View source for Archive:Far-right subcultures

'''Far-right subcultures''' refers to the symbolism, ideology and traits that hold relevance to various politically [[Far-right politics|extreme right-wing]] groups and organisations.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Patyi|first1=Peter|last2=Levická|first2=Jana|title=Attractiveness of Right Wing Oriented Movements and Subcultures in Modern Society of the Slovak Republic|journal=Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences|date=August 2014|volume=143|pages=832–837|doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.485|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=Subkulturen {{!}} Netz gegen Nazis|url=http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/category/ressorts/wissen/woran-man-sie-erkennt/subkulturen&gws_rd=cr&ei=CCyrWMXaIcGIaLizrZAL|website=www.netz-gegen-nazis.de|language=de|access-date=2019-12-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221110046/http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/category/ressorts/wissen/woran-man-sie-erkennt/subkulturen%26gws_rd%3Dcr%26ei%3DCCyrWMXaIcGIaLizrZAL|archive-date=2017-02-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{verification failed|reason= source cited says nothing like this|date=September 2026}}

The most commonly discussed far right subculture is the [[white power music]] scene that emerged from the skinhead culture, although other far right subcultures have been identified too. 

==Background==
{{Main|Subculture}}
A [[subculture]] is understood in [[cultural studies]] as a smaller group within a dominant mainstream culture that distinguishes itself through unique values, behaviors, styles, and signifying practices, or is unified by a deviant perspective.<ref name= Lee> {{cite web | last = Lee| first = Benjamin | title=Lethal Subcultures | website=CREST Research | date=2022-09-15 | url=https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/lethal-subcultures/ | ref={{sfnref|CREST Research|2022}} | access-date=2026-09-26}}</ref> While the [[Chicago school]] of [[sociology]] described subcultures in the mid-20th century as forms of [[deviancy]], the classic analysis comes from the Birmingham school of cultural studies. The  [[Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies]] (BCCCS), particularly in the books ‘’[[Resistance Through Rituals]]’’, edited by [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]] in 1976, and ‘’Subculture: The Meaning of Style’’ by [[Dick Hebdige]], argued that youth subcultures—like punks or mods—use visible style as a symbolic form of resistance against class subordination and dominant capitalist norms. [[Skinheads]] were one of the classic subcultures they analysed. BCCS saw the 1960s and 1970s skinhead subculture as a complex, symbolic response to the decline of traditional British working-class communities. Hebdige and [[Phil Cohen]] saw the style was an exaggeration and imitation of traditional working-class masculinity.

Subcultures, which remain within dominant society, are distinguished from [[countercultures]], which seek to escape or destroy dominant society. Some scholars  have argued that the far right itself is a subculture (for example, Benjamin Lee lists the far right as one of several “lethal subcultures”, including Jihadism <ref name= Lee/>) while others have discussed whether fascist groups such as the [[British National Party]] should be seen as subcultures or countercultures. <ref name="d454">{{cite web | last=Rhodes | first=James | title=Multiculturalism and the Subcultural Politics of the British National | publisher=Taylor & Francis | date=2013-07-03 | doi=10.4324/9780203830192-5 | url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203830192-5/multiculturalism-subcultural-politics-british-national-party-james-rhodes | access-date=2026-09-28 | page=62–78}}</ref>

==Key far right subcultures==
===Skinheads and white power music===
“Emerging from the skinhead youth subculture in Britain at the end of the 1970s, and spreading to the continent and across the Atlantic in the following decade,” the [[white power music]] scene “served as accompaniment to a rising tide of racist and anti-immigrant violence in Germany, and become a focus of recruiting for the radical right world-wide.”<ref name="g998">{{cite journal | last=Brown | first=T. S. | title=Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and "Nazi Rock" in England and Germany | journal=Journal of Social History | volume=38 | issue=1 | date=2004-09-01 | issn=0022-4529 | doi=10.1353/jsh.2004.0079 | pages=157–178 | url=https://academic.oup.com/jsh/article-lookup/doi/10.1353/jsh.2004.0079 | access-date=2026-09-28}}</ref>

Over time, the White power music subculture has produced a number of music genres including [[Rock Against Communism]] (RAC) and National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). There are several white power concert networks (such as [[Blood and Honour]] and [[Hammerskins]]) and  [[music festivals]], most notably the Ukrainian [[Asgardsrei festival]].<ref name="n114"/><ref name="a570">{{cite web | title=Neo-Nazi Music Festivals Are Funding Violent Extremism in Europe | publisher=VICE | date=2021-09-20 | url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/neo-nazi-music-festivals-are-funding-violent-extremism-in-europe/ | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref> According to one study, “The excitement of being part of a subculture community contesting the mainstream norms might indeed contribute to attracting individuals, particularly youth in quest of significance and belonging, by providing them with a new sense of identity and affiliation.”<ref name="n114">{{cite web | last1=Demuynck | first1=Méryl | last2=Cresson | first2=Pierre | title=Tuning into Hate: Uncovering Risks Associated with Far Right Music Festivals in France | website=International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT | date=2024-07-02 | url=https://icct.nl/publication/tuning-hate-uncovering-risks-associated-far-right-music-festivals-france | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref>

In the 1990s, “skinhead gangs carried out much of the violence associated with the far right, as violence against political opponents and immigrants was an integral part of their subculture.” They attracted young people through white power rock music and a vibrant scene.<ref name=Larsen>{{cite journal | last1=Larsen | first1=Jeppe Fuglsang | last2=Jensen | first2=Sune Qvotrup | title=The New Far Right, Subcultural Theory, and the Sociology of Emotions | journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism | publisher=Routledge | volume=48 | issue=10 | date=2025-10-03 | issn=1057-610X | doi=10.1080/1057610X.2022.2163458 | pages=1079–1099}}</ref> The music genres became integral to an increasingly international and violent scene in the late 1990s, leading to the [[SPLC]] to conclude “What was once a subculture of angry young racists is more and more the province of organized criminals.”<ref name="a169">{{cite web | title=National Socialist Black Metal Becoming Soundtrack for Racist Right | website=Southern Poverty Law Center | date=2025-10-24 | url=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/national-socialist-black-metal-becoming-soundtrack-racist-right/ | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref> However, the scene subsided in most of Western Europe in the 21st century.<ref name=Larsen/>

===National Socialist Black Metal and Neo-Paganism===
[[National Socialist black metal]] (NSBM) is a far right subculture<ref name="l777">{{cite web | last=Penteado | first=Ricardo Cabral | title=Sonic Hate: Examining Brazil's NSBM Scene and Its Global Networks | website=GNET | date=2025-02-10 | url=https://gnet-research.org/2025/02/10/sonic-hate-examining-brazils-nsbm-scene-and-its-global-networks/ | access-date=2026-09-29|quote=The song titles produced by Brazilian NSBM bands provide a revealing lens into the ideological framework and propaganda strategies of this extremist subculture.}}</ref> embedded in the larger [[black metal]] music scene, especially in Northern Europe <ref name=Teitelbaum/> but spreading globally, including to South America.<ref name="l777"/><ref name="j443">{{cite | last=Jun 2023 | first=Alex Gendler / 03 | title=Aryan Aztlan | date=2023-06-03 | url=https://thebattleground.eu/2023/06/03/aryan-aztlan/ | language=en-GB | access-date=2026-09-29 | page=}}</ref> Its participants express [[antisemitism]], [[White nationalism]] and nostalgia for 20th century fascism and [[Nazism]], motifs that stem from the [[pagan]] and [[anti-Christian]] tropes common in black metal lyrics and culture, rather than under the influence of far right political organisations.<ref name=Teitelbaum>{{cite web | last=Teitelbaum | title= The Study of Far-Right Music | website=Music Research Annual | date=2022-05-27 | url=https://musicresearchannual.org/teitelbaum-the-study-of-far-right-music/?amp | ref={{sfnref|Music Research Annual|2022}} | access-date=2026-09-26}}</ref> [[Heathenry]] has played a part in this subculture.<ref name="u966">{{cite web | title=Black Metal Spreads Neo-Nazi Hate Message | website=Southern Poverty Law Center | date=2025-10-22 | url=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/black-metal-spreads-neo-nazi-hate-message/ | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref><ref name="z750">{{cite | last=Alessio | first=Dominic | title=The Musical Is Political: Black Metal and the Extreme Right | date=2021-08-10 | url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/dominic-alessio-robert-wallis-black-metal-extreme-right-music-scene-news-41994/ | language=en-US | access-date=2026-09-29 | page=}}</ref><ref name="w819">{{cite book | last1=Alessio | first1=Dominic | last2=Wallis | first2=Robert J. | title=Faith, folk and the far right: Racist and anti-racist Heathenry and occultism in Britain | publisher=Manchester University Press | date=2025-06-17 | isbn=978-1-5261-7948-7 | doi=10.7765/9781526179487 | url=https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526179487/9781526179487.xml | access-date=2026-09-29 | page=}}</ref>

===Siege Culture and accelerationism===
While the post-war American far right was typically culturally conservative, [[James Mason (neo-Nazi)|James Mason]] - inspired by subcultures such as [[bikers]] and [[hippies]] and by [[Charles Manson]], attempted to fuse fascism with alternative culture. His newsletter and later book, ''[[Siege (Mason book)|Siege]]'', advocated for this. Although extremely marginal when it ceased publication in the 1980s, it became influential on neo-Nazis after it was published in 1992 by [[extreme culture]] journalist [[Michael J. Moynihan]], who is also known for co-writing ''[[Lords of Chaos (book)|Lords of Chaos]]'', a book about [[black metal]]. Mason inspired a scene called [[Siege Culture]] that would be associated in the current century with [[Militant accelerationism|accelerationism]].<ref name="u152">{{cite web | title=The Definitive History of Neo-Nazi Edgelords | website=Los Angeles Review of Books | date=2024-10-09 | url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-definitive-history-of-neo-nazi-edgelords/ | access-date=2026-09-28}}</ref><ref name="b446">{{cite web | title=LARPocalypse: Part One | website=CREST Research | date=2023-07-24 | url=https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/larpocalypse-part-one/ | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref><ref name="h301">{{cite web | title=Contemporary manifestations of violent right-wing extremism in the EU: An overview of P/CVE practices, 2021 | publisher=Publications Office of the European Union | url=https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/radicalisation-awareness-network-ran/publications/contemporary-manifestations-violent-right-wing-extremism-eu-overview-pcve-practices-2021_en | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref><ref name="r689">{{cite web | title=Accelerationism | website=Institute for Strategic Dialogue | date=2026-06-03 | url=https://www.isdglobal.org/isd-explainer/accelerationism/ | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref><ref name="p357">{{cite web | title=A Book Talk with Spencer Sunshine | publisher=Program on Extremism | date=2024-07-09 | url=https://extremism.gwu.edu/book-talk-spencer-sunshine | access-date=2026-09-29}}</ref>

===Hardbass and Fashwave===
In Europe and North America “in the current post skinhead era,… the far right has found new cultural forms that are less workerist, less masculinist and less crude in style” then earlier skinhead subcultures. Among these are [[Hardbass]] and [[Fashwave]]. <ref name=Larsen/> Hardbass is a “short-lived but vibrant far-right, post–White power music subculture in Europe during the early 2010s”, centered on an [[electronic dance music]] genre.<ref name=Teitelbaum/>

===Alt right digital subcultures===
In the 2010s, the [[alt-right]] was one of the most prominent far right subcultures.<ref>{{cite web | title=Alt Right Movement – Subcultures and Sociology | website=Subcultures and Sociology – Grinnell College | date=2017-11-03 | url=https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/right-wing-subcultures/ | ref={{sfnref|Subcultures and Sociology – Grinnell College|2017}} | access-date=2026-09-26}}</ref> The alt right has included several digital subcultures, flourishing on platforms such as [[4Chan]], including [[groypers]].

== Subcultural parasitism ==
{{see also|White power skinhead|Alt-tech}}

[[Image:Neo-Nazi Skinhead.jpg|thumb|A neo-Nazi skinhead from Germany]]
Far-right ideologists try to infiltrate subcultures in order to spread their ideas among them.<ref>Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: Rechtsextreme Jugendkultur http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/41740/jugendkultur</ref> These attempts are defined as subcultural parasitism. The most well-known subculture that has been taken over by the far-right and neo-Nazis is the [[skinhead]] scene, which originated in [[Great Britain]].<ref>Worley, Matthew, and Nigel Copsey. "White youth: the Far Right, Punk and British youth culture." JOMEC Journal 9 (2016): 27-47.</ref> Some examples of subculture parasitism: the [[nipster]], infiltration of the [[hipster (contemporary subculture)]] by neo-Nazis (Nazi Hipster), [[Nazi punk]], infiltration of the [[heavy metal subculture]], known as [[National Socialist black metal]] (NSBM/NSCH). Subcultures as the [[Goth subculture]] and the [[Hip Hop|hip hop]] subculture have also been infiltrated by far-right movements and ideologists.<ref name="auto"/>

== Contemporary forms in specific countries ==
==== Identitarian movement ====
{{main|Identitarian movement}}

The [[Identitarian movement]] is one of the most renowned far-right youth cultures in Germany and it is also a part of the [[New Right]]. Within the New Right, it has four unique position features: youthfulness,  an excessive desire for action, [[Popular culture|pop culture]] and [[Corporate Identity]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bruns|first1=Julian|last2=Glösel|first2=Kathrin|last3=Strobl|first3=Natascha|title=Die Identitären. Handbuch zur Jugendbewegung der Neuen Rechte in Europa.|date=May 2016|publisher=UNRAST|location=Münster|isbn=978-3-89771-560-8|pages=68–69|edition=2nd}}</ref>  The German Identitarian movement uses Facebook as its main platform, where it spreads quotations of famous thinkers of the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement]] such as Ernst Jünger and Carl Schmitt, articles of the far-right journal ''Sezession'' and videos of various campaigns.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bruns|first1=Julian|last2=Glösel|first2=Kathrin|last3=Strobl|first3=Natascha|title=Die Identitären. Handbuch zur Jugendbewegung der Neuen Rechte in Europa.|date=May 2016|publisher=UNRAST|location=Münster|isbn=978-3-89771-560-8|page=85|edition=2nd}}</ref>

==== The American alt-right movement====
{{main|Alt-right}}

{{see also|4chan|8kun|/pol/|/b/}}

[[File:Richard B. Spencer in 2016.jpg|thumb|right|187px|Richard B. Spencer speaking at an alt-right meeting, 2016]]

Also referred to as the alternative right, the [[alt-right]] is a recently formed political movement which holds extreme views on a wide array of political, cultural, racial and religious issues, with their central themes being [[white supremacy]] and [[white nationalism]].<ref>{{cite web|title=AP Definitive Source {{!}} Writing about the 'alt-right'|url=https://blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/writing-about-the-alt-right|website=blog.ap.org}}</ref> It has gained a significant amount of prominence since the run-up to the [[2016 US election|presidential election of 2016]], in which [[Donald Trump]] was elected.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alt Right: A Primer about the New White Supremacy|url=http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/alt-right-a-primer-about-the.html?referrer=https://www.google.it/#.WKQq3BIrKTc|website=ADL}}</ref> While there are numerous recorded cases of [[Antisemitism in the United States|anti-Semitic]] and [[Islamophobia in the United States|anti-Muslim]] behavior by alt-right supporters, most of whom have a predominantly Christian background, personal religious disposition does not prove to be of great importance beyond the religious beliefs of those who are discriminated against.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Michael|first1=George|title=The seeds of the alt-right, America's emergent right-wing populist movement|url=http://theconversation.com/the-seeds-of-the-alt-right-americas-emergent-right-wing-populist-movement-69036|website=The Conversation|date=23 November 2016 |language=en}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2018}}

==See also==
*[[Far-right politics]]
*[[Far-right social centres]]
*[[Fashwave]]
*[[National Socialist black metal]]
*[[Nazi chic]]
*[[Skinhead]]s 
*[[White power music]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Borstel, Dierk; Bozay, Kemal, ed. (2017). Ungleichwertigkeitsideologien in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.
* Bruns, Julian, Kathrin Glösel, and Natascha Strobl. Die Identitären: Handbuch zur Jugendbewegung der Neuen Rechten in Europa. Unrast, 2014.
* Häusler, Alexander; Schedler, Jan. "Neue Formen einer flüchtlingsfeindlichen sozialen Bewegung von rechts" [https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/fjsb.2016.29.issue-2/fjsb-2016-0203/fjsb-2016-0203.pdf Neue Formen einer flüchtlingsfeindlichen sozialen Bewegung von rechts].
* Jaschke, Hans-Gerd. "Right-Wing Extremism and Populism in Contemporary Germany and Western Europe". Rightwing radicalism today: Perspectives from Europe and the US (2013): 22–36.
* Leo, Tobias. "Der Nazis neue Kleider: Die Vereinnahmung jugendlicher Subkulturen durch die extreme Rechte". historia. scribere 8 (2016): 83-124 [https://webapp.uibk.ac.at/ojs2/index.php/historia_scribere/article/view/2162/1715 Der Nazis neue Kleider: Die Vereinnahmung jugendlicher Subkulturen durch die extreme Rechte]
* Mecklenburg, Jens, ed. Handbuch deutscher Rechtsextremismus. Elefanten Press, 1996.
* Patyi, Peter, and Jana Levická. "Attractiveness of right wing oriented movements and subcultures in modern society of the Slovak republic". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014): 832–837.
* Pisoiu, Daniela. "Subcultures, violent radicalization and terrorism". (2015): 1–2. 
* Schedler, Jan. "Die extreme Rechte als soziale Bewegung". Handbuch Rechtsextremismus. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2016. 285–323. 
* Schlembach, Raphael. "New trends on the German extreme right". (2013): 192–194. 
* Stroud, Joseph James Iain. "Constructions of identity through music in extreme-right subcultures". (2014).

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[[Category:Political movements]]
[[Category:Subcultures]]
[[Category:Political culture]]
[[Category:Far-right politics]]