Flow of influences

One example we could use here, simply for illustrative purposes, is to think about how forms of language and music developed by subcultural groups frequently pass into mainstream cultures.

In terms of music, for example, it is evident that a whole range of musical influences and styles (reggae, ska, blues, jazz and so forth) developed within different subcultural groupings have gradually (or in some instances, rapidly) been incorporated into mainstream culture.

In terms of language we need only to think about the way computer technology has developed over the past few years, bringing terms that were once the preserve of a minority or computer-literate users (nerd, byte, modem, Net-surfing, e-mail, The Web and so forth) into the wider public domain of mainstream Western culture.