"I am not an emo, I am the core-kid": Subcultural identity and negotiation of authenticity in contemporary Czech emo subculture
Abstract
Emo subculture is a kind of latecomer to the Czech subcultural world. While punks, skinheads or metalheads have taken its roots as early as in the eighties, emo kids have not emerged until the turn of millennium.
Since then Czech emo subculture has been influenced by many divergent sources ranging from its hard core and punk roots, through goth subculture to otaku participatory culture. These with media representations created vastly different notions of what does emo mean and what does it mean to be an emo kid.
At the same time there is a strong anti-emo attitude in the mainstream, especially among youth, fuelled by moral panics related to alleged emo suicides in the second half of 2000s, which manifests itself in hatred for and/or ridicule of emo kids. Within this turmoil, emo subcultural identities emerge, are negotiated and recreated.
But drawing on different sources and dealing with diverse obstacles, particular emo kids use different strategies to manifest and negotiate their authenticity. Based on ethnographic research of contemporary Czech emo subculture, analysis of internet social media as well as interviews with former active scene members our paper focus on issue of negotiation of subcultural identity and authenticity within Czech emo subculture.
Employing Thorntonʼs concept of subcultural capital as well as Mooreʼs concept of performative style, we will ask what are the basis of subcultural identity of Czech emo kids and how they negotiate their authenticity within Czech translocal scene.