Introduce yourself to your group and, in turn, present your chosen object. What does it say about your musical interests and favourites?

My chosen object is my hair. I firstly colored it 16 years ago when I saw the Avril Lavigne Video, and I have been colouring it ever since. Her music influenced me a lot, and for me in childhood, she was the icon of style. 

What defines a subculture? 
As a group try to come up with a definition.

I think subcultural means a part of certain smaller groups of people, connected by the same ideas or ideals. It can be music tastes or something different such as fashion or lifestyle. For example, Rave or Pop subcultures.

1) providing magical solutions to the socio-economic structural problems.
2) offering a form of collective identity different from that of school and work.
3) winning space for alternative experiences and scripts of reality.
4) applying sets of meaningful leisure activities in contrast to school and work
5) furnishing solutions to the existential dilemmas of identity.

In your group; consider two older youth cultures
- describe the specific activities that meet the five functions named above


1) what activities/fashion choices etc could be seen as a reaction to social status e.g. look at Teds
2)What identities/shared image or ideas does your group have?
3) What spaces did they create or occupy?
4) What leisure activities?
5) How did these groups offer any help to develop a sense of identity?

Five functions of subcultures. In my opinion, Hippies and K-pop cultures provide five functions of subcultures. For K-pop, a lot of fans seem to engage in music to escape into glorified reality, have a community of like-minded people, join fun clubs with strong ties available elsewhere and rethink beauty and music standards across the globe. For Hippie culture it provides strong political context, provides a sense of collective identity via lifestyle choices (etc. no war, peace), festivals, and hippie living communities. For K-pop the fashion is attributed to the specific idols and what they wear or with which company they sponsorship with. The K-pop community helps to broaden the horizons and develop an identity and learn about new different cultures if the fans are coming abroad. The fans have Instagram and active social network group with lots of activities, such as fan meetings. For hippies, the fashion is more sustainable and caused by the total lifestyle view. The activities include entire living hippie villages and gateways, concerts, and major festivals. The hippie community develops the identity by having close-knit community.

What are your favourite and least favourite genres?

What influenced your interest in your favourite genres/bands/artists?

How do you listen to music? What do you think that says about you or your tastes?

I listen to almost any genre aside from Russian folk music (was forced to be in choir when I was younger) and rap or techno, due to strong repetitive beats and Opera (one hour is fine, but I do not understand why the concert could be 5 hours long, and it's in Latin). I cannot specify what influenced my interests. Usually, I will listen to Spotify to a compilation of different artists.

1)What words, ideas, genres, artists/acts etc would you associate or connect with the idea of authenticity?

2)What do we view as identifiers/elements of ‘authentic’. (for example traits/biographical details suggest authenticity)

3)Genres and associated artists considered authentic/inauthentic (and why)? 

I would describe authentic artists as people who translate their lifestyle experiences and imagination into music or songs, as well as emotions if the song is not written by them. I think identifiers of authenticity are seeing personal growth in the songs. I would say that the least authentic genres is K-pop and J-pop due to heavy control of business agencies,   as well as some American singers and bands. 

I think there is certain expectation towards gender in music groups. A good example can be K-pop, where sexism is still existing. Loads of female k-pop groups are required to wear short skirts even in wintertime and have a controlled, or sometimes unachievable diet. The idea of femininity is prominent and you would rarely see somebody who is not fitting into a standard. It can be also seen that majority of girl bands in K-pop sing about love or relationships, catering to male fans and viewers. 
For the rock genre, I think it incorporates masculinity and traits traditionally associated with males. But of course, there are. still female rock instrumentalists such as Orianthi or Mary Ford.

There are many examples of artists addressing ideas around gender and expectations of gender roles and politics in their work.
Can you list some, representing different genres if possible

Group Queen appeared in drag in their video in 1984, which was ahead of it’s time