Culture concepts and applications

Co-Optation

Underground cultures of all types are frequently co-optated in order to bring them into the mainstream. When an underground culture begins as something unique, that uniqueness is attractive to those who crave unique things and experience. These are the early adopters, and the influencers of others. These influencers then make that culture more attractive to the mainstream. Typically, co-optation occurs when business interests see the potential in something and then market a co-optated version of that to a mainstream audience. The essay on popular culture highlights hip hop music, which grew from an integrated street culture in the Bronx, was first co-optated by African-American urban youth in other cities, leaving out many of the culture's elements in favor of a focus on the fashion and music, and co-optation became even more pronounced when the music's underground popularity with white suburban audiences was noticed. This actually mirrored quite closely the development of rock'n'roll, a black musical form that needed to be co-optated to sell to white audiences in the era of segregation.

The culture being co-optated does not need to be along racial lines, however, and a good example of this is surfer culture, which developed around the Pacific basin (California, Hawaii, Australia). There are a number of associations of this culture that are attractive to people who live away from the water -- freedom, sun, beaches, a carefree life. Surfers had their own lingo, were tanned and fit, and they got the girls. Despite being a niche sub-culture. This was a culture rife for co-optation. The irony of course is that surfers were co-optating elements of traditional Polynesian culture, including the Shaka or hang-ten sign, a traditional Hawaiian gesture. Statistics show that there are around 2 million surfers nationwide, with the surf apparel industry worth $8 billion, surfing culture has been co-opted well beyond the spending limits of the actual surf community. People who have never seen a decent wave wear Billabong, Quiksilver, Rip Curl and other brands that began life as strictly surfing brands. Surfing lingo became more widely used and understood as well, even though most of it is nonsensical when taken outside of context. They marketed the aesthetic of surfer culture -- the beaches and freedom in particular, but also the sex appeal -- to landlocked wanna-be kids (Woody, 2012).

The co-optation began with the mass media but was eventually fuelled by brands within the industry itself. There was tremendous fascination with the culture as early as the 1960s, but it found renewed vigor with the emergence of skateboarding culture. The two shared similarities, so there was a natural cross-pollination of interest. So the initial interest in the culture was fueled by the media. However, the co-optation hit its apex when companies from within the industry began to seek new markets, selling the surfer aesthetic to a wider audience (Jackson, 2013).