My Subcultures

If I had to define subculture, I would consider it any venue in which a person or group of people can openly display thier true behaviors and it usually defines a person's true personality. A teacher who maintains a serious attitude throughout the day may go home at night and become a part of the thriving "clubbing" subculture. Not everybody is as open about their personal subculture as an "obvious goth," "skater boy," or "drunken phrat boy." Sometimes poeple hold a subculture deep within their persona and they may be comfortable with this hidden alternative to their normal lives.
I myself am a part of quite a few subcultures. First of all, I am a part of the artist's subculture. In my spare time I find myself immersed in the vast world of art: art magazines, art exhibits, art programs, and personal projects (paintings, drawings, and poetry). It is the aesthetics of art and the feeling of the completion of an "original work" that has pulled me into the vast subculture of art.
Although art is easily my first choice in my spare time, the modern music subculture has reeled me in as well. In my short "concert life," I have attended nearly 10 concerts. Just this past summer I attended three of the biggest concerts in Ohio and Pittsburgh. All three concerts were a blend of punk rock, heavy metal and alternative jams. I found myself knee deep in muddy mosh pits crammed into the drug-loving, beer drinking circles of true rock fans. It is a place that I can let myself go and breath in the fresh scent of the concert atmosphere (well, the scent might have been all the weed). But drug-lover or not, the rock atmosphere is a place that even the tightest wound people can "let it all go." Personal expression to this extent cannot be satisfied or exercised in too many places. I consider concerts a sanctuary for the subculture of all people; rich or poor, short or tall, stoned or sober. The only similarity between the vast amount of differing groups, ethnicities, and origins is that in the concert subculture, no one is afraid to be their "true self."