Teenage Kicks

Key Note – Cath Davies

In this key note Cath Davies talked about the cultural approaches to Dr.Martens. The lecture was based around the cultural rather then the functional side of them. the lecture was to help us look into the history of certain things and to look at the background of them in the past and in the present.

When looking at the cultural side of a product they end up having an identity. The way the identity is shown to us here is through the boots cultural markers. To research something and look at its cultural markers you have got to look at the current trends and then work back to the items past and its use.

Kopytoff 1986 The Cultural Biography of things- objects are “Culturally constructed entity, endowed with culturally specific meanings.” he’s saying that they have their own personality their own life a life that goes through different careers. he wants us to think about what are the recognised ages or periods in the things life and what are cultural markers for them.

What are Cultural Markers?

– Identify the Status
– Investigate the periods and cultures
– How was it made and who made it
– Whats the purpose of it
– What role has it played in stages of its career
– How has usage changed
– What are the different connotations following the object

Looking at Dr Martens

Dr Martens are fashionable. They are in the pages of fashion magazines being worn by celebrities making them even more fashionable and trendy and more well known. These boots being shown the fashion is proof of the cultural side making them become more popular by having people well known wearing them.

Take for example Miley Cyrus wearing Ox blood Dr Martens in her music video Wreaking Ball. Back in the day this was Unheard of, some one like her would never of worn them because of what the Dr Martens stood for back in the late 70s and 80s. People like Miley wearing Dr Martens  shows how the culture has changed from what it used to be.

The boots were originally for police and postmen, public services people and some elderly women in the 50s. They were the consumer market. They were advertised for their comfort and their practicality. Not really something in the pages of vogue back then, not fashion just practical.
In the 60s the Dr Martens became a object of street style because of the anti-fashion side of things. They were for the police and postmen not for fashion runways. The boots were then inscribed with the brand of Non-conformity through its alternative function as part of youth subculture, the opposite of the original function.

The youth subcultures that adopted and adapted the brand
Skinheads and mods in the 60s
punk, two tone/ska revival/skinhead revival in 70s
goth, psychobilly (punk and rocabilly fusion) in the 80s
grunge and britpop on 90s

The Subcultures that claimed them created new connotations connected to the Martens. Due to objects being used it actively changed the look, subverting and transforming the meaning to do with the culture. New meanings were made from the “found Objects” , because they have their own meanings on their own but when you put them with something else it creates a whole new meaning for the objects that are put together.

For example skin heads preferred them in brown with black polish rubbed into the creases to ‘Antique’them, they were often over sized with white laces passed though the airway heel tag and tied around the leg. the skin heads way of wearing them along with the way they acted made the boots characteristics change to violent and masculine. This was changed by Morrisy from the Smiths he changed the character of them by the way he wore them with the skin head look but with a paisley top making them more feminine subverting the meaning again like every subculture has.

The way the boots were customised showed people what you were like also showing that identity is malleable and how we select how we want to be seen. customising your Dr Martens shows a process of self-fashioning, a social-preformance. Back in the 70s and 80s it was you decorating them of your own accord but now the Dr Martens want you to customise them. the remaking of a product gives it authenticity giving it a statement of “I’m Different” the meaning and connotations have changed to todays showing of the Dr Martens, they are no longer known for the violence and football hooligan side of things they are now worn for safety on building sites because of you can by them with steel toe caps. there are ones with floral patterns to show the femininity of that not only men wear them.

you’ve got to be aware of connotations before you can change them they are no longer a side of rebellion.

cultural contexts generate meanings in relation to material and visual representation.

i really liked this Key Note i found it really interesting and it was a good case study to look at because of its relevance in todays subculture. when researching i need to think about the connotations of a object or product and how the object speaks. its gender identities, race and ethnic identities, class, sexual identities, social and historical context and the social and cultural identities.  hopefully this keynote will help with how i research something and where it is going in today cultures.