A quote that stood out to me in Tuesday’s class discussion in Hebdige’s piece was, “Ideology saturates everyday discourse in the form of common sense” (148). I think that this is why present ideologies are not questioned nor recognized. Ideology presents a set of shared assumptions and understandings that people then take as natural and just the way things are. These ideas are then circulated in various media texts. We are unaware that ideologies are all around us because they are present in almost everything that we consume. How Hebdige compares ideology to common sense really drives home the concept of how hard it is to not see it as natural.
Something else in the class discussion that I found interesting was Hebdige’s idea of sub cultural signs becoming mass-produced and how these signs become redefined in consumer culture. There is something that happens to that subculture when it becomes mass-produced. One of the most well-known sub cultures is those who categorize themselves as being “punk”. A really interesting example of this is the movie SLC Punk. It reminds me of the quote, “Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): Interference in the orderly sequence…” (153). In the movie the two main characters are always stirring up trouble in their conservative hometown of Salt Lake City. They believe that they are the only “true punks” and that everyone else that has adapted to the same trend are posers. In the end, they realize that they have bought into the mainstream culture just like everyone else had.
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