Subculture and Visual Identity. T-Shirts and Album covers

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Pauline Lambert
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1 Subculture and Visual Identity T-Shirts and Album covers

2 Always helpful to begin with definitions

3 Definitions of culture from Hoggart and Williams

4 Richard Hoggart. (The Uses of Literacy. 1957) In 1964 founded and became the first director of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. Studying popular culture from an academic perspective

5 Good working class culture.past 1930s Bad working class Culture present 1950s (1950s Americanised Rock n Roll Youth) good working-class became something that existed within nostalgia a false imagined past WHEN I WERE A LAD

6 Raymond Williams Cultural theorist The Long Revolution Keywords 1976.

7 Williams definition of Culture in three parts:

8 The ideal = The process of human perfection and discovery.

9 Documentary = Intellectual and imaginative work in which human thought and experience is recorded.

10 The Social = A particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values, not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behavior.

11 Subculture: a group of people who are part of a smaller culture within the larger culture to which they belong, Counterculture: a particular subculture characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture.

12 Subculture can be

13 Youth subculture

14 Youth subcultures are no longer reserved for the youth

15 But all youth subcultures communicate through a visual identity Fashion Brands T-Shirts album covers Badges Customising Posters Bricolage Appropriation

16 The T-shirt (the History) evolved from underwear in the 19 th century was once a one piece long johns and vest but became separate and then worn without an over-shirt normally work wear but became casual wear after world war I

17 By the 1920s the T-shirt had become an official term in the American English Dictionary.

18 Still officially an undergarment

20 The Smithsonian museum has the oldest printed T-shirt. It is a campaign shirt for New York Gov. Thomas Dewey's 1948 presidential campaign logo printed t-shirts appeared in the 1950s as tourist memorabilia come to Miama etc

21 1960s saw the t-shirt used as a display for subversive slogans as well as tie -dye

23 Political Civil Rights

24 Punk - Subversion - Vivian Westwood - Jamie Reid Seditionaries The Kings Rd. Shop

25 Cambridge Rapist shirt 1977

26 Destroy shirt Inverted crucifix and swastika

27 Jamie Reid God Save the Queen Queen Elizabeth with a safety pin through her mouth

28 Anarchy Mickey and Minnie

29 Sex Pistols T

31 1980 BOY "Vive Le Rock" Seditionar ies muslin

32 Today Dame Vivienne Westwood is very much part of the establishment but still designs the occasional provocative T- Shirt

33 Katherine Hamnett T-Shirts 1980s- I wanted to put a really large message on T-shirts that could be read from 20 or 30ft away. Slogans work on so many different levels; they re almost subliminal. They re also a way of people aligning themselves to a cause. They re tribal. Wearing one is like branding yourself.

34 Paul Morley Frankie T-Shirts "What persuaded me was reading Katharine Hamnett saying she wanted the T- shirts ripped off, which reminded me of Mark P, saying he wanted Sniffin Glue to be ripped off.

35 The majority of Youth subcultures or counter cultures have their own soundtrack A musical accompaniment that expresses the philosophies of the subculture

36 Visually expressed by the Album Cover design and later the Music Video

37 The concept of custom graphics for the 12 x 12 album cover began with designer Alex Steinweiss in 1938 The album cover

38 2 x Cover designers

39 Andy Warhol Pop Artist Graphic Designer 1949

41 1954

43 Peter Blake Pop Artist- Album Cover Designer 1967

44 1967

47 Today neutral visual identity is far more common amongst teenagers - many consume subcultures in a pic n mix postmodern way

48 Today one of the most striking countercultural identities is Anonymous Mask designed by David Lloyd 1982

Liz Myers. From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America. Secondary Resource Paper. HIST 215A: American History

Liz Myers. From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America. Secondary Resource Paper. HIST 215A: American History Front Porch to Back Seat 1 Liz Myers From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America Secondary Resource Paper HIST 215A: American History Professor Katherine Tinsley March 24, 2008