50 Interesting Facts About Subcultures, Trends & Movements

The Juggalo subculture is split between violent and non-violent factions. Some members of the Juggalos street gang even look down on non-criminal Juggalos, considering them to be weak, and criminal Juggalo gangs have committed attacks on non-gang-related Juggalos.

27. The best-selling German novels of all time involve a Native American fighting together with a German cowboy in the Wild West. This created a subculture of tens of thousands of Germans that, to this day, call each other by names such as “White Wolf”, dress in animal fur, and live in teepees.

28. Botswana has a vibrant Cowboy Metalhead scene. Heavy metal is combined therewith traditional African musical styles to create a unique type of music.

29. Volkswagen Type 2 van, known for being associated with Hippies, was made for over 60 years and its production lasted until December 2013.

30. Heinrich Pudor, the founder of modern nudism was such a Nazi that he got arrested for accusing Hitler of not being Nazi enough.

The Wiccan religion is less than 100 years old and was released to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner. When someone reveals to their family that they are Wiccan it is known as “coming out of the broom closet.”

32. Scandinavia was the site of an unusually violent gang war between the Hells Angels and another outlaw biker gang in the 1990s, with gang members using stolen military weapons such as grenades and anti-tank rockets to attack each other's clubhouses and bars.

33. Otaku is a Japanese term for people with consuming interests, particularly in anime and manga. Osama Bin Laden was a fan of Japanese Otaku culture with a collection of games including Final Fantasy VII, Dragon Ball Z, and Erotic Games.

34. There is a subculture of people called “Otherkin” who believe they are non-human and identify themselves as fairies, androids, aliens, plants, and even cartoon characters.

35. “Itasha” is a subculture in Japan that is focused on anime prints on cars. Itasha (痛車, Itasha) literally means “painful car” as they are considered painful to look at.

Raggare is a subculture found in Northern Europe (mostly Sweden) that celebrates classic American car culture and often uses imagery like the confederate flag.

37. In 2013, a photographer recorded seventeen seconds of footage of an elusive night parrot, a Lazarus species that hadn't been spotted in nearly a century. A bird expert called it “the bird-watching equivalent of finding Elvis flipping burgers in an outback roadhouse.”

38. “Skinheads” originated in the United Kingdom around the 1960s and were not associated with racism, but were a working class outsider subculture that incorporated elements of mod fashion and black Jamaican music. It wasn’t until the 90's when disaffected, Neo-Nazi youths in eastern Europe adopted the style.

39. The iconic “Make Love, Not War” anti-Vietnam war poster was created by Wilfred Weisser a globe-trotting hippie from Germany, living in San Francisco in the mid-1960s. He then disappeared and has never collected a single cent in copyright royalties.

40. Chap-Hop is a music genre originating from England that mixes the hip hop genre with elements from the Chappist or steampunk subcultures and stereotypical English obsessions such as cricket, tea, and the weather.

The Incroyables and Merveilleuses were aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution who created a macabre and decadent subculture and “greeted one another with violent movements of the head as if in decapitation.”

42. The Stilyagi (Style-hunters) was a Soviet counterculture movement of the '40s-'60s obsessed with swing and rock-n-roll, snappy foreign clothing, and making musical recordings with old x-ray films.

43. The early hip hop and punk scenes were heavily intertwined as hip hop was a counterculture based on rejecting disco and punk was a scene about rejecting conventional rock at the time.

44. La Sape is a counterculture movement in the Congo where the adherents wear tailored high-end suits in order to resist their country's sociopolitical climate. These men embody the elegance and style of colonial predecessor dandies and will go out of their way to buy expensive clothing even if it means half-starvation during the month.

45. Swingjugend (wing Youth) was an underground counter-culture in Nazi Germany comprised of youth who loved jazz and swing. They gathered in secret dance halls and opposed the Hitler Youth.

Several schools in Utah banned students from wearing the phrases “Drug Free” and “Stay sober” due to a violent straight edge subculture.

47. There is a youth subculture in Ireland called the Dublin Pony Kids. These boys and girls camp with their horses in front yards or on city wasteland.

48. Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, Bohemians may or may not be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.

49. There is a subculture called G0y, whose adepts identify themselves as men who have sex with men, but not as homosexuals or bisexuals. In such relationships, men consider hugging, kissing, mutual masturbation, and fellatio as acceptable. Anal sex is forbidden as it is seen as gay.

50. James K. Polk is the only US president who pledged to serve only one term during his campaign. He was known for fulfilling all his major promises and died 3 months after his term ended, making his retirement the shortest. He is also the only speaker of the house to be elected as president.