Biker Subculture
1. Introduction
A wave of change swept over the era of modernism, people began to question and scrutinise the norms of society. This change is referred to as postmodernism (Meggs & Purvis, 2006:466). Postmodernism gave birth to different subcultures, groups of people who behave and believe differently than the norm of society, this as a result makes them stand out from the crowd and at times also are the cause that they are not accepted into society (Andersen & Taylor, 2007: 48). The following essay will analyse the Biker subculture. It will comment on the history, characteristics, principles and ideals and the lifestyle of the subculture. The aim is to form conclusions from the subculture and use these conclusions to create a Neo subculture.
2. Research
3.1. History
Since 1885, inventors experimented in creating the motorcycle. In the beginning the motorcycle was a crude and unreliable vehicle but as it developed, it gained more interest and by 1937 became an accepted part of the overall transport system (Walker, 2008:35). As the motorcycle became more popular, motorcycle clubs were born and the love for the machine flourished. After WW2 these clubs seemed to grow even more as soldiers returned to their ordinary life still yearning for adventure and the thrills of war, not completely ready to return to their previous life. These men needed a way to escape and biking was there portal (Wheeler, [S.a]).
All these clubs had to be registered but after the 1940’s incident in Hollister, California where the small percentage of biker society was blamed for the terrible and violent disturbance, many of these registered clubs broke away and made their own outlaw clubs, the most notorious being the Hell’s Angels (Wheeler, [S.a]). In their own way they rebelled against authority, acting out to shock people. An example of this type of behaviour can be seen in Figure 1, where two bikers are locked in a passionate kiss, something not deemed appropriate in those
A wave of change swept over the era of modernism, people began to question and scrutinise the norms of society. This change is referred to as postmodernism (Meggs & Purvis, 2006:466). Postmodernism gave birth to different subcultures, groups of people who behave and believe differently than the norm of society, this as a result makes them stand out from the crowd and at times also are the cause that they are not accepted into society (Andersen & Taylor, 2007: 48). The following essay will analyse the Biker subculture. It will comment on the history, characteristics, principles and ideals and the lifestyle of the subculture. The aim is to form conclusions from the subculture and use these conclusions to create a Neo subculture.
2. Research
3.1. History
Since 1885, inventors experimented in creating the motorcycle. In the beginning the motorcycle was a crude and unreliable vehicle but as it developed, it gained more interest and by 1937 became an accepted part of the overall transport system (Walker, 2008:35). As the motorcycle became more popular, motorcycle clubs were born and the love for the machine flourished. After WW2 these clubs seemed to grow even more as soldiers returned to their ordinary life still yearning for adventure and the thrills of war, not completely ready to return to their previous life. These men needed a way to escape and biking was there portal (Wheeler, [S.a]).
All these clubs had to be registered but after the 1940’s incident in Hollister, California where the small percentage of biker society was blamed for the terrible and violent disturbance, many of these registered clubs broke away and made their own outlaw clubs, the most notorious being the Hell’s Angels (Wheeler, [S.a]). In their own way they rebelled against authority, acting out to shock people. An example of this type of behaviour can be seen in Figure 1, where two bikers are locked in a passionate kiss, something not deemed appropriate in those
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