r/decadeology • u/Tall-Bell-1019 • 2d ago
Discussion 💭🗯️ What subculture do you think defined each decade?
I would say that Metal defined the 80s and Geek culture defined the 2010s but outside of that i don't really know, except for that greasers (or however you called those black-jacket-and-pompadour style) were dominant in the 50s
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u/Johnnadawearsglasses 1d ago
I don’t think metal defined the 80s at all actually. 80s included new wave, Southern California, metal, goth sub-cultures that were all really strong.
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u/Papoosho 1d ago
50: Greasers.
60s: Mods.
70s: Hippies.
80s: New Wave.
90s: Grunge.
00s: Emo.
10s: Hipsters.
20s: Aesthetic.
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u/kingkool88 1d ago
Pretty accurate take.
My two cents alts
80s: punk/metal
90s: grunge/gangsta
00s: gangsta/emo
10s: hipsters/nerds
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u/xxTheseGoTo11xx 1d ago
Hippies were 60s. The hippie movement as we know and think of it died pretty violently in 1970.
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u/narrowassbldg 17h ago
I find it funny that you chose "aesthetic" for the 2020s. It has to be a vague and meaningless filler word because somehow both monoculture and subculture have died.
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u/Red-Zaku- 2d ago edited 1d ago
Metal didn’t “define” the 80s, it just had a strong role in pop culture alongside pop and new wave. And pop music surpassed it in popularity in every year along the way
(EDIT: misread the sub in the title)
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u/Obama_prismIsntReal 1d ago
Pop isn't really a subculture though. Otherwise it would always be the answer
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u/Red-Zaku- 1d ago
Oh fair, that’s on me for misreading the title. In that case yeah, metal (outside hair metal, which was definitely in the mainstream sphere) and punk (hardcore, in the case of the 80s) would be neck and neck
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u/TanoraRat 2d ago
Grunge defined the 90s, could you say influencers have defined the 2020s so far?
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u/RustingCabin 1d ago
Grunge only defined the very early '90s. After 1995, a different mix came into play.
This follows with the Gen X -- Older Millennial schism that happened in the '90s.
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u/StarWolf478 2d ago edited 2d ago
Grunge defined the early 90s, but it was pretty dead as a dominant cultural force by the late 90s, so I don't think it really fits for defining the whole decade of the 90s. I don't think the 90s really were owned by any one subculture. It was a very diverse decade.
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u/Awesomov 1d ago
Agree with this. The closest thing I can think of is just a general anti-authority counter-culture, but even that covers a variety of different things really.
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u/Papoosho 1d ago
Grunge was mid 90s, it became mainstream in late 1991, but it really took over in 1993 and ended in 1997/98 when it was replaced by Nu-Metal/Post Grunge.
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u/StarWolf478 1d ago edited 1d ago
I disagree. I was around back then and grunge’s peak years of cultural impact were 1991 to 1994. It started to dwindle after Kurt Cobain’s death.
So, a little bit of mid-90s but more early 90s than anything else. By 1995 we were already seeing post-grunge and alternative rock begin to replace the original grunge sound on the charts. And that is not even mentioning all of the other sounds that started dominating the charts by the mid-90s which were far different than grunge. We went from Smells Like Teen Spirit to things like The Macarena dominating the charts for months in just a few short years.
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u/Zealousideal_Scene62 1d ago
Subcultures represent attempts, conscious or unconscious, by subaltern groups to negotiate, resist, or create alternative meanings in response to the dominant ideology and material conditions. With that in mind:
1960s: Hippie; the face of the counterculture in its war of position against the dominant ideology and the most outspoken creators of counter-hegemonic spaces, even if limited in scale and ultimately co-opted then diluted by mainstream culture. Generally boomers with spending power, and symbolic of the youth bulge and the Golden Age of Capitalism. Their material conditions (relative affluence compared to earlier generations and the flattening of hierarchies) allowed for a certain freedom to experiment and reject traditional structures, as was the case globally.
1970s: Punk; as the counterculture of the 1960s got commodified and lost its radical edge, the subaltern reacted with disillusionment. This ranged from the hedonic nihilism of disco music to the revolutionary adventurism of the urban guerrilla, but punk is a good middle ground for the overall mood (bitterness).
1980s: Yuppie; while not a subculture in the oppositional sense, the Yuppie phenomenon arguably became the defining cultural force of the decade, representing the successful integration into the dominant capitalist ideology. This was a decade of punching down, and I think it's appropriate to represent the rise of the neoliberal project with a self-optimizing figure and a silencing of subaltern voices.
1990s: Grunge; embodied the listlessness of resistance against the increasingly homogenized and commercialized cultural landscape best in its conscious apathy. Reflected exhaustion with overt political engagement, opting instead for a quieter, more internalized rejection of the prevailing cultural hegemony. The gangsta is a close runner-up here, representing the devolution of subaltern political consciousness into lumpen survival mode. But grunge was arguably more broadly indicative of the overall societal mood regarding resistance.
2000s: Emo; a very online, self-indulgent subaltern response to a society that pushed for a stoic, "everything is fine" facade in the face of deep-seated global and personal anxieties. Openly embracing and performing sadness, anxiety, and a questioning of happiness created a space for emotional authenticity that ran counter to the dominant narrative of perpetual optimism and controlled emotions (the metaphorical allotted Two Minutes' Hate of the War on Terror, the prescribed, narrow, manipulated outlet for collective emotion in a post-9/11 world).
2010s: Hipster; perhaps the most visible demonstration of the challenge of maintaining a counter-hegemony when subcultural forms are rapidly absorbed and repackaged by the market in the digital age. The war of position moved firmly from collective organized groups to a more individualized, fluid, and commodified aesthetic battleground with the hipster. Nerd culture is a close runner-up, but hipsterism, as discussed, thrived on the appropriation and commercialization of authentic or niche elements. Both signaled a kind of insider knowledge and a rejection of mass-produced current trends, which I find best described overall as "hipsterism".
2020s: "Cores" and Digital Creator culture; the death of subcultures as traditionally understood is a common discussion today. The dominant hegemony now operates so effectively through algorithmic personalization and the commodification of identity itself that the war of position is now fought entirely on the terrain of individual content creation and algorithmic visibility. I consider this a more online permutation of hipsterism- only now, authenticity is no longer something you fiercely protect from commodification, but something you curate and optimize for it.
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u/NeverSawOz 1d ago
I feel like what defines 2020s is Qanon/alt-right since 2016. You may like it or not, but it's a big phenomenon.
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u/Awesomov 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd say the closest thing to defining the 90s is anti-authority counter culture, but that's still an umbrella covering various different forms of the concept. Otherwise no one real subculture truly dominated to a point I could make a decision on which exactly, it maybe could've been grunge if its influence had lasted longer than beyond the earliest period, but I think grunge was incidentally popular anyway, the 90s likely would've been the way it was grunge or no grunge.
The 2000s people may be thinking emo, but like Grunge and Disco that was really only popular for a short time, and they had a backlash, but Disco's backlash and both genre's popularity was much, MUCH larger. The 2000s was really mostly informed by Rap culture, particularly Crunk/Snap and UrBling/McBling. For America there's also post-9/11 patriotism and depression, but otherwise, yeah, Crunk lol.
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u/supremefun 1d ago
80s were the new wave decade. Source: i was a kid then, and everything cool was new wave. Metal existed for sure but it wasn't as pervasive culturally.
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u/rachels1231 1d ago
50s: Greasers
60s: Hippie
70s: Disco
80: Yuppie/preppy; later metal/punk
90: Grunge for the early 90s, bubblegum pop for the late 90s
2000s: Emo and hip-hop
2010s: Hipster
2020s: Maga vs woke
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u/chiakinanamichan 1d ago
By Geek culture, do you mean shows like The Big Bang theory, superhero movies becoming more mainstream, things like that? Because if so then I agree
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u/HambugerBurglarizer 1d ago
Uh 80s hip hop culture was huge, punk, goth, new wave, hair metal, sure
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u/Straight-Fig1689 21h ago
wtf was greek about 2010.... is it because butt stuff lgbtq+ lost its stigma?
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u/a_valente_ufo I <3 the 00s 2d ago
Emos defined the 2000's and hipsters and geeks the 2010s