We-Media and

Collective

Identity in the

Pre-Digital Age

Is ‘We-Media’

possible without

digital technology

and the internet?

How can we answer this?

Looking at subcultures and trying to identify similar patterns of

• consumption

• production

• Distribution

• Marketing

• and exchange.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GChP1uzjZnE

Islington Squatter Punk Documentary - YouTube

What are the similarities between

punk and hip hop subcultures?

Consumption

• Audiences consume at live, social events (reinforces collective identity of marginalised groups)

• ‘Mixtapes’ and bootlegs of live performances so music can spread beyond one location

• Fanzines encourage sense of solidarity

PRODUCTION

Non-professionals creating their own music (and fashion, choreography, press).

Distribution

• Live shows or block parties attract audience to social events

• Mixtapes, bootlegs – and fashion, art, fanzines – sold at events.

• Not controlled by traditional music institutions (yet)

Marketing

• Word of mouth (intensifies sense of community)

• Fanzines review and recommend music

What do all these

subcultures

have in common?

A good term…

• Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) • Phrase created by theorist Hakim Bey to

describe ‘free spaces’ where normal mainstream rules don’t apply

• Fans can be united by their love of a specific type of media (music, film, TV show) ignored/disapproved of by the mainstream

• They then form their TAZ to gather, socialise, exchange their own DIY media.

Choose one subculture – how did they form a TAZ?

Further Reading

• Clay Shirky: ‘Here Comes Everybody’ or his website:

http://www.shirky.com/

• Charles Leadbetter: ‘We-Think’

http://www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx

• Henry Jenkins ‘Textual Pochers’

http://henryjenkins.org/

• Dick Hebdige ‘Subculture: the meaning of style’

• Simon Reynolds ‘Energy Flash: a journey through rave music and dance culture’