On Dick Hebdige’s Youth Subcultural Theory

With the gradual personalization of youth’s lifestyle and spiritual pursuit,young people have created a youth subculture with multiple styles.Compared with the mainstream culture,youth subculture is a cultural form with youth as the carrier.After the rise of youth subculture,a branch of youth subculture research emerged in cultural research theory,with Dick Hebdige as the backbone.He inherited the tradition of Birmingham School,paid attention to youth cases,tried to restore the true image of youth,and finally constructed a mature theory of youth subculture.It can be said that the youth subculture research of Hebdige runs through his theoretical career.From his most landmark work,"Subculture: The Meaning of Style" to the later collection of papers,"Hidden in the Light: Images and Things in Pop Culture",Herbdige’s research keeps up with the pace of the times,focuses on youth subculture,and tries to find solutions to youth problems and social contradictions.According to Hebdige,youth has many faces,and youth subculture presents colorful and complex faces.This paper focuses on the study of youth subculture,sorts out the youth image in its theory,deeply excavates the particularity of youth identity,analyzes the characteristics of youth subculture,and provides a "feasible way" for the future development of youth.The introduction part mainly introduces the way of the study of Hebdige culture and the research status at home and abroad.The first chapter summarizes the historical background and theoretical background of the emergence of the youth subculture theory of Hebdige,and introduces the basic concepts of culture,subculture and youth subculture.The second chapter tries to introduce the unique embodiment of youth subcultural style from typical cases,explain that youth subcultural style is related to the change of social taste,and take a new interpretation of youth subculture to cope with the change of its style.The third chapter combs the multiple faces of young people in the study of youth subculture of Hebdige,and summarizes the uniqueness of the youth image.Young people are portrayed as a symbol by the media,and become the image of being monitored,not acting in their own way,and entertaining in consumption,while Hebdige strives to change the stereotype of society on young people.The fourth chapter introduces Hebdige’s research on the motivation of the youth subculture movement,and considers how the youth subculture develops in the new environment.Hebdige is very concerned about the resistance of youth subculture itself,and hopes that young people will continue to establish emotional alliances in subcultural groups,gain identity,and boldly move towards the future.Finally,the contribution and shortcomings of Hebdige’s youth subculture research are discussed.