Rave and Straightedge, the Virtual and the Real

Abstract

Over the past 10 years, sociologists have attended to the impacts of the Internet on youth subcultural coalescence, display, identity, and resistance. In this article, the authors develop a critique of this body of work, describing how existing research places undue emphasis on young people’s experiences either online or offline and how a lack of consideration has been given to the ways that subcultural expressions are continuous across the apparent “virtual-real” divide. With the aim of addressing some of these concerns, the authors draw on ethnographic case studies of “Rave” and “Straightedge” to explore the impact of the two realities (i.e., online and offline realities) on understandings of subcultural experience in these youth formations and articulate how the theoretical split between the virtual and real in cyber-subcultural research does not accurately capture the lived experiences or identity negotiations of these youth.