| Characteristic | Cons. Jews | Christians | frat culture | military | hippies | ravers | punks | emo | skinheads | goths | heshers | rednecks |
| hair | mainstream, sometimes long sideburn locks, natural colour | mainstream, natural colour | mainstream or shaved around sides and short on top, natural colour | conservative or short, natural colour | long, sometimes dread locks, natural colour | mainstream or some shaving, sometimes artificial colours | mainstream, shaved, mohawked, often artificial colours | dyed black, usually retro-fifties | shaved close and often | mostly long, mostly artificial black | long | mainstream or short in front/long in back |
| music | not characteristic | often "Christian contemporary" or light rock | pop, funk, rap and classic rock | not characteristic | Reggæ, old classic rock, Phish | techno, ambient, rap, disco, 80s music | punk rock | a variant of hardcore | ska, hardcore, metal, oldies | industrial, 80s British, sometimes classical and metal | only metal | country, metal and (among the girls) pop |
| dancing | traditional | often taboo | not characteristic | not characteristic | whirling, arrhythmic | varies greatly, but goes on for hours | moshing (slam-dancing) | standing as still as possible | moshing (slam-dancing) | sinuous hand movements and swaying | moshing (slam-dancing), head banging | not characteristic |
| recruitment | none | aggressive | conditional | somewhat aggressive | weak | strong | negative | none to negative | somewhat aggressive | none | weak | weak or none |
| clothes | mainstream or 19th century | mainstream (pastels popular) | mainstream (baseball caps popular) | mainstream or uniform | androgynous or retro (tie dyes/bellbottoms) | flamboyant | black, distressed, marked and spiked | "dork," or retro-fifties, conservative but elegant | boots and braces, wife beaters and chains. Usually very tidy. | 19th century, black, spiked and distressed | mainstream or marked | mainstream |
| drugs | alcohol | often none | lite beer | alcohol, LSD or none | marijuana, hallucinogenics | uppers, designer drugs (Ecstasy) and LSD | alcohol, heroin | often none | mostly alcohol | alcohol, hallucinogenics, dextromethorphan or none | marijuana, alcohol | alcohol |
| politics | diverse | right wing | apathetic | right wing or apathetic | left wing or apathetic | mostly apathetic | left wing or anarchistic | often conservative, sometimes anarchistic and libertarian | anarchistic, often right wing and racist | apathetic | apathetic | apathetic, libertarian or right wing |