Many subcultures flourish in an ethnically and culturally diverse society. U.S. subcultures include Gothic subculture, which emphasizes attachment to pre-Renaissance European fashion and architecture. In the 1920s, African-American residents of Harlem formed an artistic and literary subculture that flourished into the Harlem Renaissance. Individuals in this community identified themselves by wearing brightly colored suits called zoot suits and by writing literature and poetry in African-American dialect. Subcultures have an individual sense of fashion, aesthetics and expression, but share the ideological commitments of their larger society.
Countercultures adopt a more adversarial position against the dominant culture and question many of the dominant culture's basic ideological and cultural assumptions. Throughout the 1800s, many now-mainstream religious groups constituted countercultures within the U.S. The Mormon church experienced violence and ostracism for holding radically controversial viewpoints on the meaning of Christianity, marriage, family and religious freedom. Radical political groups from communists to abolitionists have at times developed strong countercultures in America. Mainstream culture often labels countercultures as morally perverted, dangerous and anti-American. While mainstream culture may depict a counterculture as a serious threat, it usually views subcultures as harmless curiosities.
Both subcultures and countercultures influence the mainstream cultures from which they spring. Sometimes they are completely incorporated into mainstream culture. The urban subculture that produced hip-hop has become global in scope, thus expanding beyond its original fringe position. Many American religious movements, which were originally persecuted, now enjoy the protections and privileges afforded other religious groups. Both subcultures and countercultures have the potential to alter mainstream culture simply by virtue of presenting alternative lifestyles.
The terms "counterculture" and "subculture" are useful for drawing important distinctions between non-mainstream cultural groups. However, these terms do not perfectly map out all aspects of cultural life in a given society. Social scientists debate the use of these terms when it comes to describing a group's relationship to mainstream culture. For example, neither term adequately describes socially isolated groups such as the Amish in America. Nor do they describe high-affinity groups based on entertainment, such as the 1980s boom of Star Trek "culture," whose adherents call themselves Trekkies. Thus, historians, sociologists and anthropologists continue to discuss the relative merit of these terms.