Cool: Style, Sound, and Subversion - Swing Kids to Seapunks, Rockabillies to Riot Grrls

by Greg Foley, Andrew Leucke, Andrew Luecke

Cool is a compendium of global youth subcultures and street styles from Flappers to Swing Kids, to Goths to today s Normcore that have shaped the fashion zeitgeist.
It’s no secret that the youth of the world buck conventional mainstream culture every chance they get, blazing countercultural trails in the process. Driven by their their thirst for art and music, and their environment, young people combine their inspirations with the innate desire to rebel, resulting in a defiant subculture; and mainstream society runs to catch up, to co-opt it, and drag it to the mainstream. Lindy Hoppers of the 1930s, greasers of the 1950s, Rude Boys of the 1960s, glam rockers of the 1970s, club kids of the 1980s: there are countless subculture styles that were born from resisting authority.
This book is equal parts historical chronicle and handbook of the myriad subcultures—most
unknown to mainstream culture—that have influenced style. Authors Greg Foley and Andrew Luecke have compiled a comprehensive list of subcultures that have evolved over more than one hundred years, taking a look at the fashion, the art, the films, the books, the music, and historical context of these style movements, many of which came to influence conventional culture and eventually became a norm. Lavish with original illustrations, this book references a wealth of ephemera—including a timeline, zeitgeist films, ’zines, secret music scenes, art collectives, and over one hundred streamable music playlists available on Apple Music, tied to specific subcultures through the years—to give the reader a thoroughly vibrant picture of each movement and their sub-movements. Cool is sure to appeal to fashionistas, culture mavens, and pop culture fans alike."

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Art, History

280 pages, Paperback

Published May 9, 2017

About the author

Award-winning author-illustrator Greg Foley grew up in Austin, Texas, and attended the Rhode Island School of Design. He now designs and creative-directs Visionaire, V Magazine, VMAN, VFiles and lives and works in Austin, TX and Greenwich Village, NY.

For more information visit https://www.gregfoley.co/

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

On the surface of it this book can appear shallow and ephemeral, especially if you factor in the shameless product placement/brand tie-in aspect to it. But do not be fooled once you get into it, you soon discover that this is a pretty fascinating history of sub-cultures within fashion around the world.

It threads (apologies for the pun) social, political and cultural aspects into the mix, giving us a profound and compelling insight, taking in the evolution, the revolution and renaissance of various movements, and we see how media sensationalism routinely broadens and heightens appeal of so many movements which leads to commercialisation, by which time they are no longer “cool” and so another trend is sought out.

I learned about so many groups, the likes of the Swingjugend (Swing Youth) movement, which originated Hamburg, Germany during the 30s. This movement prided themselves on their Anglo-American influence as a counter-reaction to the Hitler youth and the rise of Nazism. These people would later become an influence on the Zazous, another anti-fascist collective which originated in France during the 40s.

I also had no idea that the Teddy Boys took their name from Edward VII, as in the late 40s London tailors were bringing back Edwardian style suits and aiming for the rich, white young male, but were surprised to see the style later adopted by working class youths. Then there were the Stilyagi (Style Hunter) which grew out of 50s Soviet Russia. They also had an American style, and devoured American culture in any form they could find it, including “bone records” which were bootleg pressings of banned foreign music.

If there is one issue with this, it would be that it is occasionally let down by some careless errors. As well as saying that Timberlands are said to be made by bookmakers, or calling Nevermind Nirvana’s debut album, there are a number of typos, in the main text and the song lists which should have been swept up at this level.

Elsewhere we learn about the Raggare in Sweden, Pantsula of South Africa and the Bills of the Belgian Congo who all appeared at various stages of 50s. Then in the 60s saw the likes of the Miyuki-Zoku (Tokyo), the Sharpies (Australia) and the Rude Boys (West Kingston) emerge. Then the 70s brought the likes of the Cholombianos (Monterrey) and the Sukeban from Japan. The latter group were notable for being all female. There’s the Paninaro (named after the sandwich shops they would hang around) who originated in 80s Milan. Then there were the Gabbers, (Rotterdam in the 90s), the Pony Kids from Dublin who emerged at the turn of the century, and the Renegades from Botswana in the 2000s, which gives us an idea how vast and varied the terrain is covered by this guide.

This book reminds us that there is nothing too outlandish, absurd or extreme when it comes to fashion and subcultures, whether it’s seeking attention, stating affiliation or simple self-expression it is hard to ignore and there appears to be no limits to the playful ideas of creativity and experimentation.

At times the writing in here flows beautifully and you find yourself getting wrapped up in layers of rich description as they nail certain ideas with flourishing precision. So with the exceptional level of research, lovely presentation and the eloquent prose, this ticks a lot of important boxes, but the shonky editing is hard to ignore and the corporate tie in is a bit naff too, but this still remains an outstanding piece of work which makes for great reading.

[TC · Rating 5 out of 5]

The playlists!

A very good write-up (no affiliation): http://putthison.com/post/16317824761...

[Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reading through the book but I have generally flipped through the whole thing. I am mostly happy with this book, learned a lot about the origins of certain trends and styles that we still see today. The fashion history is very interesting and the playlists are a really excellent addition. My one major critique is that I often found myself wondering why there weren't more women's fashion examples. There were certain subcultures that were not distinctly male only and yet out of seven image examples there would maybe be one or two women. Some of the pages I'm referring to include the punk, hardcore, glam rock, general rock, hipster, and skater styles. As a fan and at times a participator of these subcultures, that stuck out to me and knocked my rating down to 4 stars.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool concept, great artwork.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the descriptions for each subculture may be short (a two page fold for each one), the music lists are impressive, and there are likely subcultures you've never heard of showcased and ones you didn't really know their exact origins of.

I do disagree though that the Urban Woodsmen of Brooklyn solely kicked off a trend for organic and local food and products. Being from the West Coast, the hippies/yuppies have been selling that from LA to Seattle for decades. I could see these lumbersexuals brought that more to Brooklyn and New York and more so to east coast hipster sensibilities and in turn had some effect on what was already over here, but nothing that drastic.

List of Subcultures featured (as on backcover):
Flappers
College Kids
Lindy Hoppers
Swingjugend
Pachuchos
Zazous
Bobby Soxers
Crew Cuts
Beats
Hot Rodders
Bikers
Beatniks
Greasers
Teddy Boys
Stilyagi
Leathermen
Bills
Ivy Leaguers
Miyuki-Zoku
Raggare
Folkies
Mods
Rude Boys
Rockers
Hippies
Black Panthers
Surfers
Young Lords
Skinheads
Suedeheads
New York Gangs
Soulies
Sharpies
Stone Greasers
Cholos
Glam
Sukeban
Disco
Deadheads
Punk
B-Boys
Takenoko-Zoku
Metalheads
Street Rockers
Preppy
No Wave
Bosozoku
Pool Skaters
Vert Skaters
New Romantic
Goth
Casuals
Street Punk
New Age Travelers
Hardcore
Raggamuffin
Hair Metal
Paninaro
Rivetheads
Otaku
Youth Crew
Voguers
Baggy
Black Metal
Club Kids
Lo Lifes
Burners
Grunge
Snowboarders
Riot Grrrl
Street Skaters
Gangster Rappers
Ravers
Gyaru
Kogal
Sapeurs
Gabbers
Decora
Lolitas
Dolly-Kei
Cult Party-Kei
Fairy-Kei
Mori Girl
Juggalos
Hipsters
Oogles
Emos
Reggaetoneros
Hypebeasts
Tecktonik
New Rave
Jerk Dancers
Pony Kids
Urban Woodsmen
Scraper Bikers
Afropunk
Sound System Bikers
Hesh Skaters
Cherry Boys
Renegades
Roadmen
Trappers
Drillers
Seapunk
Street Goth
Guaracheros
Normcore
Living Dolls
12 o'clock Boys
Pantsula
Ganguro
Cholombianos
Skhothane
Run Crews
Cutesters

[Shivon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't really understand the 4 star overall rating for this book. While informative it isn't well written at all. It has numerous spelling errors and errors of band names and song names. This wouldn't usually bother me, but when you're trying to give people examples of songs to listen to you should make sure you're listing the right song/artist. Also, they had multiple errors on the same page over and over. One example is the Scraper Bikers section. They wrote it as Scrapper 3 times! Did they not have an editor? The info written is also very repetitive. Why not put new information in the bullets instead of just rewriting what you wrote in the paragraph. For a coffee table book I guess it's pretty enough but definitely not worth $35!

[Krishna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really pretty illustrations. Read from the back if you want to feel more familiar, read from the front if you want it as they came. The book is arranged chronologically.