-1st-
edition-j-m-van-der-laan-auth/

Present imperfect contemporary South African writing

First Edition Van Der Vlies

https://textbookfull.com/product/present-imperfect-contemporary-
south-african-writing-first-edition-van-der-vlies/

Augustine’s Early Thought on the Redemptive Function of

Divine Judgement Bart Van Egmond

https://textbookfull.com/product/augustines-early-thought-on-the-
redemptive-function-of-divine-judgement-bart-van-egmond/

Aneurysms-Osteoarthritis Syndrome. SMAD3 Gene Mutations

1st Edition Denise Van Der Linde

https://textbookfull.com/product/aneurysms-osteoarthritis-
syndrome-smad3-gene-mutations-1st-edition-denise-van-der-linde/
 PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
THE HISTORY OF SUBCULTURES
AND POPULAR MUSIC

Researc
hing Sub
Myth an cultures
PALGRAVE
STU d Memo ,
HISTORY O DIES IN THE
F SUBCULT
URES Edited b r y
AND POPU
LAR MUSIC y
Bart van
der Stee
n · Thier
ry P. F. V
erburgh
Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures
and Popular Music

Series Editors
Keith Gildart
University of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton, UK

Anna Gough-Yates
University of Roehampton
London, UK

Sian Lincoln
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool, UK

Bill Osgerby
London Metropolitan University
London, UK

Lucy Robinson
University of Sussex
Brighton, UK

John Street
University of East Anglia
Norwich, UK

Peter Webb
University of the West of England
Bristol, UK

Matthew Worley
University of Reading
Reading, UK
From 1940s zoot-suiters and hepcats through 1950s rock ‘n’ rollers,
beatniks and Teddy boys; 1960s surfers, rude boys, mods, hippies and
bikers; 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and
punks; on to the heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave and clubber
styles of the 1980s, 90s, noughties and beyond, distinctive blends of
fashion and music have become a defining feature of the cultural landscape.
The Subcultures Network series is international in scope and designed to
explore the social and political implications of subcultural forms. Youth
and subcultures will be located in their historical, socio-economic and
cultural context; the motivations and meanings applied to the aesthetics,
actions and manifestations of youth and subculture will be assessed. The
objective is to facilitate a genuinely cross-disciplinary and transnational
outlet for a burgeoning area of academic study.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14579
Bart van der Steen • Thierry P. F. Verburgh
Editors

Researching
Subcultures, Myth
and Memory
Editors
Bart van der Steen Thierry P. F. Verburgh
Leiden University Amsterdam University of Applied
Leiden, The Netherlands Sciences
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music

ISBN 978-3-030-41908-0    ISBN 978-3-030-41909-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41909-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Masha Raymers / Getty Images

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Contents

1 Introduction: Researching Subcultures, Myth and Memory  1

Bart van der Steen and Thierry P. F. Verburgh

Section I Conceptual Clarifications  17

2 Situating ‘Subculture’: On the Origins and Limits of the

Term for Understanding Youth Cultures 19
Andy Bennett

3 Myth and Authenticity in Subculture Studies 35

J. Patrick Williams

Section II Media, Myths and Subcultural Actors  55

4 Punk Legends: Cultural Representation and Ostension 57

Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl

5 ‘Bad to the Bone’: The Myth and Mystique of the

Motorcycle Gang 79
Bill Osgerby

v
vi CONTENTS

6 ‘Two Baltimores’ and the Conflicting Representations of

Baltimore’s Wild Out Wheelie Boyz105
Glen Wood

Section III Subcultural Myth and Memory 125

7 Remembering Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez: Rave Subculture’s

Contested/Conflicted Memory of a Racially Motivated
Murder127
Yamil Avivi

8 ‘From the Dark Past’: Historiographies of Violence in

Norwegian Black Metal151
Ross Hagen

9 Between Revolution and the Market: Bob Marley and the

Cultural Politics of the Youth Icon171
Jeremy Prestholdt

Section IV Punk, Personal and Subcultural Memory 195

10 Memories of Being Punk in West Germany: Personal and

Shared Recollections in Life Stories197
Knud Andresen

11 Mapping Subcultures from Scratch: Moving Beyond the

Mythology of Dutch Post-Punk215
Richard Foster
 CONTENTS vii

Section V Subcultural Legacies: Global Spread and Adoption 233

12 Imagining and Performing Marginalization: Hip Hop

and the Arab Spring of 2011235
Igor Johannsen

13 ‘Soaking Up the Punky-Funky All-Feel of Eastern

Kreuzberg’: Myth-Making, Preference Construction, and
Youth Cultures261
Thierry P. F. Verburgh

Index291
 Notes on Contributors

Knud Andresen is a senior researcher at the Research Centre for

Contemporary History (Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte) and an
adjunct professor at University of Hamburg. His latest publications
include A European Youth Revolt. European Perspectives on Youth Protest
and Social Movements in the 1980s (2016, co-edited with B.S. van der
Steen), and Dissidente Kommunisten. Das sowjetische Modell und seine
Kritiker (2018, co-edited wiht M. Kessler and A. Schildt).
Yamil Avivi is an independent scholar who earned a PhD in American
Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He researches and
teaches on Latinos in the US, Latino queer subjectivity and migrations,
and Arab and Muslim Diasporas in the Americas.
Andy Bennett is a professor in the School of Humanities, Languages and
Social Science at Griffith University, Australia. His latest publications
include Popular Music Scenes and Cultural Memory (with Ian Rogers,
2016), DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes (co-edited with Paula
Guerra, 2019) and British Progressive Pop, 1970-1980 (2020).
Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl is an associate professor at the University of New
Haven, the United States. His publications include Punk Rock and the
Politics of Place: Building a Better Tomorrow (2014), and ‘Print is Dead:
The Promise and Peril of Digital Media for Subcultural Resistance’ (2015).
Richard Foster is a music journalist based in the Netherlands. He is spe-
cialized in the Dutch Post-punk scene from around 1980. He writes for
music publications including The Quietus, The Wire, and Louder Than War.

ix
x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Ross Hagen is a musicologist and multi-instrumentalist at Utah Valley

University, and has written on diverse subjects including black metal,
medievalism, avant-garde electronic music, music fan fiction, and horror.
His recent and upcoming publications include Medievalism and Metal
Music Studies: Throwing Down the Gauntlet (2019) and A Blaze in the
Northern Sky (2020).
Igor Johannsen (MA) is a research fellow in the research network
‘Re-Configurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes
in the Middle East and North Africa’ at the Center for Near and Middle
Eastern Studies (CNMS) at the University of Marburg, Germany. He
received his Magister Artium in Islamic Studies, History and Political
Science from the University of Hamburg in 2011.
Bill Osgerby is a professor at London Metropolitan University, England.
His latest publications include Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End
of ‘Consensus’ (2014) and Subcultures, Popular Music and Social
Change (2014).
Jeremy Prestholdt is a professor at the University of California, San
Diego, the United States. His publications include Icons of Dissent: The
Global Resonance of Che, Marley, Tupac, and Bin Laden (2019) and
Domesticating the World: African Consumerism and the Genealogies of
Globalization (2008).
Bart van der Steen is lecturer in Modern History at Leiden University,
the Netherlands. His publications include A European Youth Revolt:
European Perspectives on Youth Protest and Social Movements in the 1980s
(2016, co-edited with K. Andresen), and The City is Ours: Squatting and
Autonomous Movements in Europe, 1980-2014 (2014, co-edited with
L. van Hoogenhuijze and A. Katzeff).
Thierry P. F. Verburgh is research coordinator of the Center for Applied
Research of the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at the
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), the Netherlands. His
research focuses on the social interactions and epistemology (e.g. perceived
reality, myth-making, and fundamentalism) of youth cultures, generations,
and social movements.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xi

J. Patrick Williams is an associate professor of Sociology at Nanyang

Technological University, Singapore. He is an associate editor of the jour-
nal Deviant Behavior and has edited and authored several books, including
Authenticity, Self and Society (2009), Subcultural Theory: Traditions and
Concepts (2011), and Studies in the Social Construction of Identity and
Authenticity (2020).
Glen Wood is a PhD at York University, Canada. His research focuses
on non-fiction film and media, with a forthcoming dissertation on self-
documenting subcultures and media hierarchies.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Researching Subcultures, Myth

and Memory

Bart van der Steen and Thierry P. F. Verburgh

The spectacular nature of youth subcultures can easily lead to the creation
of myths that become deeply ingrained in popular memory.1 Punk, for
example, is commonly held to have originated from rebellious and deviant
youths, while hip hop is usually regarded as the voice of marginalized
people from US American ghettos. These myths may or may not be true,
but they inherently provide a limited yet authoritative understanding of

1
The relationship between youth subcultures and memory is among other discussed in:
A. Bennett, ‘Popular Music, Cultural Memory and Everyday Aesthetics’ in E. de la Fuente
and P. Murphy (eds.), Philosophical and Cultural Theories of Music (Leiden: Brill, 2010),
243–262; M.S. Gorbuleva, ‘Phenomenon of the Memory and its Role in the Marginal
Subcultures’, Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin vol. 11 (2013), 188–193;
C. Strong, Grunge: Music and Memory (London & New York: Routledge 2016);
A. Danielsen, ‘Aesthetic Value, Cultural Significance and Canon Formation in Popular
Music’, Studia musicologica Norvegica vol. 32 (2006), 55–72.

B. van der Steen (*)

Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
T. P. F. Verburgh
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

© The Author(s) 2020 1

B. van der Steen, T. P. F. Verburgh (eds.), Researching Subcultures,
Myth and Memory, Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures
and Popular Music, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41909-7_1
2 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

what a subculture entails, how it emerged, and how it developed. Myths

essentialize ‘the’ history and origins of a subculture and reduce it to a
limited set of characteristic features that get ascribed with certain mean-
ings, shrouded in collective norms and values, sometimes on the basis of
prejudice.2 And because they are retold by subcultural actors and observ-
ers alike, through various channels of communication—most notably
through word-of-mouth and popular media formats such as newspaper
interviews, documentary films, and memoirs—they significantly influence
popular understandings of what subcultures are and how they develop.
Even more so, these myths influence many of the sources that researchers
of youth subcultures draw on—for example, media reports, policy debates,
and memoirs of subcultural actors.3 This situation raises the question of
how researchers are to deal with these myths. Is it possible to move beyond
them in order to understand what youth subcultures ‘really’ entail, or is it
rather the process of myth-making itself that should be central in scholarly
investigations? This volume collects contributions that analyze how sub-
cultural myths develop, what they mean to people, and how they can be
studied.
Subcultures appeal to the imagination due to their outspoken and elu-
sive nature. The term itself implies a division between ‘insiders’ and ‘out-
siders’, those who are ‘in the know’ and those who are not. Subcultures
thus provide people with a sense of identity and belonging, whether they
belong to a subculture or not.4 As people try to relate and grasp what
subcultures entail, various outspoken images, ideas, and narratives emerge.
When conceptions about youth subcultures are wholeheartedly embraced
and shared by a larger group of people, they are, in a way, elevated from
the reservoir of popular imagination, and gain a powerful and convincing
mythical status.5
2
For critical discussions of myth studies, see W.G. Doty, Mythography: The Study of Myths
(second edition; Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2000); E. Csapo, Theories
of Mythology (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2005); R.A. Segal, Myth: A Very Short
Introduction (second edition; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
3
See for a case study: A. Medhurst, ‘Punk, Memory and Autobiography’ in R. Sabin, Punk
Rock: So What? (London & New York: Routledge 1999), 219–231.
4
J. Patrick Williams, Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts (New York: Polity Press,
2011); S. Blackman and M. Kempson (eds.), The Subcultural Imagination: Theory, Research
and Reflexivity in Contemporary Youth Cultures (London: Routledge, 2018).
5
This process of elevation, also referred to as ‘sacralization’, is seen as one of the defining
and distinctive characteristics of what makes a myth, and of what separates them from mere
stereotypes or archetypes. See among others E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 3

This is especially the case when the conceptions of subcultural actors

and those of others collide, which can lead to the emergence of various
conflicting myths. Punks, for example, can be seen as socially degraded
and parasitical youths, or as the moral conscious of decadent societies. Hip
hop adherents, for that matter, can be seen as petty criminals, acting out
frustrations about their marginalized position in society, or as people’s
champions, addressing and protesting social marginalization. In both
cases, the identities of punk and hip hop are essentialized through histori-
cal narratives and specifically chosen sets of characteristic features. These
are representations people get invested in, and sometimes embrace whole-
heartedly. When these representations are deemed to reflect the ‘true
nature’ of punk or hip hop, they become mythicized.
Since researchers base their work in part on sources that are influenced
by subcultural myths—that is: sensationalized accounts, (unintentional)
faulty retellings or deliberately constructed renditions of the past and pres-
ent of subcultures—, they have to be especially careful of contributing to
these mythical representations of subcultures, and instead need to criti-
cally engage with them. This volume aims not so much to critique the
validity of subcultural myths, as to move beyond them and analyze the
process of myth-making in order to critically engage with the memory and
meaning of youth subcultures. It thus asks how subcultural identities and
representations are constructed and change over time. In doing so, this
volume draws on subcultural theories, myth studies, and memory studies.
This volume takes as its starting point that an analysis of subcultural
myths and myth-making can contribute valuable insights to subcultural
studies. In the past decades, memory studies has grown into a prominent
and innovative field of research, and as part of this development, the study
of myths has recently gained more prominence as well. Memory studies
investigates the ways in which past and present phenomena are remem-
bered, commemorated, and imagined. Myth studies analyzes the processes
through which certain representations of past and present events are ele-
vated or ‘sacralized’ by groups of people and infused with powerful mean-
ing. What connects memory studies and myth studies is the importance of
shared representations for individual and collective identities. As subcul-
tural studies finds itself at a crossroads, this notion can open new avenues

Religious Life (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1915); M. Eliade, Patterns in
Comparative Religion (London: Sheed and Ward, 1958); Ibid., Myths, Dreams and Mysteries
(London: Fontana, 1968); G. Bouchard, Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2017).
4 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

for research, for subcultures are not only built around shared passions and
interests—either for music, politics, board games or anything else—but
also around shared imaginations and memories. For quite some time now,
prominent scholars question the very existence of subcultures.6 Especially
the concept of clearly demarcated ‘sub’cultures acting within a more
encompassing mainstream culture has become contested. Some research-
ers therefore prefer to talk about leisure-based youth cultures. Others
argue not to throw away the baby with the bathwater, and instead hold
that although subcultures may not be ‘real’ social phenomena, they
become real when people believe in them.
This volume will use these notions interchangeably, sometimes through
the combination of ‘youth subcultures’. In fact, the process of myth-­
making fits well with all these three conceptions. First, subcultural myths
can be intentionally or unintentionally created by self-proclaimed ‘insid-
ers’ or ‘outsiders’, as to differentiate and demarcate themselves from each
other. Secondly, the process of myth-making can foster representations
that are shared across different groups and cultures and thus become
deeply ingrained in cultural memory. Lastly, believing in the validity of
subcultural phenomena can result in the making of subcultural myths.
Analyzing the narratives, imaginations, myths, and memory of youth sub-
cultures can thus offer a valuable contribution to the study of sub- or
youth cultures. However, it is not enough to solely analyze the contents of
subcultural myths. In order to understand how subcultural myths emerge
and develop it is just as important to investigate which processes and actors
are central to myth-making.
By combining concepts and approaches from subcultural studies, myth
studies, and memory studies, this volume aims to establish (i) how repre-
sentations of subcultures emerge, develop, and become canonized through
the process of mythification; (ii) which developments and actors are cru-
cial to this process; (iii) what these myths mean to people, both to subcul-
tural actors as well as others; and finally (iv) how researchers like historians,
sociologists, and anthropologists should deal with these myths and myth-­
making processes. By considering these questions, we aim to provide new
insights on how to research the identity, history, and memory of youth
subcultures.

6
See for example: A. Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?: Rethinking the Relationship
Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste’, Sociology vol. 33 (1999) no. 3, 599–617.
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 5

Subcultural Studies
The term ‘subculture’ was first introduced around 1900 by sociologists
and ethnographic researchers of the Chicago School to explain deviant
and criminal group behavior of (mainly European) immigrants in fast
growing and industrializing US American cities such as Chicago.7 These
scholars argued that people who did not have the possibility to partake in
the dominant or mainstream culture formed their own subcultures, with
their own norms and values, to survive in a hostile world.
This notion of countercultural subgroups, opposed or in some way
inferior to a more encompassing dominant mainstream culture, would
prove to be very influential for the study of youth cultures. Around 1970,
the term subculture was adopted and reformulated by scholars of the
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in order
to explain the rise of youth cultures out of the British working class after
the Second World War. CCCS scholars such as Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige,
and John Clarke were fascinated by the styles and rituals of subcultural
youths such as punks, skinheads, and Teddy Boys. Drawing from a combi-
nation of neo-Marxism, semiotics, and structuralism, CCCS scholars set
out to ‘decipher’ for themselves the meanings of subcultural styles.
Envisioning these youths as working class and with meager social pros-
pects, CCCS scholars interpreted their alternative clothing styles and devi-
ant behavior as a form of resistance and class struggle. Being unable to
improve their social and political situation in any real or material way,
working class youths were left with cultural refusal as their last option for
resistance, especially against the growing dominance of middle class cul-
ture. John Clarke thus held that the subcultural strategy solved ‘in an
imaginary way, problems which at the concrete material level remain[ed]
unresolved’. In this volume, J. Patrick Williams takes the example of the
Teddy Boys, who according to CCCS scholars, ‘took the upper-class
Edwardian suit and the Western bootlace tie out of their original con-
sumer context and rearticulated, subculturally, the demands of young
lower-working-class men to become visible and taken seriously by the rest
of society’. The fact that subcultural youths took styles and apparel from

7
For discussions on subcultural research, see among other K. Gelder and S. Thornton
(eds.), The Subcultures Reader (London: Routledge, 1997); S. Blackman, ‘Youth Subcultural
Theory: A Critical Engagement with the Concept, its Origins and Politics, from the Chicago
School to Postmodernism’, Journal of Youth Studies vol. 8 (2005) no. 1, 1–20; J.P. Williams,
Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2011).
6 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

past and current fashions, and rearranged them to imbue them with new
meanings was not only creative, but also subversive. Conceived as spec-
tacular if ultimately futile attempts to resist, the rituals and styles of sub-
cultural youths were elevated to heroic forms of refusal and resistance.
Although the definitions of subcultures and research methods favored by
CCCS scholar have come under ever greater scrutiny, they have neverthe-
less had a lasting impact on subcultural studies as some researchers still
view youth cultures predominantly in terms of defiance or resistance.8
As groundbreaking and sophisticated as the CCCS concepts and meth-
ods were, they soon drew criticism from various angles. A central one
among them was that CCCS scholars projected meanings onto subcultural
styles without focusing much on the experiences, values or narratives of
the youths themselves. This led critics to wonder, as Andy Bennet states in
this volume, whether the CCCS studies did not say ‘more about the ideo-
logical position of the researchers themselves than the everyday lives of the
young people whom they claimed to research’. But critics also took issue
with the CCCS’s essentialized notion of class, the claim that subcultures
were more ‘authentic’ and ‘spontaneous’ than mainstream culture, and
the statement that the boundaries between subcultures and mainstream
culture were firm and fixed.
These criticisms informed ‘post-subcultural’ studies in the 1990s,
which took the experiences of youths as their starting point, approached
authenticity as a social construct, and viewed subcultural identities and
boundaries as fluid.9 Thus, David Muggleton preferred ethnographic
research over semiotic practices and discovered that subcultural actors
experienced subcultural identities to be negotiated and ever-changing.10

8
Among the central CCCS texts are: S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds.), Resistance Through
Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1976); P. Cohen,
Subcultural Conflict and Working Class Community. Working Papers in Cultural Studies 2
(Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1972); D. Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of
Style (London: Routledge, 1979).
For critical discussions, see among other: D. Harris, From Class Struggle to the Politics of
Pleasure: The Effects of Gramscianism on Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 1992);
Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’.
9
For important contributions and reflections on post-subcultural studies, see: R. Weinzierl
and D. Muggleton, ‘What is “Post-subcultural Studies” Anyway?’ in D. Muggleton and
R. Weinzierl (eds.) The Post-Subcultures Reader (Oxford: Berg, 2003), 3–23; S. Redhead,
Subcultures to Clubcultures: An Introduction to Popular Cultural Studies (Oxford: Blackwell,
1997); R. Huq, Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World (London:
Routledge, 2006).
10
D. Muggleton, Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style (Oxford: Berg, 2000).
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 7

Subcultural identities and boundaries were not a given of modern society,

but were established, negotiated and renegotiated in the process of inter-
action with other (subcultural) actors. The fact that youths easily moved
between subcultural styles led Ted Polhemus to speak of a ‘supermarket of
styles’.11
Other approaches have tried to discard the term subculture all along,
and instead proposed other concepts in the hope of capturing what youth
cultures entail. For example, the terms ‘tribes’ or ‘neo-tribes’ were pro-
posed in order to explain why some adolescents could take part in differ-
ent youth cultures, migrating from one to the other.12 The ‘scenes’
approach, first coined by John Irwin in 1977, tried to conceptualize to
what extent youth cultures were grounded in specific locations, such as
bars, street corners or clubs.13
New approaches have, however, not resolved all the previously identified
flaws of subculture studies. The scenes and (neo-)tribe approaches only
partially render what youth subcultures could entail, namely the sometimes
temporary alignment of people with a youth subculture, or the spatial
grounding of a youth subculture respectively. Bennet criticizes post-subcul-
tural research approaches in this volume, stating that ‘many of the criticisms
directed at subcultural theory have tended to leave the concept of subcul-
ture itself intact’, while the concept of subcultures was also introduced by
CCCS scholars on the basis of theoretical considerations rather than empir-
ical data. Scholars such as Steve Redhead claim that ‘subcultures were pro-
duced by subcultural theorists, not the other way around’.14 Following this
line of reasoning, Bennet speaks of a scholarly ‘myth of subcultures’. Patrick
Williams, on the other hand, points to the fact that subcultures may be real
or not, but that youths themselves continue to self-identify as subcultural.
Apparently, a significant number of both subcultural actors and observers
hold or believe subcultures to be real, and envision them as groups of

11
T. Polhemus, ‘In the Supermarket of Style’ in S. Redhead (ed.), The Clubcultures Reader:
Readings in Popular Cultural Studies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 148–151.
12
Bennett, ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’.
13
J. Irwin, Scenes (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1977); See also: B. Green, ‘Whose Riot? Collective
Memory of an Iconic Event in a Local Music Scene’, Journal of Sociology vol. 55 (2018) no.
1, 144–160; K. Spracklen, S. Henderson and D. Procter, ‘Imagining the Scene and the
Memory of the F-Club: Talking About Lost Punk and Post-Punk Spaces in Leeds’, Punk and
Post Punk vol. 5 (2016) no. 2, 147–162.
14
S. Redhead, The End-of-the-Century Party: Youth and Pop towards 2000 (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1990), 25.
8 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

people with shared interests, passions and histories. These shared histo-
ries—whether they are factually true or not—are part of what ties a subcul-
ture together.15 Studying the myth and memory of subcultures may
therefore offer a way to move subcultural studies forward.

Myth and Memory

Memory studies emerged in the 1980s as an innovative field of historical
and cultural research, taking as its premise that scholars should not only
focus on past events but also on the ways in which past events are remem-
bered, commemorated, and imagined.16 In doing so, the field built on the
work of Maurice Halbwachs, who already in the 1920s stated that people
remember past events not only on an individual level but also collective-
ly.17 Even more so, collective identities are, to a large, extent based on
shared memories, imaginations, and stories of past events. Just as subcul-
tures, however, these shared memories are not a given; they are formed
and change through the interaction between groups and group members.
Because of this, power relations and power dynamics influence what is
remembered—as well as what is downplayed or forgotten—and how
things are remembered. This reflection led Susan Sontag to state that,
‘strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory’, arguing:
‘What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating:
that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the
pictures that lock the story in our minds.’18
Initially organized around the concept of collective memory, memory
scholars problematized the term ‘collective’ from the 1990s onwards,
arguing that it often remained unclear who belonged to the collective, and

15
For studies on subcultures and memory, see among other: Bennett, ‘Popular Music,
Cultural Memory and Everyday Aesthetics’; Green, ‘Whose Riot? Collective Memory of an
Iconic Event in a Local Music Scene’; Strong, Grunge: Music and Memory; L. Kube, ‘We
Acted as Though We Were in a Movie: Memories of an East German Subculture’, German
Politics and Society vol. 26 (2008) no. 2, 45–55.
16
For introductions to memory studies, see: A. Erll and A. Nünning (eds.), A Companion
to Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (Berlin &
New York: De Gruyter, 2008); J.K. Olick and J. Robbins, ‘Memory studies. From “Collective
Memory” to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices’, Annual Review of Sociology
vol. 24 (1998), 105–140.
17
M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992);
Ibid, The Collective Memory (New York: Harper & Row Colophon, 1980).
18
S. Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Picador, 2003), 76.
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 9

who could speak for the collective.19 In response to these deliberations,

the term cultural memory has become prevalent, referring to ‘that body of
reusable texts, images, and rituals specific to each society in each epoch,
whose “cultivation” serves to stabilize and convey that society’s self-­
image’.20 Societies and societal actors continuously debate what should be
remembered and how things should be remembered. By approaching
memory not only as a social construct but also as a continuous point of
contention, memory studies approaches that which is remembered and
how things are remembered as the outcome of social and power dynamics.
As stated before, shared (and, thus, constructed) memories are not
always factually true, but they can nevertheless ‘wield an amazing power
on the minds and hearts’ once they are elevated to commonly held beliefs
of how past events unfolded and what they mean.21 The same holds true
with conceptions of what phenomena ‘essentially’ entail and mean within
wider society. The study of myths has recently gained renewed attention
from scholars such as Gérard Bouchard.22 According to him, myths are
part of the collective imaginary, and establish a link ‘between familiar reali-
ties such as norms, traditions, narratives, and identities on the one hand,
and, on the other hand, the deepest symbolic structures’.23 It is these char-
acteristics that lend such power to myths. Bouchard therefore speaks of
social myths and defines them as ‘sacralized collective representations’ that
are shaped through social interactions, in order to ask: ‘Where do they
come from? How did they emerge? And how are they reproduced?’24

19
See Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi and Levy for a defense of the original term: J.K. Olick,
V. Vinitzky-Seroussi and D. Levy, ‘Introduction’ in J.K. Olick and J. Robbins (eds.), The
Collective Memory Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 3–62.
20
J. Assman and J. Czaplicka, ‘Collective Memory and Cultural Identity’, New German
Critique vol. 65 (1995), 125–133, 132.
21
G. Bouchard, ‘Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries. Some Afterthoughts’, Philosophy
and Public Issues vol. 8 (2018) no. 3, 2–15, 5.
22
As stated earlier, myth studies gained renewed attention as memory studies rose to
prominence. For critical discussions on the relation between myth-making and history writ-
ing, see: P. Burke, ‘History, Myth, and Fiction’ in J. Rabasa, S. Masayuki Sato, E. Tortarolo,
and D. Woolf (eds.), The Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. 3, 1400–1800 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2012), 261–281; L. Cruz and W. Frijhoff (eds.), Myth in History,
History in Myth (Leiden: Brill, 2009); J. Mali, Mythistory: The Making of a Modern
Historiography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
23
G. Bouchard, Social Myths, 13.
24
G. Bouchard, ‘Social Myths: A New Approach’, Philosophy Study vol 6 (2016) no. 6,
356–366, 356.
10 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

Of course, myths as social phenomena have been researched since the

early 1900s. Sociologists such as Émile Durkheim and Bronisław
Malinowski approached them in functionalist ways and focused on the
effects of myths.25 Their research showed how myths play an important
part in identity and group formation processes, as they become corner-
stones of groups’ value systems and self-identifications. Bouchard, how-
ever, focuses more on the question of how representations become
sacralized and how the contents or meanings of myths change. Central to
his approach is the contention that social actors can introduce and ‘push’
representations such as narratives, ideas and images in strategic ways, but
that these representations—once they are embraced by large groups of
people—also hold a power of their own. In his research, Bouchard aims to
assess both the agency of social actors and of myths in social developments.
Shared memories, imaginations, and mythical representations of past
and present events are also important aspects of identity formations within
subcultures. Here, too, histories and myths are neither given nor fixed;
they are constructed, fluid and negotiated. This volume therefore focuses
on how subcultural myths emerge, are mythicized, and develop, and asks
which developments and actors are central to these processes.

On the Chapters in This Volume

This volume takes methodological reflections on subcultures and myth-­
making as its starting point. Andy Bennet is highly critical of the term
subculture in reference to what he calls leisure-based youth cultures,
claiming that many academics’ usage of the term amounts to ‘little more
than a form of lazy theorizing’. According to Bennet, the phenomena that
the term subculture refers to ‘are far more complex and multi-faceted than
can be explained by simply casting them within the context of subcul-
tures’. His goal, however, is not so much to argue why the term is analyti-
cally inadequate, but rather to explain why it has nevertheless remained
the ‘dominant analytical trope’ in analyses of youth cultures. As stated
earlier, Bennet speaks of the ‘myth of subculture’, claiming that it is aca-
demics who introduced the term, embraced it, and held onto it despite its
conceptual and analytical shortcomings.

25
See among other: E. Durkheim, Sociology and Philosophy, translated by D. F. Pocock
(London: Cohen & West, 1953). (Originally published in 1924); I. Strenski, Malinowski and
the Work of Myth (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 11

J. Patrick Williams’s chapter could be interpreted as a direct response to

Bennet’s work. Acknowledging that the existence of subculture may be a
myth, he continues to interrogate the ways in which myths function and
the influence that they have on real-life events. Patrick Williams defines
myths as stories that (i) describe the origin, history, and/or essential char-
acteristics of a social group or phenomenon, and (ii) are widely held to be
true although they are not based in fact. He continues to argue that ‘many
empirical studies have found that young people claim to be authentically
subcultural’. He thus agrees with Fine and Kleinman, who state that sub-
cultures ‘exist to the extent that individuals see themselves as members of
groups’.26 Subcultures may be social constructs, but they are ‘real’ to the
extent that people believe in their existence.
The theses put forward by Bennet and Patrick Williams have implica-
tions for the ways in which subculture research is to be undertaken, and
both make suggestions to this end. Bennet proposes to dismiss the term
subculture altogether in order to ‘circumvent the potent myths of subcul-
ture that currently envelop much of the scholarship’. According to Patrick
Williams, researching youth cultures a priori as subcultural is ‘theoretically
deterministic’. Even so, Patrick Williams retains that the term subculture
is not solely a myth introduced and embraced by academics, but also a
lived reality of people who self-identify as subcultural. Because of this, the
term itself remains an important aspect of subcultural research. The goal
should not be to assess if a subculture is a real-life entity, but what happens
when people believe that they are part of it or have identified one as such.
Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl’s contribution logically builds on this line of rea-
soning, as he focuses not on the question whether subcultures really exist,
but rather on what people imagine subcultures to be. Focusing on accounts
of punk in popular media, Debies-Carl analyzes them as legends, that is
‘“accounts of past happenings” told as though they could be true’. Debies-­
Carl prefers the concept of legend over myth, because legends inspire
‘engagement from the listener and debate over their veracity’. It is exactly
this engagement and debate that he wants to analyze, because ‘crucial
insights can be gained by examining the conflicting accounts themselves’.
In order to do so, he focuses on popular media accounts, and the ways in
which people respond to them. He thus cites the efforts of various US
American parental self-help groups that tried to find ways to ‘cure’ their

26
G.A. Fine and S. Kleinman, ‘Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis’,
American Journal of Sociology vol. 85 (1979) no. 1, 1–20.
12 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

children of punk, with groups going as far as to recommend ‘that parents

confiscate their children’s records, posters, and punk clothing’. Although
they may be fictional, Debies-Carl shows that when legends are believed,
‘the outcomes of that legend become real’, which is why studying them is
so important.
Other case studies contained in this volume also point to a central role
of popular media in the making of subcultures and/or their mythical
image. Bill Osgerby zooms in on the history of US American Motorcycle
Gangs, in particular the Hells Angels, and investigates the importance of
popular media in creating their image, stating that ‘the media have been
instrumental in shaping the biker’s public image’. CCCS inspired scholar-
ship has claimed that the subversive power of subcultures lay in its under-
ground nature, while the ‘hyping’ of subcultures by mainstream media
inherently defused a subculture’s subversive power. According to Osgerby’s
research, however, the media’s influence was so far-reaching that it deci-
sively influenced the biker’s identities and sense of self. The bikers, more-
over, were not ‘passive dupes’, but talked back, courted the limelight and
claimed agency in the image-making process. The interaction between
subcultures and media is present from the start and is such an important
factor in a subculture’s development that it is impossible to ‘determine a
line between subcultural “reality” and media “mythology”’. Just as
Debies-Carl, Osgerby advocates a line of research that goes beyond a sim-
ple binary between subculture and media. Rather, the interaction between
both is to be central in subcultural research.
Media also plays a central role in Glen Wood’s analysis of the conflicting
representations of the Baltimore dirt-bike riding scene Wild Out Wheely
Boyz (WoWBoyz), albeit in a different manner. The WoWBoyz engage in
illicit driving through the city’s neighborhoods and post videos online,
where they present themselves as cunning bikers who ignore the authori-
ty’s attempts to curb dirt-biking in Baltimore. Wood assigns a much less
active role to this new form of (online) media, which seemingly functions
as a simple node between sender and receiver. But while the WoWBoyz
celebrate their subversive image in a playful manner, and gain a global
viewership, the city’s authorities become ever more anxious to repress
dirt-bike riding in the city as it threatens the city’s brand. In order to
legitimize ever harsher measures, the authorities portray the WoWBoyz as
a menace to the city. However, while the WoWBoyz and the city’s authori-
ties have opposite goals, their media strategies are seemingly synced, for
both ‘the Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) actions and the
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 13

WoWBoyz’s response strengthen the scene’s mythos and incentivize con-

tinued hostilities’. Again, it is not the debunking of mediatic images that
is central, but rather the question how these images are formed and
change, and which actors are central in the process.
Myths are retellings of past events that, although they may not be based
in fact, are commonly believed to be true. Closely related to this concept
of myth is cultural memory, which forms the heart of the contributions by
Yamil Avivi, Ross Hagen and Jeremy Prestholdt. Avivi analyzes three doc-
umentary films to investigate the ways in which the New York City queer
club kids scene of the 1990s is remembered. Focusing on the murder of
the Colombian American club kid Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez by the ‘king of
the club kids’ Michael Alig, Avivi asks what role race plays in the ways in
which this dramatic incident is remembered. Avivi argues that all three
investigated films portray Alig as the front man of a ‘successful, queer-­
empowered, and lucrative club kid scene while forgetting the racial over-
tones of his legacy’. In the act of remembering, certain things are
remembered while others are forgotten, and in this process race, class and
gender identities play a central role. If these ‘whitewashed’ ways of remem-
bering are not questioned, they become generally accepted and thus
mythical. Avivi calls on subcultural researchers to always be aware of exclu-
sive practices, both in remembering and in history writing. With regards
to his own field of studies, and subcultural memory more generally, he
states: ‘[I]t should always be a flag when white(ned) bodies in music scenes
are glamorized while bodies of color are non-existent’.
When events are so dramatic that they cannot be ignored or forgotten,
subcultural actors must find other ways to neutralize these memories or
deal with them. Hagen investigates how the current black metal subcul-
ture deals with its origin story. Originally a marginal Norwegian scene,
black metal gained global notoriety in the early 1990s, due to a number of
shocking acts of violence, including arson attacks against Christian
churches, the murder of one black metal musician by his bandmate, and
the fatal stabbing of a gay man by another scene participant. In part due
to the following news coverage, black metal grew into a ‘fully globalized
musical style and an integral cog in the international metal music indus-
try’. Acknowledging that for many fans, this violent origin story has
become an essential aspect of the subculture’s identity, gaining mythical
aspects through its constant retelling, Hagen is left to wonder ‘how to
accurately portray the essence and je ne sais quoi of this musical subculture
without ignoring its nastier aspects or engaging in an apologia for them’.
14 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

Hagen states that it is crucial to remain critical of the ways in which the
early history of black metal is told, and to remain aware of the fact that
different retellings imbue it with different meanings and uses, which often
serve the purposes of specific actors at particular moments.
The fact that memories are fluid and change over time forms the start-
ing point of Prestholdt’s analysis of the changing iconography of Bob
Marley. Prestholdt does not only want to show how Marley’s image
changed over time, but also which developments and actors were central
to this process, including social movements, music fans, and record labels.
Prestholdt highlights the interaction between the sender and the receiver,
noting that ‘Marley often delivered his messages in parable so layered that
diverse audiences could interpret them in various ways’. Indeed, audiences
emphasized various aspects of Marley’s image, while his record label
responded to this by adapting its marketing strategies accordingly. Even
after Marley’s death, his image continued to evolve. Hailed in the 1970s
as the voice of Third World liberation, by the 1990s, ‘fans and marketers
simultaneously de-emphasized the militant edges of Marley’s message’,
portraying him more as a transcendent mystic than a revolutionary.
The penultimate section of this volume presents two case studies that
explicitly reflect on the practice of researching subcultural myths. Knud
Andresen analyzes interviews with former West-German punks in order to
analyze the convergences and tensions between the individual and cultural
memory of a subculture. Taking cue from Oral History studies, Andresen
assesses the individual and collective aspects of remembering, showing
how interviews can both work to reify and subvert subcultural myths.
Punk subculture has received ample attention from both journalists and
academics. But how is one to identify and critically engage with the myths
surrounding a subculture that no longer exists and has left almost no trace
in popular or academic literature? Richard Foster sets out to do just that,
focusing on the Dutch post-punk subculture of the 1980s. Critically
reflecting on oral and written sources, Foster reflects on the sensibilities
and alertness required to map subcultures and subcultural myths from
scratch, stating that ‘the mythology of popular music needs a wider theo-
retical and historical framework to counter what can be the product of
hearsay, fading memory, personal vendettas or industry intrigues’.
The two closing chapters of this volume discuss the role of the local and
the global in subcultures. In doing so, they show that space, too, can
become an aspect of subcultural myths. Popular subcultures such as hip
hop have local roots before they gain a global following. In the process of
 1 INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING SUBCULTURES, MYTH AND MEMORY 15

globalization, certain aspects of the subculture are amplified while others

are downplayed. This dynamic repeats itself when globalized subcultures
are appropriated by local scenes. Igor Johannsen analyzes the dynamics
and conflicts that emerged when youths in the Middle East appropriated
hip hop styles to protest their governments during the Arab Spring pro-
tests of 2011.
Finally, Thierry P. F. Verburgh examines how the Berlin neighborhood
of eastern Kreuzberg attained a mythical subcultural status. Focusing on
news reports, travel guides, and personal recollections, the chapter recon-
structs how a global audience has come to see eastern Kreuzberg as the
ultimate subcultural hot spot. In doing so, the chapter presents a case
study of how, through collectively constructed preferences, certain repre-
sentations of youth culture can give way to myths which are subsequently
embraced all over the world.
Although this volume illustrates the diversity of research approaches to
subcultures—with regard to concepts, methods, and sources—the con-
tributors are in agreement that subcultural myths do not obscure the ‘real’
history of subcultures but are an inherent part of it. As such, they merit
research in their own right, for they illustrate how people envision subcul-
tures, what they mean to them, and how social dynamics and actors can
work to introduce and modify subcultural myths.

Conclusion
This volume sets out to establish how representations of subcultures
become mythicized, which developments and actors are crucial to this
process, and what meanings are ascribed to these myths, in order to reflect
on the question of how researchers of youth subcultures are to deal with
these myths. As is often the case in edited volumes, the various authors ask
similar questions, but offer a wide variety of concepts, methods and
sources to answer them.
Differences can among other be seen in the authors’ approaches to
subcultures, myths, and actors central to myth-making. To start with, not
all of the contributors place a particular subculture at their center. Wood,
for example, approaches the WoWBoyz not as a part of a global subculture
but as a local scene, in order to analyze the particular local dynamics
between the WoWBoyz and the city’s authorities. Prestholdt focuses not
so much on a particular subculture, but rather on one iconic figure, Bob
Marley, who once was part of a fledgling local subculture, then grew out
16 B. VAN DER STEEN AND T. P. F. VERBURGH

to be a star of Third World movements, and ultimately developed into a

more depoliticized pop star. In Prestholdt’s case, focusing on one person
enables him to identify various actors that are central to myth-making
processes. Furthermore, next to the concept of myth, related concepts are
employed by different authors. Debies-Carl, for example, analyzes news
accounts of punk not so much as myths but as legends, so as to trace the
wide variety of ideas about what punk ‘really’ is about, and how people
subsequently act upon these ideas. Avivi and Hagen approach the histori-
cal representations of the New York City club kids scene and the Norwegian
black metal scene of the 1990s as mythical, but place memory at the heart
of their analyses, stressing that forgetting and remembering are driving
forces of subcultural myth-making. Finally, the various contributions iden-
tify different actors and developments as central to the emergence and
development of subcultural myths. Debies-Carl, for example, places popu-
lar media at the forefront, while Osgerby highlights the interaction
between popular media and subcultural actors. Wood sees the interaction
between subcultural actors and authorities as the main factor influencing
the development of subcultural myths.
The variety in the authors’ usage of concepts, methods and sources is
illustrative of the diversity of subcultural studies itself. What connects all
the contributions, however, is that neither of them wishes to solely debunk
subcultural myths. Instead, it is the myths themselves, their meanings,
origins and developments that have become a central concern for subcul-
tural research. Various authors argue that these myths become ‘real’ when
people start to believe in them. Contributors as Osgerby, furthermore,
argue that myths do not emerge after a subculture has come into being,
but that they play a role from the start and can even be instrumental in the
emergence of subcultures. Myths are not simply ‘stories’ or representa-
tions of social reality, but form an integral part of the lived reality and
experiences of many. The myths of subcultures should, equally, form an
integral part of the study of subcultural identities and memories.
 SECTION I

Conceptual Clarifications

What are subcultures? How are myths researched? And how do people
remember subcultures? This first section introduces the reader to the three
central concepts of this volume—subcultures, myth and memory—by crit-
ically engaging with prominent scholarly traditions and the current state
of research.
Andy Bennett reconstructs how research on subcultures has developed
from the 1970s to the present. This reconstruction takes the form of a
critical review: Bennett takes subcultural studies to task for not scrutiniz-
ing its definitions of subcultures. Subcultural research took serious shape
in the 1970s, when scholars from the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary
Cultural Studies (CCCS) started to analyze contemporary subcultures.
They envisioned subcultures primarily as a vehicle for working-class youths
to resist cultural domination by the elite. Although later scholars criticized
CCCS work for being normative and even speculative, the former often
continued to use the term subculture in a very similar fashion. Bennett
holds that even post-subcultural studies, which emerged in the late 1990s,
are still inspired by traditional definitions of subcultures and thus cannot
truly explain ‘socio-cultural practices that are far more complex and multi-­
faceted’. He concludes his review with a call ‘to take a more critical look
at the term subculture itself, the reasons for its longevity and apparent
“taken-for-grantedness” in much academic scholarship’.
J. Patrick Williams traces back how scholarly (i.e. anthropological and
sociological) research into myth and memory has developed since the early
twentieth century, and how research into subcultures can benefit from this
18 Conceptual Clarifications

scholarly tradition. In doing so, he provides an overview not only of the

most important concepts in myth research but also of subcultural studies.
Although Patrick Williams is, just like Bennet, critical of the concept of
subcultures—he believes them to be imagined communities—he holds
that the fact that people believe in the existence of subcultures make them
real and worthy of study. It is exactly because of this line of reasoning that
myth research becomes a valuable addition to subcultural research. One of
the central myths that make subcultures so fascinating and compelling is
that they offer an authentic form of self and self-expression. Again, this
may be a belief rather than a fact, but because people believe in it, it has
real-life effects: ‘Subcultures become authentic when young people imag-
ine them as such, and then act on those meanings’.
Through detailed and critical discussions of the concepts of subculture,
myth and memory, these two chapters lay the groundwork for the rest of
the volume and provide readers with a solid understanding of both the
concepts and their scholarly value.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 porque son muy desiguales.

Sacó Antineo de Leverin vnos

paramentos de raso amarillo
cubiertos de espinas de plata, con
una cimera de muchas coronas
de espinas e vna real encima, con
vna letra que dezia:

La vna mereceys vos

de raçon,
yo las otras de passion.

Sacó Alualader de Caronis vnos

paramentos de terciopelo carmesi
con vnas esponjas de plata por
encima, vn braço por cimera que
tenia vna esponja en la mano
apretada que salian vnas llamas
de fuego, con una letra que dezia:

Del coraçon ha sacado

lo que muestra
qu'está dentro a causa
vuestra.

Sacó Ipolito de Castril vnos

paramentos de raso pardillo
cubiertos de vnos tornos de tirar
hilo de oro con su hilera, e sacó
por cimera vno dellos con vna
letra que dezia:

Mi pena puede alargarse,

que mi vida
 corta tiene la medida.

Sacó el conde de Poncia vnos

paramentos de raso azul con
vnos laberintos de oro bordados
por ellos, con vn laberinto con el
minotauro dentro preso, con vna
letra que dezia:

No hay prission
do remedio no se espere
sino en la qu'el preso quiere.

Estos fueron los caualleros que a

la tela salieron, e dexase aqui de
contar, por abreuiar, muchos otros
atauios que sacaron e a quien se
dieron los precios, assi de gentil
hombre como de mejor justador.
Agora se contarán los que a la
noche salieron galanes a la fiesta
que tiraron al precio.
Primero nombraremos a los que
fueron sin invenciones, que al
precio no tiraron. Los quales
fueron el señor visorey, los dos
cardenales, el duque de Altamura,
el conde de Traviso, principe de
Melisena, su hijo el marques de
Telandra, el duque de Belisa, el
conde de Leonis Pomerin, el
duque de Terminado, el señor
Fabricano, el gran Antolino, los
hermanos del conde de
Tormestra, Guillermo de Lauro,
Petrequin de la Gruta, el conde de
Ponteforto, el Franco Ortonis e
muchos otros caualleros de los
quales aqui no se haze memoria.
Los que a la fiesta salieron
inuencionados fueron los que
agora contaremos.
Sacó Flamiano vna ropa de
azetuni carmesi forrada de
damasco encarnado con vnas
faxas de raso blanco sobre el
azetuni cubiertas de cuentas de
oro esmaltadas de las que se
ponen por señales en los
rosarios, con vna letra que dezia:

Son señales
de las cuentas de mis males.

Sacó Vasquiran la ropa de

carmesi que el visorey hauia
sacado aquel dia con las
alleluyas, porque era conocida
que no era suya, con vna letra
que dezia:

Siendo alegria agena,

al que no tiene plazer
mas triste le haze ser.

Sacó el conde de Sarriano vna

ropa de damasco blanco forrada
de brocado con vnos manojos de
cascaueles de oro bordados por
ella con vna letra que dezia:
 Ya la vida
de males está dormida.

Sacó el marques Carlerin vna

ropa de la misma plata texida
delos paramentos, con vnas faxas
e cortapisa sembradas de vnos
yugos de oro de raso leonado
forrada delo mismo, con vna letra
que dezia:

El que os viere
verse libre no lo espere.

Sacó Alarcos de Reyner vna ropa

de terciopelo azul oscuro forrada
de brocado con remos de oro
bordados por ella quebrados, con
vna letra que dezia:

Todos estos se rompieron

bogando con mi porfia
e jamas hizieron via.

Sacó Lisandro de Xarque vna

ropa de terciopelo morado forrada
de raso negro con vna cortapisa
ancha de raso blanco e faxas
cubiertas de medias lunas de oro,
como quando queda de la luna
muy poco. Dezia la letra:

Muy poca es la claridad

donde tantas desuenturas
se dexan la vida ascuras.
Sacó el prior de Albano vna ropa
de brocado e raso encarnado
hecho a lisonjas, con vnas
lisonjas de oro pequeñas en las
otras lisonjas. Dezia la letra:

No son sino de veras

mis quexas e verdaderas.

Sacó el marques de Villatonda

vna ropa de altibaxo carmesi
forrada de raso amarillo, cubierta
de muchas medallas de oro de
diuersas caras. La letra dezia:

No está aqui vuestra figura

porque su propio treslado
en mi alma está estampado.

Sacó el prior de Mariana vna ropa

de brocado pardillo con faxas e
cortapisa de terciopelo morada
cubiertas de vnas cifras de cuento
de al guarismo que cada vna
hazia millar, eran de oro de
martillo. Dezia la letra:

Las cuentas de mis pesares

se han de contar a millares.

Sacó el duque de Grauisa vna

ropa de vellutado negro forrada
de damasco blanco con vnas alas
de oro de martillo que cubrian la
ropa, con vna letra que dezia:
 Han subido tan arriba
mi pensamiento e querer
que no pueden decender.

Sacó el conde de Torremuestra

vna ropa d'altibaxo negro con
vnas manos bordadas en ella que
mostrauan el sino de la ventura
con vna letra que dezia:

Luego se vió en mi ventura

que hauia de ser mi vida
venturosa de perdida.

Alualader de Caronis sacó vna

ropa de raso leonado forrada de
raso carmesi con vnas sepulturas
abiertas bordada de oro tirado,
muy rejeuadas, con vna letra que
decia:

Hala de tener abierta

la vida que viue muerta.

Sacó Rosseller el pacifico vna

ropa de brocado de oro tirado
negro forrada de raso azul con
vnos ramos del domingo de
ramos porque dizen que valen
contra los rayos. Dezia la letra:

No han seruido, pues mi

vida
del mesmo nombre es herida.
Sacó el conde de Poncia vna ropa
de brocado forrada de raso azul
con muchos joyeles, en ella, e
vno muy rico sobre el coraçon,
con vna letra que dezia:

La joya que más se estima

se guarda donde lastima.

Sacó el marques del Lago vna

ropa de brocado azul con unas
limas sordas bordadas sobre vna
cortapisa de raso azul. La letra
dezia:

¿Cómo puedo yo librarme

secreto del mal que siento,
siendo publico el tormento?

Sacó el marques de la Chesta

vna ropa de raso leonado forrada
de brocado blanco con vna
chaperia de oro de vnos sellos de
sellar cartas secretas, con vna
letra que dezia:

El secreto de mis males

aunque es grave padecello
la causa merece sello.

Sacó el marques de Persiana vna

ropa de brocado rico leonado
forrada de damasco blanco con
vn collar rico hecho de peones
d'axedrez, con vna letra que
dezia:

La primer trecha fui mate,

por ser mortal mi debate.

Sacó el duque de Fernisa vna

ropa d'altibaxo morado forrada de
raso blanco con vna cortapisa e
guarnicion del mismo raso
chapada de vnas matas de
maluas con vna letra que estaua
entre mata e mata que dezia:

Si te mata tu querella
mal vas en yr más tras ella.

Sacó Altineo de Leuesin vna ropa

de terciopelo naranjado con faxas
de raso blanco con unos
candeleros de oro por las
guarniciones sin velas. Dezia la
letra:

Van sin velas porque ves

siempre escura
la lumbre de mi ventura.

Sacó Ipolito de Castril vna ropa

de brocado pardillo con vna
cortapisa e faxas de raso pardillo
con vnos alambines de oro de
martillo sembrados por ellas; vna
letra que dezia:
 El fuego qu'el coraçon
tiene secretos de enojos
sale en agua por los ojos.

Sacó Francaluer vna ropa de raso

negro forrada de brocado blanco
e la ropa guarnecida de fresos de
oro e por el raso sembrados vnos
antojos de oro, con vna letra que
dezia:

Nunca vi su nombre a mi
despues que os vi sin enojos
ni vieron mas bien mis ojos.

AQUI DA RAÇON EL AUTOR DE

LO PASSADO
Y DECLARA LA FICION DE
AQUELLO
Los caualleros e damas que en la
presente fiesta salieron assi
atauiados como a la tela, como a
la noche en la fiesta, son arriba
mencionados. Digo en parte los
que principalmente alli se
señalaron, porque sin ellos houo
muchos otros e muchas damas
que aqui no se ha hecho dellos
relacion por acortar la obra. E
assimesmo dexa de especificar
las cosas que en la fiesta se
siguieron, ni la determinacion del
juyzio de los precios, esto tanto
por la breuedad, quanto porque
pues los atauios e inuenciones e
letras estan relatados tengan los
lectores en qué especular e
porfiar, a quién cada precio se
deue dar segund el juyzio de cada
vno. Y esto conformará con la
causa principal de la obra, pues
su fundamento es sobre la porfia
e question de Flamiano e
Vasquiran; la qual se queda
tambien indeterminada. Verdad es
que el precio de mejor justar ganó
Alualader de Caronis. Agora aqui
mudaremos el estilo o forma de
obra. Esto será que agora todos
los caualleros e damas assi de
titulo, como los otros,
nombraremos por propios
nombres en las cosas acaecidas
despues desta fiesta hasta la
dolorosa batalla de Ravena donde
la mayor parte destos señores e
caualleros fueron muertos o
presos. E assi haurá otra manera
de especular en sacar por los
nombres verdaderos los que en
lugar de aquellos se han fengido
o trasfigurado. E ha de saber el
lector que aunque en lo que hasta
aqui se ha escripto algo se haya
compuesto o fengido, como al
principio deximos, que en lo que
agora se escriuira ni houo mas, ni
ha hauido vn punto menos de lo
fue e como passó. Assi que los
agudos e discretos miren de aqui
adelante los nombres verdaderos
e tornen atras, que alli los
hallarán.

LO QUE SE SIGUIO HASTA LA

PARTIDA
DEL VISOREY
Para mejor esto contenderse es
de saber que las cosas en este
tratado escriptas fueron o se
siguieron o escriuieron en la
nobilissima cibdad e reyno de
Napoles en el año de quinientos e
ocho e quinientos e nueve et diez
et onze que fue la mayor parte e
quinientos e doze que fue la fin de
todo ello. En el qual tiempo todos
estos caualleros, mancebos e
damas e muchos otros principes e
señores se hallauan en tanta
suma e manera de
contentamiento e fraternidad los
vnos con los otros, assi los
Españoles vnos con otros como
los mismos naturales de la tierra
con ellos, que dudo en diuersas
tierras ni reynos, ni largos tiempos
passados ni presentes, tanta
conformidad ni amor tan
esforçados e bien criados
caualleros ni tan galanes se
hayan hallado. En tanta manera
que mouida la fortuna de
enemigable embidia començo a
poner en medio deste fuego vna
fuente de agua tan cruel e fria,
que la mayor parte, como agora
se diria, casi consumio, e lo que
por consumir dexó quedó en el
plazer e alegria que sin escriuirse
quien quiera contemplar puede. E
por mejor entendello habeys de
saber que en el año de quinientos
e onze, como a todo el mundo ha
sido y es notorio, se hizo la liga e
concordia del summo pontifice e
santissimo padre nuestro Julio
segundo e del catolico rey don
Fernando de España e los
venecianos. Para lo qual fue
diputado por general capitan de
toda la santa liga el ylustrissimo
don Remon de Cardona visrey del
realme de Napoles, el qual en el
dicho tiempo governaua y es vno
de los arriua nombrados. Pues
llegandole la determinacion e
mandado del rey en las cosas que
hazer deuia, en la cibdad de
Napoles se començó a hazer vno
de los mas nobles e poderosos
exercitos de gente de guerra que
por ventura entre los christianos
hasta oy se haya visto, de tanta
por tanta gente, assi de los
caualleros de titulo que en él
fueron, como de los capitanes de
gente d'armas e hombres d'armas
que llevauan e de los capitanes
de infanteria e infantes que con
ellos yuan, cada vno en su suerte
e manera segund para lo que era
diputado; dudo que los que han
escripto, por mucho que hayan
sabido bien componer, si este
canpo al tiempo que partió de
Napoles vieran, no conocieran ser
el más noble e mejor de los hasta
oy vistos, assi en esffuerzo e
saber de capitanes, como
esfforçados e platicos soldados e
discretos en la guerra. Quanto
aun en ser el mas rico e luzido
campo de aderezos e atauios assi
de armas e ropas como de
tiendas e los otros aparejos a la
guerra competentes que jamas se
vió, de lo qual adelante más largo
se contará; solo agora se dira
como en este tiempo viniendo la
señora condessa de Avellino
muger del noble don Juan de
Cardona conde de Avellino, visrey
de la provincia de Calabria, de las
dichas tierras de Calabria para
Napoles, por la mar adolecio en el
camino e murio en la cibdad de
Salerno, que fue la primera
aldabada que en esta alegre corte
de tristeza la fortuna començó a
dar. Pues ya su fuego començado
dende a no muchos dias con vna
enfermedad assaz breue pusso
fin la muerte en la vida del
reverendissimo don Luys de
Borja, cardenal de Valencia, que
desta corte, aunque perlado, en
las cosas de cauallero mancebo
era vno de los quiciales sobre
quien las puertas de las fiestas e
gentilezas se rodeauan. E dende
a ocho dias no más fizo lo mismo
en los dias e juuentud de doña
Leonor de San Severino, princesa
de Visiñano que era vna de las
que al cabo de la dança desta
escriptura ha lleuado. En el
mismo tiempo acabó la juvenil e
luzida juuentud de doña Marina
de Aragon, princesa que hauia
sido de Salerno e a la ora era
señora de Piombino. Assi que
mirad señores si estas quatro
pieças bastan para vn comienço
de combate.

LO QUE ADELANTE SE SIGUIO

ANTE DE LA PARTIDA E LA
SUMA E CUENTA DEL
NUMERO DE LA GENTE
QUE PARTIO
Passando las cosas adelante e
poniendose en orden las cosas
del campo, fueron señalados
todos los cargos que se deuian de
dar sin los que ya estaban dados.
Estos eran los capitanes de
gentes d'armas. Los quales son
los siguientes: Primeramente el
señor duque de Termens con
cient hombres d'armas, el qual fue
deputado por capitan de la
Iglesia. El señor Prospero Colona
con cient hombres d'armas. El
señor Fabricio Colona que fue
elegido lugar teniente general del
canpo con cient hombres d'armas.
El conde Populo con cinquenta
hombres d'armas. El conde de
Potencia don Juan de Guevara
con cinquenta hombres d'armas;
don Juan de Cardona, conde de
Avellino con sesenta hombres
d'armas; el prior de Mesina con
cinquenta hombres d'armas. Don
Jeronimo Lloriz con cinquenta
hombres d'armas. El capitan
Pomar con cinquenta hombres
d'armas. Diego de Quiñones con
cient hombres d'armas que era la
compañia del gran Capitan. Estas
eran las ordenanças que el rey
nuestro señor alli tenia e los
capitanes que la tenian. Despues
llegó Carauajal con quatrocientos
hombres d'armas e seyscientos
ginetes de los quales capitanes
no nombramos ninguno porque
en nuestro tratado ninguno dellos
hay nombrado. Solo baste que
fue la suma de la gente d'armas
que el visrey lleuó mill e dozientos
hombres d'armas e setecientos
cauallos ligeros o ginetes, con la
compaña que don Pedro de
Castro alli tenia e los cinquenta
ballesteros a cauallo del rey. Fue
elegido capitan general de los
cauallos ligeros el marques de
Pescara. Fueron maestros de
canpo el señor Alarcon e Diego
de Cornejo. Hizo el visrey cien
alauarderos para la guarda de su
persona, de los quales fue capitan
mossen Tallada. Fueron los
coroneles de la infanteria onze,
los capitanes fueron ciento e
ocho, sin onze que el visrey hizo
para su guarda con tres mil
infantes escogidos. Los coroneles
fueron el primero, Zamudio con
dos mill infantes que lleuó de
España, Arrieta, Joanes,
Dondiaquito[289], Luxan,
Bouadilla, Francisco Marques,
Salgado, Mexia, Cornejo sobrino
del camarero. De los capitanes no
se habla por ser muchos, saluo
de los que el visrey hizo, que
fueron don Pedro de Arellano,
Martin Gomez, Juan de Orvina,
Juan de Vargas, Cristoual de
Paredes, Christoual de Helin,
Breçuela, el trinchante del visrey,
Diego Montañes, Buytron,
Ventelloys.
Murio alli ante de partir Diego
Montañes, diose su conpaña a
Torres; murio Torres, diose su
conpaña a Borregan. Assi que fue
en suma la infanteria española
que de Napoles salio, diez mill
infantes, mill e dozientos hombres
d'armas, setecientos cauallos
ligeros, cinquenta continos
criados del rey, e muchos otros
hombres de titulo e caualleros
napolitanos e españoles e
algunos sicilianos, de los quales
adelante señaladamente
hablaremos.

DE LOS ATAUIOS E GASTOS

DEL VISREY
Por mexor lleuar ordenado el
estilo e manera deste campo e de
la partida del visrey será
menester primero hablar de la
orden e atauios de su persona e
el estado que lleuó, el que fue
desta manera. Primeramente,
como diximos, lleuó su señoria
cien alabarderos vestidos con
ropetas de paño verde escuro e
rosado de grana, jubones de raso
o tafetan blanco e morado, calças
blancas e moradas, e gorras de
grana.
El capitan dellos que fue mossen
Tallada lleuó sin otros atauios,
dos cauallos d'armas para su
persona atauiados con todo su
conplimiento; el vno con vnas
sobreuardas de raso morado
cubiertas de chaperia de plata de
unos cordones de san Francisco
que hazian una reja, e en los
quadros de la reja sobre el raso
hauia dos esses de plata con vn
sayon de terciopelo carmesi
hecho a punta con pestañas de
raso blanco; el otro cauallo lleuó
con vnas sobre cubiertas de
terciopelo verde e raso amarillo a
metades cubiertas de unos
escaques de tiras de tres en tres
de la vna color en la otra sobre
pestañas de raso blanco. El sayo
desta manera, sin los otros
atauios que lleuó.
Lleuaua mas el visrey cinquenta
continos del rey todos mancebos,
hijos de caualleros, los quales
yuan tan bien atauiados que
ninguno lleuaua menos de dos
cauallos de armas con todo su
conplimiento de las personas.
Lleuaua mas veynte moços de
espuelas con ropetas de paño
morado e jubones de terciopelo
verde e calças de grana. Lleuaua
veinte e quatro cauallos de su
persona; ocho de armas, ocho
estradiotas, ocho a la gineta, con
veinte e quatro pajes en ellos,
vestidos con ropetas de grana,
jubones de terciopelo o de raso
negro, gorras de grana, capas
aguaderas de paño de Perpiñan.
Lleuaua dozientos gastadores con
su capitan para assentar sus
tiendas. Lleuaua su capilla con
doze cantores muy complida.
Lleuaua sus atauales e trompetas
ytalianas, con todos los
conplimientos de su casa e
criados ordinarios como se
requeria. De los atauios de su
persona solamente hablaremos
de los que lleuaua de las armas,
que fueron ocho para ocho
cauallos; los otros dexaremos por
abreuiar.
Primeramente lleuó vnas
sobreuardas e sayon de brocado
blanco e raso carmesi hechos a
girones, e los girones hechos a
puntas de lo vno en lo otro con
pestañas de raso azul. Lleuaua
vnas sobreuardas e vn sayon de
raso azul cubierto de vnos lazos
de brocado que lo cubria todo,
sentados sobre raso blanco.
Lleuaua vnas sobreuardas e vn
sayon de terciopelo carmesi e
raso blanco hechos a quartos, e
sobre los quartos de carmesi
hauia vna rexa de fresos de oro
de vn dedo en ancho, hecha a
centellas, dentro en las centellas
hauia vnos otros de oro releuados
que descubrian tanto de la seda
como era de ancho el freso.
Sobre los quartos del raso blanco
hauia vna rexa del mismo freso,
dentro en los quadros hauia dos
yes de oro, en cada vno lleuaua
vnas sobre cubiertas e vn sayon
de raso blanco con faxas anchas
de brocado negro de pelo rico,
con vna faxa ancha e dos faxas
angostas, todo guarnecido.
Lleuaua vnas sobreuardas de
brocado raso e vn sayon con vnas
faxas de dos dedos en ancho de
raso carmesi con vn ribete negro
por medio de la faxa, con vnas
franjas angostas de plata de vn
cabo e de otro del ribete. Lleuaua
vnas sobreuardas e sayo de raso
amarillo cubiertas de chaperia de
plata como vnas medias
rosquillas que hazian la obra
como escama de pescado, saluo
que en las cubiertas era la obra
gruesa y en el sayo menuda.
Lleuaua vnas sobreuardas e sayo
de raso carmesi con vnas
cortapisas muy anchas de lazos
de cordones de oro e plata
releuados, que sentauan sobre
dos bordones de brocado
embutidas e releuadas, bordados
de los mismos cordones de oro
muy ricos. Lleuaua otras
sobreuardas e un sayo de
brocado rico sobre rico que costó
a ciento e veynte ducados la
cana. De todos los otros atauios
assi forrados como por forrar, e
cadenas e vagilla no escreuimos
por abreuiar, saluo dos cortinajes
e cobertores que lleuó para dos
lechos, vno de brocado carmesi
todo, e otro de brocado blanco e
raso carmesi. Baste que se supo
por muchas certenidades que
gastó sin lo que propio suyo tenia,
veynte e dos mil ducados de oro
antes que de Napoles partiesse,
en solo el aparejo de su persona
e casa.