- Title
- The moral economy of the mosh pit: straight edge, reflexivity and classification struggles
- Creator
- Nilan, Pam; Threadgold, Steven
- Relation
- Youth Cultures and Subcultures: Australian Perspectives p. 77-88
- Relation
- https://www.routledge.com/Youth-Cultures-and-Subcultures-Australian-Perspectives/Baker-Robards/p/book/9781472426659
- Publisher
- Ashgate
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- This chapter discusses how the moral economy of the mosh pit produces reflexively constructed youth narratives of the self. Straight edge is a subsection of youth culture where members do not drink alcohol, take recreational drugs, smoke tobacco or engage in promiscuous sex. Straight edge subculture took off in Australia over thirty years ago. Since then, post-subcultural analysis has emerged, but straight edge still looks a lot like a subculture and maintains a distinctive lifestyle and music taste. Straight edge is usually associated with hard-core (punk) music. This chapter examines the Australian straight edge hard-core subculture by combining Bourdieuian theories of distinction with the notion of reflexivity. As a Newcastle hard-core enthusiast observed, straightedgers 'stand out'. It is argued that the intense reflexivity demanded by the straight edge 'oath' is both binding and bonding, forging the strong resilience of the subculture. Other hardcore fans are to some extent unsettled by the inferred moral superiority of straight edge, which adds a certain piquancy to their own processes of reflexivity as they move towards adulthood.
- Subject
- hardcore music scene; Australia; Bourdieu; youth culture; music
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1335082
- Identifier
- uon:27382
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781472426659
- Language
- eng
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