Subculture 101 at Heartbreak High

Kitchen culture in The Bear. Neurodiverse romance in Love on the Spectrum. The Big Cat clans of Tiger King. Chess in The Queen’s Gambit. Australian teen culture in Heartbreak High.

Shows that top the charts tend to be those that offer an anthropological toe-dip or straight up plunge into an otherwise unexplored culture or community. Niche has never been more mainstream. And streaming services are playing no small part: the on-demand nature and global reach of platforms like Netflix and Amazon meaning that oft-overlooked subjects and subcultures are not only catered to, but are striking chords with a wider audience.

But hang on, Heartbreak High? Are we really counting Australian teen culture as a subculture? Yes. Because while we might have been reared on a [pop]corn-fed diet of American pop culture, the reverse hasn’t been historically true.

When it comes to representing ourselves for a foreign audience, it's often done a little self-consciously. Be that hamming up Australian stereotypes — the shrimp on the barbie type caricature — or carefully paring ourselves back, shying away from making things too local, too niche, for fear of alienating foreign viewers. Even Mel Gibson was dubbed with an American accent in the first Mad Max because distributors didn’t think anyone would be able to comprehend an Australian accent, let alone the slang it tends to wrap around.

Let’s face it, once upon a time throwing a shrimp on the barbie worked: that campaign alone fundamentally changed the Australian tourism industry after Hoges set the world ablaze with Crocodile Dundee. But now a new class is in session.

Niche is in, baby! And Heartbreak High is leaning into legitimate Australianisms in ways we haven’t seen for a long time. The language is so local it feels like it could have been written only for us –?and yet – three weeks spent in the global Netflix top 10 with a #5 peak would suggest otherwise.

1. Act

The first thing you notice about Heartbreak High is that the script sounds Australian. Hyperlocal jargon, wide open vowels, super-niche references – more on that in a minute –?but even on mute, Heartbreak High is Australian right down to its shoelaces. Sure, it might not be the precisely authentic experience of high school most of us Sydney-siders recall – for one we all wore uniforms – but what it sacrifices in realism it makes up for in world-building so intricate, and so densely packed with real cultural references discoverable with even a cursory google search, that the audience is gifted so much more than a simple plot line.

The references span music merch (Amy from Amyl and the Sniffers plastered over a mirror, Genesis Owusu and Royel Otis posters on bedroom walls), a new Australian music soundtrack (Genesis, Tkay Maidza, King Stingray, Troye Sivan, Mallrat and Cub Sport) that doesn’t forget the archival classics like Torn by Natalie Imbruglia, emerging fashion (Em on Holiday, Flux 2.0, Sorry I’m Busy), local jewellery (Cleopatra’s Bling) and accessories brands (Poppy Lissiman).

More than a show, Heartbreak High is a vehicle for contemporary Australian culture.

We would wager it’s that precise density that is making it a hit in markets across the globe. No, we don’t wear whatever we want to school. Sadly, new Australian music is struggling to connect with listeners. But when what could have otherwise been a regular old teen drama coincidentally set in Australia chooses to affiliate itself with its multi-disciplinary contemporaries something magical happens: a brand becomes a subculture, and that subculture breeds community.

The more fragmented the internet has become, the more the rules around subculture have shifted, and audiences' appetites for supplementary texts have grown.

(Kyle Chayka explains it better than we can: Does Subculture Still Exist?)

For brands, it means there is opportunity to understand precisely which corner of the zeitgeist you can authentically own and lean in.

Want to find out exactly how far to lean in? Read the full issue here.

2. Explain

Is Heartbreak High a 100% accurate portrayal of the way we speak? Probably not. (Who, pray tell, is saying dunny unironically?) It’s probably not even the most accurate representation of the way the teens chat, we’re positive gatho peaked and died with the middle-millennials. But that’s not the point.

The point is that you can’t paint Australia clearly when you’re reaching for a foreign brush, when you’re trying to make yourself look a certain way to a certain audience. And by not asking what would the foreigner think of this? The writers of Heartbreak High have delivered a script that feels both authentic and unselfconsciously Australian, one that’s layered with in-jokes, fun-to-spot references and Easter Eggs galore. The stuff that takes watching the show from being a passive experience, to a fully interactive one.

For Australian audiences, it’s an easy win: it's the thrill of hearing our own references, of being a part of the joke.

In short: the reader is aware the content is good. They’re hooked. The language becomes an invitation to dig a little deeper and so they poodle off to Google to figure out if ‘cooked’, ‘menty b’, or ‘wristy’ means what they think.

While the writers of Heartbreak High are pitying the reader, what they’re not doing is patronising them. They understand that meaning can be established through the context. They understand that inside jokes and Australianisms, rather than scaring the otherwise-uninitiated off, can function as both an added layer for those in the know and an invitation to learn more for those who aren’t.

But that's not all on the matter. Read the full issue to see what we're on about.

3. Amplify

Build it and they will come: communities, once garnered, have become perhaps the most powerful and eventually self-sustaining channels for earned and owned media out there.

Max Read –?an SKMG favourite –?recently described the rise of the ‘Explainer Movie’ to illustrate this exact point. Hollywood has been overcome by movies (think Dune and the MCU) that not only encourage, but seemingly demand, a few extra hours of required reading to be fully understood. Legions of fans on the internet spend significant portions of their lives populating fan wikis, and debating infantesimal aspects of the plot on Reddit for those new to the franchise to later discover. BTS’ fanbase, ARMY, is perhaps one of the biggest and most influential communities for this same sort of user generated content (but we’ll save that discussion for the K-culture issue that we’ve promised Andrew we will ?eventually get to).

It’s the advocate stage of the purchase funnel on steroids. When communities start generating content to connect and discuss what they’ve seen, the posts become a signal to the uninitiated that they probably should check out what all the fuss is about.

In Heartbreak High’s case, you’ve got Reddit forums asking is this really what Australia is like? Plus a bunch of TikToks dedicated to breaking down the Easter Eggs for international audiences. It’s the unfamiliar elements — the eshays, the P plates, the succulent Chinese meals — that invite audiences to dig a little deeper. And so should you - read the full issue here!

Picks & Recs

OUR SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR FAVOURITES

The Royal Diaries

Historical kings are so same-same to me, with their little swords and their big egos and their stupid ideas. Boring!! (The only reason anyone remembers Henry VIII is that he had the most wives.) I want to know what the chicks were up to!! The day-to-day stuff! My god I DEVOURED this series.

Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda

Bro.

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

Enid Bylton. What a name, what a series. My addiction to otherworldly things began at a very young age with a giant enchanted tree and a shitload of adventures along its branches. This was somewhat of my gateway drug to fantasy. Shout out to Moon-Face and The Saucepan Man.

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