Bone in the Throat: Video archiving and identity building within the Montreal hardcore scene

Abstract

During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Montreal hardcore scene was a vibrant, thriving and dynamic subculture with a strong sense of community. The generational and cyclical nature of such scenes has led, over the past two decades, to a significant crowd turnover with older people leaving and newcomers taking over. However, through the emergence of an Instagram account created by a man named Andy Chico Mak, its past memories are resurfacing. The recent dissemination of the Bone in the Throat series on social media, along with other archives including flyers, interviews and never-seen-before footage from the era, sparks a series of questions regarding the role and impact of archiving subcultures. Since the archival turn in social sciences, archives are considered as a reflexive and constitutive process of identity building and collective memory creating. In the case of subcultures, often overlooked by official heritage institutions, the importance of understanding archives as a site of cultural production is paramount. The collection and preservation of self-produced documents is key to scholars in order to understand the social and political dynamics at the heart of those communities. This article analyses the impact of years of video archives, gathered and organized through the work of Andy Chico Mak, in the process allowing the creation of collective memory and the development of ‘scene identity’. By relating to contemporary conversations about archiving subcultures, it also provides insight into the impact of new technologies and the creation of ‘subcultural collective memory’.