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Rave and Straightedge, the Virtual and the Real: Exploring Online and Offline Experiences in Canadian
Youth Subcultures
Brian Wilson and Michael Atkinson
Youth Society 2005; 36; 276
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X03260498
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http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/36/3/276
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ARTICLE
10.1177/0044118X03260498
YOUTH
Wilson,
Atkinson
& SOCIETY
/ CAN
/ MARCH
ADIAN YOUTH
2005 SUBCULTURES AND INTERNET
MICHAEL ATKINSON
McMaster University
Over the past 10 years, sociologists have attended to the impacts of the Internet on
youth subcultural coalescence, display, identity, and resistance. In this article, the authors develop a critique of this body of work, describing how existing research places
undue emphasis on young peoples experiences either online or offline and how a lack
of consideration has been given to the ways that subcultural expressions are continuous across the apparent virtual-real divide. With the aim of addressing some of
these concerns, the authors draw on ethnographic case studies of Rave and
Straightedge to explore the impact of the two realities (i.e., online and offline realities) on understandings of subcultural experience in these youth formations and articulate how the theoretical split between the virtual and real in cyber-subcultural research does not accurately capture the lived experiences or identity negotiations of
these youth.
Keywords:
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siderations of the Internets influence on traditional forms of youth expression, resistance, and identity development. Along these particular
lines of investigation and others, researchers have begun to examine
the characteristics of, and issues surrounding, the emergence of subcultures as cybercommunities or cybersubcultures. Hackers
(Ross, 2000), hate groups (Hier, 2000), fan groups (Clerc, 2000), and
cybersex participants (Branwyn, 2000) are some of the many groups
profiled in this broad area of research.
Despite innovations made in areas concerning youth cybercommunities, a series of theoretical and substantive schisms tend to be
replicated within this body of work, two of which are the focus of this
article. The first is that conceptual understandings about subcultures
and the Internet are typically offered without referencing (in any integrative manner) the literature on youth subcultures and the media.
This is a problematic schism given that scholars on both sides of the
Atlantic have focused considerable attention on the youth-subculturemedia relationship via the study of media audiences, media contents,
and media production practices. In a related way, more recent work on
alternative zine cultures is seldom referenced or taken as a theoretical guide for examining subcultural production through the Internet.
The second is that existing research on Internet (youth) cultures tends
to focus on either online or offline subcultural experiences, without
uncloaking the links between these two subcultural worlds, or interrogating the implications of these links for subcultural members
(Sterne, 1999).
In this article, we partially redress these theoretical and empirical
issues through the critical inspection of (a) the intricacies of the relationship between youth subcultures and the media, in light of the
emergence of the Internet as a computer-mediated communication
(CMC) platform and (b) the complexities of youth membership in
offline subcultural communities that are influenced by online participation. Substantive questions addressed through this analysis include
what links can be made between the cybersubcultures literature and
more mainstream work on youth subcultures and media; how has the
Internet been integrated into the everyday subcultural lives of youth;
to what extent has youth community formation been affected by the
globalization of culture and the rise of the Internet; what overlaps/
connections exist between online and offline cultures and how are
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Contemporary discussions of youth subcultures and the media typically commence with reference to Cohens (1972) landmark book,
Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of Mods and Rockers,
Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke, and Roberts (1978), Policing the
Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order, and/or Hebdiges
(1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style. The general arguments put
forth in these volumes were that subcultures tend to be portrayed in
popular media as, on one hand, troubled or troubling (i.e., as alienated
and disaffected, or as social problems/deviants), and on the other
hand, chic and cool. This representational treatment of subcultures
was considered to be part of a process whereby groups viewed as
threatening/resistant to the status quo are initially censured and labeled and later incorporated into mainstream culture (e.g., by converting subcultural signs into mass-produced objects). This process, according to these authors, inevitably leads to the ideological
neutralization of oppositional groups.
Most pertinent to this article is the way that media are interpreted
by youth subcultures themselves, and how media (in a variety of
ways) plays an integral part in the formation and maintenance of these
groups. Thorntons (1995) work on club cultures in Britain ex-
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plored two issues central to this topic. The first dealt with how
youths subcultural ideologies position the media, and the second,
with how the media are instrumental in the congregation of youth and
the formation of subcultures (p. 121). Regarding the first issue,
Thornton discussed how subculture members perceive mass media/
culture as a threat to their status as an esoteric group (e.g., because of
the medias tendency to incorporate/popularize previously distinct
subcultural styles). Regarding the second, Thornton emphasized how
relationships with mass media are a necessary and inescapable part of
subcultural development and ideology, and are crucial for confirming
subcultural status:
The positioning of various media outletsprime time television [music] chart shows versus late-might narrowcasts, BBC versus pirate radio, the music press versus the tabloids, flyers versus fanzinesas well
as the discourses about hipness and selling out, moral panic and
banning are essential to the ways that young people receive these media and, consequently, to the ways in which media shape subcultures.
(pp. 121-122)
Perhaps the most notable of Thorntons contributions is her discussion of the diversity and evolution of the subculture-media relationship, wherein she identifies the problems with theoretical interpretations of mass media reactions to youth deviance, and the increasing
importance of alternative media in subcultural struggle. The latter
point is elaborated on by McRobbie and Thornton (1995), who argued
that young subcultural folk devils are not only less marginalized
than they once were but now find themselves vociferously and articulately supported in the same mass media which castigates them, and
find their interests to be simultaneously defended by their own niche
and micro-media (p. 559).
Although McRobbie and Thornton usefully identify the potential
for counterhegemony through alternative media, work on media and
subcultures tends to focus on soft forms of resistance in media consumption, discussing the ways that viewers/readers become empowered through media by temporarily subverting the influences of consumer culture. Work in this tradition of audience research focuses on
groups that share interests in music, sports programming, television
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shows, and romance novels (Ang, 1985; Jhally & Lewis, 1992;
Radway, 1991; Wilson & Sparks, 1996, 1999). Studies that unveil the
sometimes resistant readings that audiences/consumers made of these
popular culture texts/items (e.g., the collective and individual use of
texts/items in ways unintended by media producers) are sometimes
linked to the subculture-media traditionalthough some of these
works are criticized for being overzealous in celebrating the ability of
audiences to resist the influences of media texts (Gruneau, 1988;
Muggleton, 2000).
Although McRobbie and Thornton described a movement toward
the use of alternative media as a form of resistance and community
forming, Duncombe (1997) is one of the few authors to devote extended analysis to this topic. In Notes from the Underground: Zines
and the Politics of Alternative Culture, Duncombe (1997) provides a
series of clarifications to some of McRobbie and Thorntons points,
describing how zinesters and affiliated subcultures are prepolitical
groupsgroups that are made up of people who have not yet found, or
have only begun to find, a specific language through which to express
their aspirations about the world. Cresser, Gunn, and Balmes (2001)
research on female zinesters points to the political potential of CMC,
and how the cultural aspirations of online resisters cannot be fully realized in cyberspace. In this way, zinesters (i.e., those who produce,
publish, and distribute noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines) are akin to the niche and micromedia producers
identified by McRobbie and Thornton. Duncombe does, however, acknowledge that the distribution of hard-copy zines is now being halted
by the creation of Web-zines, which have a much larger and more
diffuse audience.
Although Duncombes work is seldom referred to as a departure
point for studying subcultural struggle and alternative/Internet media
production, there are several existing studies that broach these areas,
including Leonards (1998) work on the Riot Grrrl Punk movement,
and Jordan and Taylors (1998) study of hackers. Leonards (1998) research is especially notable in this context because it examines feminist youth movements with a focus on the hard-copy and online zine
platforms that promote them. Although Leonard does not establish
theoretical links between work on alternative media and studies of
Internet cultures, her empirical investigation of the ways that female
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Although Robins (1996) call for balance and for more integrated
research are both rationales that underlie this article, we more directly
suggest that research underpinned by microsociological emphases
can guide understandings of the relationship between online and
offline lived experience. For example, in Denzins (1995) and Pleace,
Burrows, Loader, Muncer, and Nettletons (2000) respective examinations of Internet-facilitated communication processes between
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members of addiction/recovery groups, important links are made between the conventions of Internet support communities and the oral
traditions of face-to-face support meetings. Jordan (1999) also explored the relationship between offline and online communication
(with a particular focus on gender), discussing the potential for more
egalitarian online discussions because of the liberating and limiting
potential of exclusively text-based conversation. Turkles (1995)
work on identity and the Internet includes several stories of individuals whose experiments with online identity are part of developing their
offline selves (e.g., playing the role of another family member). Issues
to do with race/ethnicity, class, and gender have also been studied as
part of understanding the relationship between offline and online experience/identity (cf., Ebo, 1998; Harcourt, 1999). Burkhalter (1999),
for example, showed how racial politics emerge in newsgroup discussions and described the linkages between racial identity online and
grounded racial experiences offline. Equally, through a netography
of displaced Croatians online communication, Stubbs (1999)
inspected how diaspora and community restructuring are signified
across Internet spaces.
Miller and Slaters (2000) ethnographic study of the Internet in
Trinidad is one of the most rigorous pieces of research on the positioning of the Internet in the everyday lives of people. The rationale they
provide for their approach is at odds with much of the research that has
been conducted to date, as they explain:
[The existing] focus on virtuality or separateness as the defining feature of the Internet may well have less to do with the characteristics of
the Internet and more to do with the needs of these various intellectual
projects. . . . The present study obviously starts from the opposite assumption, that we need to treat Internet media as continuous with and
embedded in other social spaces, that they happen within mundane social structures and relations that they may transform but they cannot escape into a self-enclosed cyberian apartness. Indeed, to the extent that
some people may actually treat various Internet relations as a world
apart from the rest of their lives, this is something that needs to be socially explained as a practical accomplishment rather than as the assumed point of departure for investigation. How, why and when do
they set cyberspace apart? Where and when do they not [italics in
original] do this? In what ways do they make use of virtuality as a
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Their research confirms the need to consider the way that the Internet
is part of everyday life, and not necessarily abstracted from it.
In sum, then, despite a surge of work in the area of Internet and culture, few studies explicitly link online culture/community with offline
culture/community. Especially relevant is that although authors such
as Porter (1997), Smith and Kollack (1999), and Tapscott (1998) have
produced path-breaking empirical interrogations of virtual communities, only a handful of researchers have critically inspected the intersection between on- and offline life within youth subcultures. In this
article, we argue that to grasp how youth subcultural activity is experienced in everyday life and how young people negotiate their identities
through various forms of subcultural resistance, it is important to consider how subcultural members negotiate the online-offline divide,
and how for many youth, this might not be a divide at all.
THE VIRTUAL AND
THE REAL IN RAVE AND STRAIGHTEDGE
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In 1988, Britain experienced what has come to be dubbed the second summer of love, a time and label now synonymous with the
mass-mediated emergence of the all-night dance/drug culture known
as Rave or Acid House. For some dance music historians and theorists, this second summer of love signified the beginning of the end
(i.e., the end of Raves potential as a resistant force), for a culture
whose origins could be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s dance music scenes in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Ibiza, Spaina
holiday sun location where the original Rave dance parties occurred in
the early 1980s and where working-class British vacationers were inspired to start a scene at home (Collin, 1997; Redhead, 1997). Of
course, the idea that 1988 was an endpoint is vast overstatement if
Raves mass-mediated emergence is viewed as part of a subcultural
evolutionary process, where a subculture does not dissipate, so much
as it morphs. As authors such as Thornton (1995) described, Rave culture evolved into a more incorporated club-based dance culture defined less by collective resistance to the mainstream, and more by the
attempts of subculture members to attain esoteric status within their
group. Others, such as Reynolds (1997), documented Raves evolution into a fragmented (i.e., fragmented musically and philosophically), cynical, drug-driven, and destructive scenea hedonist subculture without a cause. Bennett (2000) and Malbon (1998), more
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[As writers and consumers of science fiction stories, novels and movies] cyberpunks are very much a product of the technological explosion of the 1980s with its proliferation of media, computers, and new
technology. Their work is heavily influenced by the saturation of culture and everyday life through science, technology and consumer culture . . . a response to (the) explosive proliferation of technology and
mass culture which it embodies. (p. 303)
Similarly, for Rave, there is a relationship between the usage/consumption of technology by subcultures members, and the everyday
experiences, perspectives and activities of these same membersa relationship seldom studied in work on youth subcultures. Of course,
and as Gilbert and Pearson (1999) argued, the problem with employing the term technology so widely is that it assumes high technology, when in fact dance music cultures interact with and are predicated a variety of technologies, new and old, high and low
(p. 111). It is from these underpinnings that we consider the position
of Internet technology and communication in the Rave subculturea
topic not engaged by Gilbert and Pearsonand interrogate relationships between online and offline life for Rave subculturalists.
RAVE CULTURE, THE INTERNET, AND EVERYDAY LIFE
287
munity is especially defined by their protechnology views and practices, which are embodied in the computer-generated music they
produce, the often technology-related occupations they hold, and, of
course, their frequent use of the Internet for various reasons (Wilson,
2002b). In fact, Dery (1996) described Ravers as countercultural
technopagans because of their participation in the subcultural ritual
of free-form dancing to synthesizer-produced, heavy-beated music
that is arranged by DJ techno-Shamans (p. 52).
Following Dery, we assert that Rave is a complex example of a subculture that is not only defined by its existence online and offline but
also by its tendency to embrace this relationship. Online-offline relationships were evident in the practice of Raving, the dissemination
of Rave values, the promotion of the local and global Rave community, in the business of raving, in the politics surrounding raving, and
in the globalization of Rave more generally.
The most explicit example of the relationship between online and
offline is the virtual Ravea simultaneously virtual and real event.
Virtual Raves, which take various forms, usually include live video of
DJs playing music and an accompanying chat room where virtual
Ravers can interact (the video and chat room appear together on the
events Web page). Evidence that Ravers are leaders in the development of online and offline subcultural links is that virtual Raves surfaced (in Canada) in the mid-1990s, a time when the World Wide Web
was only beginning its rise. In Toronto, for example, among the first
online-offline Rave parties took place at the home of Toronto DJ Mental Floss in the summer of 1997, followed by another event in this DJs
university residence (also in Toronto) the following year.
A more traditional example of online-offline interaction is on
southern Ontariobased newsgroups and Web sites that were designed to promote the local scene and community. Although several
currently exist in Toronto area, one of the longest running sites is the
Western New York and Southern Ontario Rave-Net (WNYSOR). Begun in 1993 as an e-maildriven Listserv discussion group (which
continues to operate), the community is now supported by a welldeveloped Web site that includes
a list of local DJs who are part of the newsgroup (including links to
their own personal/business Web pages),
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In the chat room section, online interactions take place that are particularly relevant for offline subcultural life and developments. Topics
discussed are under the headings Rave Events (with subheadings
event reviews and upcoming events), Music (with types of music and
discussions among DJs subheadings) and General Topics. Especially
notable is the DJ discussion area, described as a place to discuss ways
to promote yourself as a DJ and your gigs, to discuss skills such as
mixing, scratching, producing, gear, record shopping, labels, and new
vinyl releases, and to promote local DJ relationships. The General
Topics area includes a subsection devoted to harm reduction and information about illicit drug use. Other topics in this section include
the politics of the Rave scene, relationships with police and the law,
Rave-related clothing styles and their meanings, and places and times
that Listserv members can meet at upcoming Rave parties.
In some respects, this promotion and protection of community (especially the local DJ community) through Internet technology is at
odds with conventional arguments by commentators such as Buxton
(1990) who suggested that technology/synthesizer music such as that
produced by Kraftwerk has disenfranchised the musician at the expense of the computer boffin (Gilbert & Pearson, 1999, p. 119). Recognizing that Buxton is referring to the impacts of technology on the
authenticity of produced music (which is itself a contentious claim),
the irony here is that state-of-the-art technology has always been used
to advance the production quality of music. In the same way, the do-ityourself distribution possibilities made possible by the Internet, along
with the local and global business and peer-group connections that are
enabled by Web pages and discussions forums, have enfranchised
many DJ-musicians and helped democratize music promotion.
The Rave community generally, and its attendant online-offline relationships, are also supported through Web sites posted by Rave promoters. In the earlier days of Internet and Rave in Toronto (mid-
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1990s), the posting of information online about secret Rave locations and times was common, and congruent with Raves history of
subversion tactics, wherein Rave promoters needed to avoid having illegal parties closed down by police. Eventually, though, the Internet
became more about the advertising of Raves through promotion company Web sites. Since the late 1990s, promotion company sites have
remained quite static, typically including
a history of the company and its most noteworthy events/parties,
an overview of companys Rave-related values and what it hopes to
contribute to the scene (Note: It is here where variations of the peacelove-unity-respect doctrine of the Rave community tend to be outlined
and promoted),
profiles of the DJs that regularly spin at their parties,
a promotional section focused on upcoming Raves being put on by the
company, usually with a Rave flyer for the event posted online,
photographs taken at previous Raves put on by the company,
a message board where Ravers talk about the companys most recent
event and talk about the Rave scene generally,
links to other Rave-related Web sites (often other companies that might
be run by friends of the promoter), and
a contact e-mail for the promotion company.
These sites are rich sources for understanding online and offline Raverelated experiences because they embody simultaneous connections
with the business of raving, the promotion of community within the
Toronto Rave scene, and the marketing of Rave-related philosophies
and values more generally. In some respects, a vortex of (subcultural)
publicity has been created as these mutually supportive networks of
Rave promotion interact and interweave (cf. Wernick, 1991). Some
companies exemplify one of these layers of connection more explicitly than others though, depending on their ideological orientation.
Torontos Nightmare Productions (www.nightmarehell.com/) is an
example of a company that has positioned itself as a promoter of an
underground Rave community. At the same time, though, the Nightmare Productions Web site is intricately connected to the business of
Rave, through Web-site links to a Rave clothing company, to a Canadian retailer of LED lights (used at Rave parties), and to various onand offline Rave-inspired stores that sell clothing, CDs, and tickets.
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Through the early 1980s, the first and second waves of North
American Straightedge practitioners fabricated brands of Punk music,
clothing, and language to represent their philosophies of corporeal asceticism. Closely aligned with more traditional Punk styles (e.g.,
ripped clothing, Mohican hairstyles, shaven heads, thrasher music,
and Doc Marten boots), Straightedge style drew attention to an alternative message of walking the edge through self-restraint. By the
mid-1980s, Straightedge had developed into a fully subterranean lifestyle of social resistance, with practitioners alternative physical
styles entwined with nonmainstream messages of physical purity
(Wood, 2001). Reaching the apex of its initial popularity during this
period, the lifestyle waned in appeal by the latter part of the decade as
Rap, Grunge, Goth, and other socially rebellious (and more nihilistic)
style cultures blossomed in suburban scenes.
However, facing social uncertainties initiated by globalization processes, economic expansion, biological threats, and cultural fragmentation characteristic of the 1990s (Hannerz, 1990; Muggleton, 2000),
some middle-class North Americans and Europeans started to re-explore the viability of Straightedge as a lifestyle geared toward selfprotection. During this time, Straightedge spawned a variety of ideological offshoots such as Hardcore and Emo, and some practitioners
incorporated Vegan and/or Animal Liberation Front ideologies into
the lifestyle. Some of the younger Straightedgers in the United States
(New York, Utah, and across southern California), Canada (British
Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland), England (London and Manchester), and Sweden (Umea and Lulea) adopted more militant positions regarding physical purityclaiming absolute purity to be the
hallmark or true subcultural uniqueness of Straightedge. An even
smaller number of extremist Straightedgers (termed terrorist or hateedgers) began to aggressively promote Straightedge, utilizing violence against nonbelievers as a means of illustrating their commitment
to the lifestyle.
The sociological literature on lifestyles of bodily resistance such as
Straightedge is a diverse collection of empirically oriented and theoretically diverse research. Sociologists, for instance, have located and
theorized about how corporeal practices ranging from ritual piercing
(Pitts, 1998) to the cultivation of cyborg bodies (Balsamo, 1996;
Wolmark, 1999) are undertaken in the process of representing cultural
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Similar to any other belief system underpinning a lifestyle orientation, Straightedge cannot be understood when decontextualixed from
its practice-situated contexts of interaction. In the case of Straightedge, we must commence with a fundamental recognition that the ascetic mantras of personal responsibility and self-protection (i.e., no
promiscuous sex, illicit drugs, or alcohol) are more than espoused philosophy; these dictums are the very bedrock of the everyday life practices of Straightedgers (Atkinson, 2003a; Irwin, 1999; Wood, 1999).
Such corporeal orientations permeate all aspects of practitionerslives
and are not merely experimented with in the leisure sphere. The ability
to walk the Straight-edge (i.e., to integrate principles of self-control
into daily regimen) set the individual apart from the cultural mainstream. As the Straightedger Patrick (age 25) proclaimed:
Walking the Edge is not just a thing you do when its convenient. Its a
minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day lifestyle. Wherever I go,
whatever I do, its with me. . . . I look at myself, and see myself as different, because I am in control, I am strong.
On these grounds, self-proclaimed disciplined group members coalesce around and revel in their perceived distinction from others. In
Thorntons (1995) terms, it is the possession and display of such
subcultural capital that distinguishes them as an esoteric group.
Outsiders, perhaps quite predictably (cf., Muggleton, 2000), are collectively deemed as a homogeneous set of unsympathetic, unconvinced, or unenlightened others. It is, then, the everyday physical performance of Straightedge (i.e., the management of desire, the
renunciation and control of impulse, the battle with addiction and
craving, and the suppression of hedonistic urges), coupled with identity-confirmation processes between group members in micrological
contexts, that reinforce the meaning of the lifestyle for practitioners.
Straightedge is typically practiced within a local community of
mutually identified and interdependent others. Because group members are interlinked by ideology and everyday lifestyle performance,
they form into a web or con-figuration (Elias, 1994) of actors. Some
within the Straightedge figuration are bound to one another through
deep interdependencies, while others more occasionally affiliated
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Principally, active crew members place qualitatively and quantitatively similar emphases on walking the Straight-edge, actively practice Straightedge as a group lifestyle, reaffirm the identities of other
practitioners as legitimate and authentic, forge personal relationships
with members that transcend the spare-time spectrum, and promote
intense commitment to Straightedge among others.
Whether one interacts with Straightedgers in an open community
of locals or an internally policed crew that defends its subcultural capital, a central gathering place for all practitioners is the urban music
show (simply, a concert involving at least one, but typically several,
Straightedge bands). As in other subcultures such as Rave (Wilson,
1999, 2002a), Hip-Hop (Bennett, 1999, 2000), and Goth (Hodkinson,
2002), music plays a key role in signifying and disseminating
Straightedge ideologies (Wood, 1999). The current generation of
Straightedgers organize and perform collective expressions of
Straightedge (though music/lyrics, dancing/posturing, dress, and
other forms of display) at urban shows, much like their Punk predecessors of the 1980s (cf. Baron, 1989; Leblanc, 1999). The show is,
then, a vehicle for realizing and exhibiting Straightedge as a meaningful group behavior. As in Wilsons (2002b) case study of Rave culture,
practitioners ritually perform their ideologies at music shows through
symbolic gesture (i.e., dance) and language (i.e., interpersonal com-
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As a result, online communication about Straightedge music has altered the contextual flavor of the show scene in Canada and elsewhere.
Some Straightedge bands have achieved widespread notoriety in Canadian cities, as an outcome of online exposure on Web sites such as
vancouverhardcore.com and davexxx.com. This has helped establish
certain urban centers such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and St.
Johns as Straightedge hotbeds. In other cases, the online promotion
of Straightedge shows advertises the very existence of the music
scenes in particular locales. Here, the Internet is used as a device for
bringing people together in real timeunlike the creation of virtual
communities wherein participants rarely, if ever, meet face-to-face
(Parks & Roberts, 1998; Pleace et al., 2000).
The Internet has also become central in the circulation of songs by
independent bands who do not possess the financial resources to
widely distribute CDs. Instead, Straightedge music is transformed
into MP3 or MPEG audio files and placed on Web sites for free download. Rather than explicitly resisting technological advances similar
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I go on-line to strike back, you know. I read a lot of shit about so-called
Straightedge kids in the U.S., and I feel like I have to get active on the
Net to break media stereotypes. Wouldnt you rather know about the
scene from somebody involved, rather than some bullshitting cop or
reporter? (Rick, age 19)
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To all the people out there who think addiction cant be beaten, youre
wrong. Be straight and you will survive. This [Internet] space is for all
of those who have been kicked by life and want to use their bodies to
fight back. Total fucking purity and courage is what you need to succeed. . . . If you discipline your mind, the body will follow. (posted online by an anonymous Straightedger)
301
1995), one does not fully realize a corporeal practice in the virtual
world. As noted above, Straightedge is a lifestyle that must be performed daily through physical experience. Even though individuals
may coalesce in cyberspace, Straightedge is principally done
among groups of mutually-identified others in the here and now of everyday life. Similar to Modern Primitives or Cyberpunks who resist
techno culture by testing the boundaries of the corporeal through
bodily ordeals (Atkinson, 2003b; Atkinson & Young, 2001;
Featherstone & Burrows, 1995), some Straightedgers practice the
lifestyle as a form of resistance to techno modes of living that they perceive to be characteristically detached from physical experience (unlike their Rave counterparts). Such practitioners reject the global escape into virtual worlds and prefer to explore/control the body as a
meaningful social text of communication. Quite paradoxically,
practitioners exploit virtual space to inspire consciousness about the
lived body.
Yet online communication between Straightedgers across the
country (and around the globe) has fuelled a splintering among them.
Although most Straightedgers tacitly believe in similar orienting life
principles, there is noticeable disagreement as to how stringently one
must believe in and practice corporeal edicts of restraint. Debates
about the authentic nature of Straightedge have been exacerbated
within online chat rooms, and those with varied understandings about
the lifestyle now meet in virtual space to contest definitions they practice. Such debates transcend cyberspace and are occasionally enacted
through heated confrontation at shows or other public places. Following a trend in European football hooliganism, as evidenced at the 1998
and 2002 World Cup events (Finn & Giulanotti, 2000), violent confrontations at public spectacles between individuals are arranged in
advance through the Internet. Small, aggro-oriented or anti-hateedge pockets have formed as a responsefrom hardcore practitioners who adopt a militant party line, to more liberal Straightedgers
who explicitly condemn the more radical factions of the movement.
Given the increased popularity of Straightedge among Canadian
youth and the genesis of antagonism among practitioners, Straightedge styles (and other signifying practices) cannot be easily, or singularly, decoded. With the proliferation of Straightedge styles (including music, clothing, dance, argot, and tattoos), practitioners have
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experienced an internal incorporation (Thornton, 1995) of the lifestyle. In other terms, Straightedge may be, as some members describe
it, eating itself from within. Although Straightedge movements in
North America have never constituted a homogeneous set of peers, we
should not overlook the contemporary diversification of the lifestyle
spawned by CMC, and the very real effects of group segmentation on
the physical practice of Straightedge in group contexts.
A number of hardline practitioners lament that there have been unintended ideological and representational shifts within Straightedge
stemming from online communication. Because anyone may venture
online, learn about Straightedge, and mimic the lifestyle as popular
fashion (in many cases, without fear of reprisal from committed practitioners), the practice is open to be poached by youth in search of chic
countercultural movements:
One of the main problems with the Internet is the anonymity factor.
Anyone can get onto the Web and call themselves down for life. Or
else, you learn a bit of the jargon, and play the role. . . . Its when people
steal from our dialogue on-line, and pretend they have an understanding about what its really like that pisses me off. (Don, age 24)
303
The cases of Rave and Straightedge provide a rich basis from which
to consider the positioning of the Internet in the lives of subculture
members and, in turn, to reflect on the changing nature of subcultural
life. The most striking themes that emerged in this analysis had to do
with relationships between these subcultures and mainstream culture.
In broad terms, it appeared that there is a complex and contradictory
relationship between youth who support Internet-related business
practices that contribute to the incorporation of these subcultures (especially in the case of Rave), and those dedicated to the online (as well
as offline) promotion of alternative communities and antimainstream
philosophies and perspectives. Also relevant in this context is that the
Internet provides subculture members with frequent and various opportunities to be active media audiences/consumers and producers
roles and identities that are also blurred and interconnected. For example, subculture members studied here used the Internet to promote
ideologies, communities, events, and consumer products (in the case
of Rave), while at the same time responding to the sometimes-negative mass-mediated mainstream portrayals of their subcultures and to
attempts to incorporate their scenes. It is worth noting that the subcul-
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305
than Rave, and for this reason, the Internet tends to be used in more
countercultural ways than the more apolitical and incorporated Raver/
Clubber subculturalists. Understanding these complexities and differences, our findings also provide some nuance to McRobbie and
Thorntons (1995) observations about the development of the relationship between media and subcultures by describing how the philosophical orientations of Rave and Straightedge are intricately related
to the groups perspectives on (alternative) media production and
usage.
The insights derived from these cases also inform our understandings of the impact of the Internet on the structure of youth subcultural
formations. For example, it is clear that global subcultural networking
(through Internet communication) has been enabled in unprecedented
ways, and that this is at least somewhat related to the emergence of a
loosely defined global level of involvement for Raver and Straightedge youth. As above, though, the differences between Rave and
Straightedge in this context are substantial and significant. In essence,
for Rave, the conflict between the capitalist motives underlying the
distribution of the culture (especially in the form of items such as
techno music and Rave clothing styles) around the world and those
that oppose the incorporation of the culture has played out on a global
stage, precisely because of the political and economic influences that
are part of Rave culture (and especially its descendant club culture).
Straightedge, which has more effectively rejected the advances of the
mainstream, largely because this kind of rejection is the philosophical
raison detre for the group, is less of a global culture at present.
The Rave and Straightedge cases are also intriguing departure
points from which to consider how the Internet might enhance social
cohesion among youth by facilitating offline meetings and events, and
providing an online forum for support and discussion. That is to say,
youth culture in the age of the Internet could be viewed not only as
more fragmented, diffuse, and neo-tribal than traditional subcultures
described in classic British works in the area (e.g., Hall & Jefferson,
1976; Hebdige, 1979) but also as more cohesive in the sense that virtual connections can enhance local relationships while allowing for
global cultural/support networks (Wilson, 2002a). Having said this, it
is worth emphasizing that media developments such as the Internet are
still utilized and made sense of on a local and intrasubcultural level, or
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Brian Wilson, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His research interests include youth culture, media constructions of race and gender, audience studies, social movements, and the sociology of sport and leisure generally. His published work
appears in such journals as the Canadian Journal of Sociology, the Canadian Journal of
Communication, the Sociology of Sport Journal, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. He is currently leading a project
funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: Connected
Youth: A Study of Youth-Driven Social Movements, Globalization and Community in the
Age of the Internet.
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