Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

Hebdige addresses the topic of style and its role in defining a subculture. He posits that styles are an intentional variation of the normative dress, speech, music and dance of the parent culture. The formula is the same, but the significance of style differs from tradition. Unlike the aesthetic of mass culture, with its unintended signs of wealth, attractiveness, and self-image, style is engineered to communicate something; it is a self-conscious expression, intended to be read. In this way, Hebdige suggests, subcultures consciously use conventional elements to invent an unconventional world.

The author argues that each of the subcultures he has addressed, in addition to being of the working class, represent a culture of conspicuous consumption. Through specific rituals of consumption, or by a refusal to consume certain products, a subculture manifests its style and therefore its identity. The author describes...