Were British Subcultures the Beginnings of Multitude?
Résumé
This essay begins with a summary of the key ideas in Empire, and Multitude, particularly those most relevant to the study of subcultures, and popular music. The next section explores how subcultures from the 1970s and 1980s anticipated many of Hardt and Negri’s ideas, and explains why understanding these style movements in terms of Empire and Multitude offers a fresh and compelling perspective on subcultures. The British movements punk, mod, goth, etc. represent a particularly good example of subcultures functioning as an early manifestation of the “alternative networks of affection and organization” described in Multitude since their discourse voiced many of the same socio-economic concerns, but used diverse styles to represent their values and anxieties. They also developed under a conservative government that epitomized the ideals of Empire, and operated within a relatively confined geographic space. Previous scholarship on subcultures by Dick Hebdige, Sarah Thornton, David Muggleton, and others is analyzed and shown to be reconcilable to a reading subculture style based on Hardt and Negri.
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This article will be published in an English-only version of Volume!'s "countercultures" issues: Sheila Whiteley and Jedediah Sklower (eds.), Popular Music and Countercultures, Farnham: Ashgate, May 2014. The text will appear here two years after that publication, in May 2016.
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Référence électronique
Charles Mueller, « Were British Subcultures the Beginnings of Multitude? », Volume ! [En ligne], 9 : 1 | 2012, mis en ligne le 15 juin 2014, consulté le 30 avril 2015. URL : http://volume.revues.org/3180
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