Is Dance Music a Subculture or Has it Now Become a Culture in its Own Right?

Classically subcultures define themselves as ‘other' and 'subordinate' to 'the dominant' culture. Many cultural theorists such as Stuart Hall and Dick Hebdige have been chiefly concerned with the ways in which subcultures subvert and pose a resistance to the 'established order' through their expressive dress codes and rituals. Dance music seems to depart from these theories of youth culture, since it has not established its own identifiable dress code nor consciously set itself apart from the wider culture.


Today dance music is primarily focussed around clubs, where people meet together and dance to electronically engineered music. It could take place in a derelict warehouse, a bar, a beach, a field, an aircraft hangar or a sports arena. Some may be free, and others may charge an entrance fee. Each venue seems to have its own discourse. A beach may signify the escapism of a holiday; a warehouse may signify the decline of industrialisation; and a sports arena may signify commerc...