Customer Reviews

Subculture: The Meaning of Style (New Accents)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is fundmentally the the bases for anyone who is studying art theory. This books goes into how subcultures like the punk movement to hip hop and gang cultures got started and why they are important to understanding diverse social structures.

Althought this book is small it is not an easy read. I read this book four or five time before things started to sink in. After finishing this book I felt more prepared for the art going experience.

From mods to rastafarians this books covers the history and social significance of them all. Although heavy at the start the book levels out at a nice factual tempo providing meaning to every subculture youth movent interlinking them and weaving them with the music scene. There are a few gaps, perhaps due to lack of knowledge, which I believe are significant but have been left out. Worth a read if you are intrested in fasion, youth, sociological research or music.

Hebdige's book is an excellent text that is enjoyable and informative to read. It is academic and poetic all at once, mirroring certain aspects of the self-conscious scene he describes. He takes on the challenge of recording both the history and method of cultural creation and change in Britain, and leaves the savvy reader at a good place for interpreting later subcultural movements (US punk & hardcore, for example). I would say this is an essential read for the student or layman interested in subculture (past and present) or the history of punks, skins, etc.

I've read other books in the same vein like Neil Nehring's "Flowers in the Dustbin", but this book deserves respect as one of the first books to deal with punk seriously as a social phenomenon. The last few paragraphs also privide much insight into the mind of a "radical" academic.

Dick Hebdige provides unparalled insight to the the United Kingdom's subcultures. If you're interested in the mods or skinheads, check it out!

this book takes an awesome and serious look at punk as a social and cultural phenomenon, and examines the roots that made punk into what it was. it is a very enlightening read, but is the kind of book you must read in the front and the back at the same time to have it all sink in. hebdige uses a number of endnotes throughout the book, which made me have to jump back and forth to understand what he was saying. i think a second reading would provide an even deeper understanding-- there were definitely times on the first read when i had to reread passages. i definitely recommend this book and have greatly enjoyed it.

Professor Hebdige is a genius, and contrary to the other review he immersed himself in "this scene." He grew up right in the middle of the movement in England and witnessed firsthand the events and shifts that the book covers. He is a brilliant professor at UCSB and to take his class is an experience like no other. Reading this book is only a glimpse into the mind of one of the world's most exceptionally brilliant and artistic men.

This book is written in a very academic style, so the 200 pages seems like 500. Other than that, it's a decent primer on semiotics.

This book lends itself to the idea that some subjects are best written about when one has experienced them first-hand. Lauraine LeBlanc's book Pretty in Punk, for example, offers an academic AND an experiential view of the movement. Hebdige could have benefited by letting more members of the subculture speak for themselves in his book or if he had actually lived in a subculture scene. While it is important to maintain some distance between your subject and yourself, too much distance leads to too many gaps and too much assumption. Although I enjoyed reading the book and think it is a good brief overview of many subcultures and styles, it might have been better to dedicate a separate book to each subculture and their particular style rather than trying to encompass them all in such a small space. The result would have been a more in-depth study of each group instead of a stereotypical glossing over - to understand the style one needs to understand each group more in-depth. I need to read his latest version to see if he addresses some of these issues.

Not sure if it was me or the book. But something didn't fit.

I found a bunch of really neat movies pertaining to this topic instead.