Week 8 - Are subcultures a sign of revolt or an expression of style?

An example of subcultures as a sign of revolt is the 'skinhead' culture. It could be said that this culture was created as a rebellion to cultural and political situations during their time, when the working class wanted to make a stand against the inequality between middle and working classes, especially concerning work opportunities. However, because this subculture all began wearing particular types of clothing (e.g. Doc Martens), in order to allow people to distinguish and identify them as skinheads, we cannot disregard that subcultures also choose to be a certain expression of style themselves. Skinheads also combined their sense of style to reinforce their revolt e.g. the use of the infamous swastika.
Nowadays, we see many people adopting styles of certain subcultures with little or no knowledge of the reasons why the subcultures were created in the first place. E.g. Goths always try to reinforce that they are non-conformists, even though their sense of style makes them look all the same and conformists in their own culture!
Hebdige, 1988 says that subcultures are not a commercial exploitation or a genuine revolt but a combination of the two. I agree and would say that subcultures are often a sign of revolt concerning the situations of their time. However, they are also used as an expression of style, which also helps exaggerate their revolt as it makes them more identifiable and notorious at the same time.