Music as an integral part of subcultures
- Paulina Wróblewska
- Jun 9
- 5 min read
Music has always been a defining part of subcultures, as much as the choice of clothing, shared love for particular things or value systems, because it offers an imagery that can be used for identity purposes, and to distinguish individuals or communities from the rest of society.
A subculture is a group of people within a society that shares distinct values, beliefs, interests or aesthetics that set them apart from the mainstream. Music is a powerful binding tool and often acts as the foundation upon such groups are built. Attending the same concerts, listening to similar bands helps people feel connected to others who share the same opinions.
One of the clearest examples of music shaping subcultures is punk rock. It has its origin in the 1970s and emerged from the underground music scenes of London and New York City as a way to drowning out the previous hippie movement and rebelling against how commercial rock’n’roll had become. Punk music reflected frustration with political systems, social inequality and injustice. In the USA, punk is said to have been fully realized in 1974 in the Country, BlueGrass, and Blues music club. At the same time England was facing high unemployment rates and frustration, and punk music became the perfect remedy. Although Sex Pistols kicked off the movement in the UK and are arguably one of the most popular punk bands. Punk fans to this day debate regarding the first ever “true” punk band, some say that the Psychedelic Stooges, later renamed to Iggy and the Stooges, that debuted in 1967 in Detroit were the first. Although they may not tick all the boxes regarding fashion and sound, their presence and behaviour on stage were textbook punk. Other bands appeared in the 70s and 80s and to this day are considered to be one of the most important on the punk scene, they include MC5, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks or The Clash. Like with all music, punk began to divide into post-punk and new wave and eventually split into even more genres like horror punk with the Misfits, hardcore punk with Circle Jerks, and pop punk with Green Day or Blink 182. The division didn’t stop there but listing all of the subgenres that emerged from punk would be a job in itself. Many of those punk inspired subgenres are enjoyed to this day, which shows that punk is in fact not dead.
Music was also an integral part of the hippie movement, which originated in the 1960s in the United States, although it had later spread to other countries like Canada and England. Hippies were mostly young people who felt alienated from society, which they thought was dominated by materialism and repression. They developed their own lifestyle and folk and rock music became its essential part. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Beatles or Grateful Dead are to this day closely identified with the culture. An important part of the hippie movement were outdoor music festivals. The best-known were Woodstock in New York state and the free concert at Altamont Speedway in California. Woodstock drew in almost 50 thousand people and became synonymous with the movement. It was held in 1969 in August and featured a lineup of over 32 performers including music icons like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, The Who, Ten Years After, and the aforementioned Grateful Dead and Joan Baez. Psychedelic rock became the soundtrack of the movement, with The Beatles leading the way. They spoke for the alienated youth. The movement ended in the early 1970s mostly due to the fact that the participants grew up and because of commercialization of the culture. A violent stabbing of a black teenager at Altamont Free Concert as well as many drug-related deaths of music icons like Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin shattered the image of “peace and love” of the hippie movement.
At that time a new music-based subculture emerged. The term “metalhead” first saw light in the late 70s and was used to describe die-hard fans of heavy metal music who have been fans of it for quite a long time. They are familiar with subgenres from thrash to death to black metal and understand their rich history. The subculture is characterized by its dark aesthetic, distorted guitar sounds, dense bass and drums as well as vigorous vocals. Heavy metal comes with an unlimited number of subgenres which all provide their own subcultures that slightly differ, they include: thrash metal, black metal, death metal, doom metal, glam metal, sludge metal, power metal, viking metal and nu metal. Heavy metal itself has its roots in psychedelic rock. The pioneers of the genre are said to be Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. After that a lot of bands began modifying heavy metal into different forms. In the 1980s groups like Bon Jovi and Poison made glam metal especially popular. At the same time extreme subgenres like black metal also began gaining popularity, although they were not as well-known as for example thrash metal. It emerged in Europe and is chracterized by its raw production, aggressive sound and anti-Christian themes. The term was taken from the title of one of Venom’s albums “Black Metal”. The bands that are considered the ‘first wave’ of black metal are Venom, Bathory and Mercyful Fate, although they sound more like thrash metal than what is now considered to be black metal. Their lyrics and aesthetic distinguished them from other metal bands, they contained Satanic and anti-Christian themes, the members wore corpse paint on stage and went by dark aristic pseudonyms like Nocturno Culto or Gaahl. The songs were dark, had heavily distorted guitar, fast drums and screeching instead of singing. In the early 90s in Norway came the ‘second wave’ of black metal. Even though the bands of the ‘first wave’ implemented the Satanic themes into black metal, the 90s groups took it to the next level. The most notorious was a group called Mayhem, which originated in Oslo in 1984. Their career was marked by several controversies due to their connections to numerous Norwegian church burnings and their gruesome live performances. Its members adopted morbid stage names like Euronymous, Maniac or Necrobutcher. They started out by performing cover songs from Black Sabbath and Venom but quickly began writing their own, much darker music. The band frequently changed vocalists, but the position was finally filled by Pelle Yngve Ohlin (“Dead”). The young vocalist was known for wearing corpse paint and burying his stage clothes and digging them up to wear during concerts. In 1991 Pelle committed suicide, Euronymous used the vocalist’s tragic death to further cultivate the band’s ‘evil’ image. In 1993 Euronymous was murdered by another musician Varg Vikernes. A year later one of the band’s most popular albums De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was released. Heavy metal to this day is constantly evolving and even more subgenres are created. Some argue it is one of the strongest subcultures.
The aforementioned subcultures are only a fraction of all of the subcultures mostly centered around music. Music is an integral component of subcultures, because it creates identity that allows individuals to distinguish themselves from the mainstream society. It is the heart of many subcultures because it builds community and gives a sense of belonging.
Bibliography:
Frith, Simon. “Rock - Rock in the 1960s.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/art/rock-music/Rock-in-the-1960s. Accessed 10 May 2026.
“Metalhead: Unveiling the Origin and Evolution of a Captivating Subculture – SDMETAL.” Sdmetal, 17 Apr. 2024, sdmetal.com/what-is-a-metalhead/. Accessed 10 May 2026.
“Mayhem (Band).” Wikipedia, 24 Mar. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayhem_(band). Accessed 10 May 2026.
Damage, Danny. “The History of Punk: A Genre That Emerged from Rebellious Ideals.” Sound of Life, Sound of Life, 17 Mar. 2023, www.soundoflife.com/blogs/mixtape/history-punk-music. Accessed 10 May 2026.
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