"Every Home Is Wired":
1 -- The Net in Relation to Music Subcultures
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On the other hand, though, in this ideologically motivated environment subcultural members driven rather by feelings of affinity than by readily formulated rational reasons explaining their affection for the group's ideals may end up feeling left behind, and outside the community that is formed by articulation -- as a result, they might choose to remain non-participating observers of group interaction ('lurkers', in cyberspeak), or start to disrupt newsgroup interaction out of frustration. In summary, "the virtual spaces constructed by these technologies are not only new, they have some fundamental differences from more familiar terrain of interaction. Virtual spaces change the kinds of communication that can be exchanged between individuals and alter the economies of communication and organisation" (M. Smith, n. pag.). In section three we will see how the particular nature of CMC space has affected the structures of online interaction of one subcultural community. Bit 66
The Tactics of Subcultures
The focus in this paper is on subcultural actions in a societal environment that traditionally has been favouring mainstream culture (which is now diminishing). Reference to concepts introduced by de Certeau -- of the tactics employed by underprivileged actors in the places governed by the strategies of controlling institutions -- will therefore also prove useful. Simply by virtue of their self-distinction from the outside, and thus also from whatever still remains of 'straight', mainstream culture, consumer subcultures already tend to act tactically; this tendency is even more pronounced the more a subculture is ideologically opposed to that societal mainstream. (In section two, one of these so far fairly underprivileged, non-mainstream subcultures will be introduced.) Bit 67

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© 1998 Axel Bruns