You know the word ‘tot’ in German? It’s a good way to describe the state of the subculture you are so fond of. Congrats, your subculture is dead. It’s not to say that your subculture is falling apart at the seams, but your subculture has found its way into the mainstream.

After spending years steeped in bands, books and art that nobody has heard of, crawling clubs that are the secret of the town, you’ve been found out. People are speaking the name of your favorite scene, but it’s not a whisper, it’s full voiced talk. Your scene has become part of popular culture.

This happens to ever subculture, regardless of what it is. Some servive better than others but, ultimately, everything hits critical mass. Popularization happens and anything worth talking about sees its day in the sun. Punk is dead, the Goth undead is rotting, Hip Hop culture is MTV culture, Hipster is chic and Indie is the new mega.

Sometimes it takes years for this kind of thing to happen, other times it is almost instant. Once a subculture receives attention from the public spotlight, it either blossoms or withers. Punk and Hip Hop are perfect examples. Punk withered and died at the first glimpse of the hot lights while Hip Hop has all but consumed American youth culture.

For all of this doom and gloom, new subcultures are constantly on the rise. New ideas infiltrate young minds and the cultural norm is constantly overhauled by secret influences that couldn’t survive more than the faintest breathing of their names.

Punk lives on in the hearts of new angry youth driven by music and a desire to alter the world around them. Hip Hop underground lives on with new electronic music. The Gothic ethic of art and introversion survives the death of the original in the hearts of gloomy artists across the world. Hipsterism and Indie culture will continue to thrive by the creative nature of urban and suburban do-it-yourselfers.

The ‘Your Subculture is Dead’ series will explore subcultures from the past 30 years, their influence and ultimate demise at the hands of the unforgiving public. Rather than being a mournful retrospective, the aim is to give new hope to people that long for innovation, creativity and forward thinking in subculture. The angry, mournful and artistic both urban and suburban alike are undergoing constant reinvention. As Emilie Autumn has said “dead is the new alive.”