The primary target audiences for music subcultures
Feb 7, 2020 23:04:34 GMT 10
Post by SharksFan99 on Feb 7, 2020 23:04:34 GMT 10
I thought this might make for an interesting topic. Music of course is, and always has been, for people of all ages and you don't have to be of a certain age to find something that you enjoy. However, that being said, almost every sub-genre of music has had an associated subculture which is typically made up of people of a similar age, whether that be teens, twenty-somethings or even kids. Music can speak to and represent a cohort (or generation if you will) of people. When nu-metal was at it's peak during the Y2K Era, for instance, it wasn't 30-something year olds who were blasting Limp Bizkit through their stereos and posting on message boards; it was mostly white, angst-ridden teens around the ages of 13-15; i.e those born in the Mid-Late '80s. They were the primary target audience and consumers of nu-metal.
We're all going to have different experiences and opinions as to who we believe are the core audiences for each subculture, so I think it would be interesting to hear everyone's perspectives on this. Who would you say are/were the core target audiences for certain genres (e.g emo, grunge, EDM)?
I'll start off with three for now:
Scene: c. Mid-Late '90s babies (1994-2001)
I think scene was more of a Mid '90s born subculture in all fairness, though I do know of people around my age who were able to get into it. I had a friend in primary school who had a crush on the lead singer of Short Stack and even had daily interactions with him over Facebook. One of my other friends (though I didn't know him at the time) dyed his black around this time and had the emo swoop; he only got rid of it towards the end of Year 7 (2012). There's a number of kids in my Year 7 yearbook photo who have that emo swoop look as well. The reason why I have extended the core target audience to as late as 2001 isn't just down to the fact that they were in their tweens for most of the Early 2010s, but I also knew of a girl in Year 6 who was two years younger than me and she was right into bands such as All Time Low, My Chemical Romance etc.
Post-hardcore: c. Late '90s babies
I would have extended the core target audience beyond Late '90s babies, if I knew of people who were actually into the music besides people who were in my grade. I know post-hardcore has existed in the underground for decades, but in this instance, i'm referring to the 2010s wave of post-hardcore bands such as Pierce The Veil, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon etc. If you look at the singles and album charts from a number of different countries (e.g US, Australia, UK) between 2012-2016, you'll see that post-hardcore bands enjoyed greater success on the charts during this period, with it's peak having been around 2014/15.
Trap: c. Early-Mid '00s babies (2002-?)
People around my age just couldn't get into it, it only started to become popular around the beginning of 2017, which was my final year of high school. I personally don't know anyone in my grade who actually listened to Trap and liked artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion etc. The one thing that was interesting though was that I can distinctively remember hearing people from the Classes of 2020-22 in particular playing Trap songs through their portable Bluetooth speakers during our lunch breaks. There were these group of Year 9 girls who sat right near me and my friends in the quad and they constantly played mumble-rap songs, to the point where it actually started to become annoying.
I've always viewed Trap/mumble-rap as being an Early-Mid '00s borns subculture and really, it makes sense when you think about it. Someone born in 2002 turned 16 in 2018, they were right in the peak of their teenage years when Trap was at the height of it's popularity. "Eshays" are largely made up of people in their early teens and they are known to be into mumble-rap as well, meaning that those born in the Mid 2000s are into it just as much.
We're all going to have different experiences and opinions as to who we believe are the core audiences for each subculture, so I think it would be interesting to hear everyone's perspectives on this. Who would you say are/were the core target audiences for certain genres (e.g emo, grunge, EDM)?
I'll start off with three for now:
Scene: c. Mid-Late '90s babies (1994-2001)
I think scene was more of a Mid '90s born subculture in all fairness, though I do know of people around my age who were able to get into it. I had a friend in primary school who had a crush on the lead singer of Short Stack and even had daily interactions with him over Facebook. One of my other friends (though I didn't know him at the time) dyed his black around this time and had the emo swoop; he only got rid of it towards the end of Year 7 (2012). There's a number of kids in my Year 7 yearbook photo who have that emo swoop look as well. The reason why I have extended the core target audience to as late as 2001 isn't just down to the fact that they were in their tweens for most of the Early 2010s, but I also knew of a girl in Year 6 who was two years younger than me and she was right into bands such as All Time Low, My Chemical Romance etc.
Post-hardcore: c. Late '90s babies
I would have extended the core target audience beyond Late '90s babies, if I knew of people who were actually into the music besides people who were in my grade. I know post-hardcore has existed in the underground for decades, but in this instance, i'm referring to the 2010s wave of post-hardcore bands such as Pierce The Veil, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon etc. If you look at the singles and album charts from a number of different countries (e.g US, Australia, UK) between 2012-2016, you'll see that post-hardcore bands enjoyed greater success on the charts during this period, with it's peak having been around 2014/15.
Trap: c. Early-Mid '00s babies (2002-?)
People around my age just couldn't get into it, it only started to become popular around the beginning of 2017, which was my final year of high school. I personally don't know anyone in my grade who actually listened to Trap and liked artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion etc. The one thing that was interesting though was that I can distinctively remember hearing people from the Classes of 2020-22 in particular playing Trap songs through their portable Bluetooth speakers during our lunch breaks. There were these group of Year 9 girls who sat right near me and my friends in the quad and they constantly played mumble-rap songs, to the point where it actually started to become annoying.
I've always viewed Trap/mumble-rap as being an Early-Mid '00s borns subculture and really, it makes sense when you think about it. Someone born in 2002 turned 16 in 2018, they were right in the peak of their teenage years when Trap was at the height of it's popularity. "Eshays" are largely made up of people in their early teens and they are known to be into mumble-rap as well, meaning that those born in the Mid 2000s are into it just as much.
