CONCLUSION – SKATE PUNK AUTHENTICITY, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, AND THE MUSIC VIDEO

(PART 14 OF THESIS)

Evolving in Southern California in the early 1980s, this thesis discusses the subculture of skate punk as illustrated through the band, Suicidal Tendencies. Through the use of the music video, which is essential in aesthetically portraying key signifiers that are involved with skate punk representation, the thesis analyses the significant events, symbolism and imagery to ascertain the ways in which this subculture are mediated to the viewer.

Through a comprehensive literature review that focused upon prominent subcultural theorists and musicologists, varying thought processes regarding subcultures and skate punk were presented. These theories and discourses were applied to the case study of two Suicidal Tendencies music videos, “Institutionalized” (1984) and “Possessed to Skate” (1987) to illustrate how they negotiated and represented authenticity through the subculture of skate punk. There were several determining themes that were represented in the music videos and these incorporated relevant socio-political issues that the band negotiated and rebelled against.

The white middle class suburban life in Southern California in the 1980s, a place where boredom was rife and conservatism prevailed, became the antithesis of the skate punk protagonists who appropriated suburbia and turned it into their rebellious playground. Different notions of authenticity were negotiated and developed to create an understanding of authenticity within the socio-political context of the 1980s white middle class America that skate punk band, Suicidal Tendencies corresponded with and also rebelled against. In the pursuit of self awareness, self reflexivity and the perpetuation of an innovative and unique D.I.Y. lifestyle, Suicidal Tendencies proliferated a strong subculture that still exists today - that of skate punk. This thesis displays the importance of subcultures in presenting an alternative way of life to the hegemonic norm that pervades society, in turn generating new ways of thinking and being

.

This study has generated further questions in regards to the importance of the skate punk subculture on wider societal ideology, for example:

how skate punk has evaded mass commercialisation and existed as a corresponding culture through the pursuance of authenticity, self reflexivity and representation;

the success of precarious labour in regards to the micro-industries that have developed out of this subculture;

and how a subculture and a particular band can still have socio-political relevance and popularity over several decades.

Ultimately, it is the value that subcultures such as skate punk add to society through their mode of representation, their expression of an alternative to the hegemonic norm, the encouragement of self determination and awareness, the activation of socio-political thought processes and the encouragement to live the life that you want to live, which inspires countless people in society every day.

[This is an excerpt from my Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) Honours Thesis, submitted to the University of Wollongong Arts Faculty in 2013. I am publishing excerpts from this thesis in multiple posts. The thesis aimed to explore the youth subculture of skate punk, how its expression perpetuated authenticity through the aesthetic form of the music video, and how this was reflexive of society at a deeper social level].

[copyright 2013]