A subculture in general terms is a group with certain cultural features that enable it to be distinguished from other groups and the wider society from which it has emerged. But before it is possible to attempt a more precise clarification of the concept of subculture, it is necessary to examine the wider and related term “culture.” The definition of culture that underpins the analysis of subculture is that which derives from the discipline of anthropology, and is concerned with the study of “a whole way of life” of a group or society. This widely encompassing and democratic definition does, however, raise the issue of what aspects of groups or societies are, or are not, “cultural.” Sociologists have always regarded both religious and secular systems of values and beliefs to be cultural, along with those “styles of life” that arise from patterned modes of consumption. More recently, the discipline of cultural studies has reserved the term culture for those “signifying practices” – including cinema, fashion and design, cuisine, popular recreations, advertising, music, and so forth – through which people communicate their tastes and give expressive form to their emergent identities.