Style and Subculture

Subculture has always been a result of the younger generations aiming to rebel against society, and push away the ideal and standards pushed on them to make way for a mini-society that uses the values that the people involved in the subculture share.
It is harder to see subcultures that stand out as much as they did once in todays societies; not only is there a huge mix of past, recognisable subcultures shown in youths' styles of today, but with the freedom and ease people have with which to express themselves and try to make a difference on society, subculture just isn't as relevant anymore. People use it more as a mean of style and visual expression, with the word subculture loosely being able to refer to a following of people around a band or genre of music, having more in common than just style and the wish to rebel.

Subculture has never been something too relevant to animation, or at least the viewers of animation (the biggest example is one of 'weeaboos', fans of anime and manga that have absorbed so much of the Japanese culture show in these shows that they try to live it in real life, and almost fetishise Japanese culture as a result).

Certain genres or Auteurs may use these subcultures or almost a pseudo-subculture to appeal to a specific group of viewers, or to set them self apart from/rebel from the mainstream of animation and the views and values that mainstream animation may have. One example of this is Tim Burton's work, using very dark tones and styles (and arguably type of animation) to give his films settings almost a different culture than ours. It can be seen to take inspiration from Goth/Punk kind of cultures, especially with many of his protagonists looking so different from the usual animated protagonists and often the rest of the characters in the film. The protagonists are often outcasts, giving a feel or relateability to his target audience, and creating a space for certain viewers to enjoy themselves and feel comfortable in animation.




This is very important for any art form, but especially from mainstream, easy to find and literally all around you types of art like film or animation. People want to relate, or find others like them, and have their own space in society. When this space does not exist, then people like Tim Burton create it, and let generations of people who would have otherwise felt like outcasts of society themselves know that they are not alone, and are still important.