Episode 35 Fun with Culture Activities.doc
EXERCISE 1 – FUN WITH SUBCULTURES – GUESS THE SUBCULTURE
Read these descriptions of different subcultures and then see if you can guess which subculture each of the pictures represents. To make it harder, you’ll only be able to see a portion of each picture.
HIPPY
Similar to the beat movement preceding them and the punk movement that followed soon after, hippie symbols and iconography were of low social status, with hippie fashion reflecting a disorderly, often vagrant style. As with other adolescent, white middle-class movements, deviant behaviour of the hippies involved challenging the prevailing gender differences of their time: both men and women in the hippie movement wore jeans and maintained long hair, and both genders wore sandals or went barefoot. Men often wore beards, while women wore little or no makeup, with many going braless.
Hippies often chose brightly coloured clothing and wore unusual styles, such as bell-bottom pants, vests, tie-dyed garments, dashikis, peasant blouses, and long, full skirts; non-Western inspired clothing with Native American, African and Latin American motifs were also popular. Much of hippie clothing was self-made in defiance of corporate culture, and hippies often purchased their clothes from flea markets and second-hand shops. Favoured accessories for both men and women included Native American jewellery, head scarves, headbands and long beaded necklaces.
PUNK
Punks seek to outrage propriety with the highly theatrical use of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, tattoos, jewelry and body modification. Early punk fashion adapted existing objects for aesthetic effect: ripped clothing is held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape; ordinary clothing is customized by embellishing it with marker or adorning it with paint; a black bin liner becomes a dress, shirt or skirt; safety pins and razor blades are used as jewelry. Leather, rubber, and vinyl clothing are also popular, possibly due in part to the fact that the general public associates it with transgressive sexual practices like bondage and S&M. Punks also sometimes wear tight “drainpipe” jeans, T-shirts with risqué images, rocker jackets (which are often decorated by painting on band logos, adorning the lapels and pocket flaps with pins and buttons, and covering sections of the jacket, especially the back and sleeves of the jacket, in large numbers of carefully placed studs or spikes), and footwear such as Converse sneakers, skate shoes, brothel creepers, or Dr. Martens boots.
Some punks style their hair to stand in spikes, cut it into Mohawks or other dramatic shapes, often coloring it with vibrant, unnatural hues. Punks tend to adorn their favorite jacket or vest with pin-back buttons and patches of bands they love and ideas they believe in, telling the world around them a little bit about who they are. They sometimes flaunt taboo symbols such as the Iron Cross. Some early punks occasionally wore clothes displaying a Nazi swastika for shock-value, but most modern punks are staunchly anti-racist and are more likely to wear a crossed-out swastika symbol.
HIPHOP
After the influx of the hip-pop influence, hip hop fashion became less based in actual street wear and more in an idealization of such. Hip hop clothing is often produced by popular and successful designers, who charge significant amounts for their products.
The main elements of modern male hip hop fashion are baggy or sagging jeans, gold or platinum chains, boots or a fresh pair of kicks (sneakers), and a bandana or do-rag tied around the head (often with a fitted cap on top). Large T-Shirts are also standard street wear.
In the 1990s and 2000s, many hip hop artists and executives started their own fashion labels and clothing lines.[9] Notable examples include Wu-Tang Clan (Wu-Wear), Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Kimora Lee Simmons (Baby Phat),Diddy (Sean John), Damon Dash and Jay-Z (Rocawear), 50 Cent (G-Unit Clothing), Eminem (Shady Limited),and OutKast (OutKast Clothing).
GOTH
The goth subculture has associated tastes in music and fashion, whether or not all individuals who share those tastes are in fact members of the goth subculture. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all is a tendency towards a lugubrious, mystical sound and outlook. Styles of dress within the subculture range from death rock, punk, androgynous, medieval, some Renaissance and Victorian style clothes, or combinations of the above, most often with black attire, makeup and hair.
Goth fashion is stereotyped as a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails, black period styled clothing; goths may or may not have piercings. Styles are often borrowed from the Elizabethan, Victorian or medieval period and often express Catholic or other religious imagery such as crucifixes or ankhs.[6][5] The extent to which goths hold to this style varies amongst individuals as well as geographical locality, though virtually all Goths wear some of these elements.
1. ____________ 2. ____________ 3. ____________ 4. ____________
All the above quotes are from http://wikipedia.org and the images are from Wiki Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org.
EXERCISE 2 – FUN WITH POP CULTURE – WHO AM I?
Read the following biographical information and guess who the pop star is.
1. I was born August 29, 1958, in Indiana, USA. I have five brothers and I showed a talent for music and dance from an very young age. I had quite a strict upbringing. My father organized a family musical group with my three brothers in 1962, and I joined them the following year. I became the main focus of the group because of my dynamic stage presence, exciting dance moves, strong vocals and young age.
I was unquestionably the biggest pop star of the ’80s, and certainly one of the most popular recording artists of all time. In my prime, I was an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and loads of sheer star power. My 1982 blockbuster Thriller became the biggest-selling album of all time… Who am I? ________________
2. My ethnic childhood and upbringing helped me to become a creative and inspiring female musician. I was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada by working class, Portuguese descended parents, who instilled a hardcore work ethic during my upbringing.
My second album, Folklore appeared in November 2003, nearly two months after I gave birth to my first child, a daughter named Nevis.
When my 3rd album, Loose was released in the summer of 2006, I returned to the limelight. Hot hiphop producer Timbaland helped to make the album a success by giving the album a more modern, timely sound. The single “Promiscuous” became an instant hit, and I reached number one on the Billboard top 100 chart. Loose also topped the Billboard Top 200 album chart during its first week of release in later June 2006, becoming my first-ever number one album… Who am I?____________
3. We never intended to become England’s favourite rock & roll sons when our signature rock melodies ruled the charts throughout 2000. We had all been playing instruments since our early teens and have been influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Stone Roses, Neil Young, and My Bloody Valentine.
When we first became noticed, it was for our fresh, passionate and beautiful music. We had played our first gig at a festival for unsigned bands in Manchester. We have been compared to Travis, Oasis and Jeff Buckley, among others.
We landed a U.K. deal with Parlophone records in April 1999, and released a limited edition EP soon after. The media loved us because of our simplistic acoustic melodies, swooning lyrics and charming personas. Two more EPs, Shiver and Yellow, arrived in spring 2000… Who are we? ___________
4. I am one of Mongolia’s modern shining musical stars, a new step forward in Mongolia’s string musical heritage.
I began as so many do, playing basic scales on a violin too large for my seven-year-old arms at the Music College in Ulaanbaatar.
I, like so many Mongolians, was a musical child. In my first year of school, Mongolian talent scouts visited my classroom looking for talent to be trained; they found little me, and I was whisked away to train in music.
In August 2003 I released my first solo CD, called High in the Hentii Mountains. It has seven tracks, with a number of popular old Mongolian tunes, which were rearranged in a more modern style, with a range of feelings and moods.
I have also appeared on VoiceBox… Who am I? ___________
All of the above passages are adapted from biographies on the website http://www.allmusic.com, except the last, which is credited in the answers document accompanying this.
EXERCISE 3 – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Either discuss these questions with your friends or in a classroom, or write at least one full sentence answer to each question/topic, preferably a whole paragraph.
- What do you think is the most popular subculture in Mongolia?
- Which subculture do you most identify with?
- Do you think that popular Western culture is having a positive or negative on Mongolian culture?
- What are the best and worst parts of Western culture’s influence on Mongolia?
- Who is your favourite singer or band? Are they Mongolian or Western? Why do you like them.
Answers.txt
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