scenes and subcultures

Several theories have been proposed, some less plausible than others. The dullness of long, dark winters is a common suggestion. The melodic nature of the language is another. It has also been pointed out that Sweden has the highest concentration of choirs in the world — eight percent of the population are active singers. Then there is the fact

... See more

One reason—among several—is that as soon as subcultures start getting really interesting, they get invaded by muggles, who ruin them. Subcultures have a predictable lifecycle, in which popularity causes death. Eventually—around 2000—everyone understood this, and gave up hoping some subculture could somehow escape this dynamic.

Miss Kamala Harris would probably be distraught to know — fashion actually does not really exist within the context of all that came before. Right now, it exists like it fell out of a coconut tree: people can cherry pick visual styles that suit them and not really care about a music scene that it first came from or a movie that it is being

... See more

It makes sense that norms are shifting in this direction as Gen Z’s influence spreads. Raised on social media, with access to once illicit bad-taste touchstones like Rocky Horror just a click away, they’ve largely replaced IRL subcultures with a constellation of aesthetics—cottagecore, dark academia, Y2K—to be performed, then discarded or demoted... See more

What is a scene? It is a group of people who are producing work in public  but   aimed at each other.  The metal bands in Karlshamn, where Schuster grew up, were a scene. They performed on stage — but the audience was mainly their friends who played in other bands. If they were anything like the other local scenes I’ve seen, they challenged and sup

... See more

Part of the inherent strangeness of belonging to any sub-culture is that you behave in ways that start to feel totally normal to you, but, understandably, seem utterly bizarre to anyone on the outside.The quirks of our obsessions aren't always glamorous. And yet these moments can still absolutely be worthy of celebration. After all, they're part of... See more