HOLY SHIT I HAD THIS IN MY DRAFTS FOR AGES AND JUST REMEMBERED TO FINISH IT.

So it's no secret alternative subcultures love death note. For its aesthetics and themes around justice. So let's match up the characters to subcultures.

Let's start with the most obvious.

Misa Amane - Goth.

Goth is a subculture originating in the 80s. It's a music, style and politics based subculture with many sun styles. Popular ones are:
Trad goth

Romantic goth

J-goth

Cyber goth

Nu goth

Some goth bands are:
The cure
London After Midnight
The mission
Type O Negative
Inkubus Sukubus

Misa is very blatantly goth in her style and even models it along with other styles in her career. A lot of people say she's goth lolita, but she's more j goth. Her only goth Lolita look was the dress at the end of the series. Goth Lolita is more like this:

Which I could totally see her wearing but it's not her daily look. She wears more along the lines of fishnet and platforms topped with leather and lace. She has some more trad goth hairstyles at times too with the higher puffed up pigtails in a few scenes rather than her normal pigtails.

So we can confidently say Misa is definitely goth.

Goth is a music and politics based subculture. It's not just style. Obviously you don't have to listen ti every single goth band in existence to be goth but you gotta listen to at least a few and enjoy them. As well as believe in the political views which are in line with most alt subcultures being all inclusive and for things like same sex marriage and mental health awareness as well as saving the planet.

L Lawliet - emo.

Emo, short for emo core, originated in the early 2000s and is a subculture based around music and mental health awareness. Emos look like this:

Some classic emo bands are:
My chemical romance
Fall out boy
Paramore
The used.
It's no secret the fandom heavily associates L with emo culture for two reasons:
1) while he may not wear the band shirts, not all emos did. It's his hair and eyebags. His hair is a CLASSIC MySpace emo cut, long fringe that passes his eyes, hairline on the side that swoops his hair over. And eyebags were a classic emo look weather it was makeup or not. Emos were often associated with sleeplessness due to the large MySpace blogging culture causing them to stay up late as well as late night concerts.
2) back in the MySpace days, L was HUGE in emo-weeb culture. Death note was loved by emos and many emos associated themselves with L due to similar appearance and the emotional numbness he shows. As emos while highly emotional people were known to not be able to express it well, and protect it into the music in their subculture. Seriously L was a fan fav with emos. He was all over emo MySpace on the form of blingees, cosplays and emo fanart I mean look:

Also these famous fanarts I'm sure you've all seen

Emos are HEAVILY a music subculture as music was seen as an escape for these people struggling with mental illnesses. So hearing music that bought these issues to light obviously sparked a mental health awareness, emotional subculture. Emos were usually introverted unless they were with their friends and often found it hard to reach out, thus seeking comfort in the music.

Emo politics are very LGBT supportive. As many LGBT found comfort in such an accepting subculture.

I'll add one more thing. This:

Is scene. Not emo. It's a whole other subculture. Sometimes they'd overlap in style choices since they sparked around the same time and were heavily on MySpace, but it's a whole other subculture. I have seen a few people make L scene but he's definitely more emo than scene. Scene is much brighter and more hyper.

Mello - punk.

Punk is a music and VERY political based subculture sparked in the 70s. Mello is so blatantly punk man, all he's missing is the Mohawk. Punk looks like this:

Some popular punk bands are:
The casualties
The misfits
Dead Kennedy's
Blink-182
Yeah yeah yeahs

Punk is very heavily political, the believe in ACAB, eat the rich, anarchy, punch a nazi, trans rights, same sex marriage and plenty more. Even having things like lace code to send messages of political beliefs. The colour of your laces and they way they were laced meaning different things. Also acts like the excessive safety pin accessories meaning you're a safe space for LBGT people.

Mello just drips punk, in his leather and dramatic style and his actions being rather pro-anarchy. He's fighting against Kira even if it means causing chaos to do it.

Matt - grunge.

Now since we have little on Matt, this is purely based off of his style and actions.

Grunge is a music and style based subculture (general alt subculture politics apply here too) started in the 80s. It looks like this:

Popular grunge bands are:
Nirvana
Pearl jam
Sound garden
Temple of the dog
Alice in chains.

Now I say Matt is grunge because his stripes and baggy jeans combo was pretty popular in the style, and his rather laid back, just there for an adventure attitude was a bit of a stereotype in grunge for a while. Tbh this one is a bit loose, since we saw so little off Matt but compared to the others he's more alt than light and near.

Now I could try and pin point something for light and near, but light is a fuckin normie tbh (There's nothing wrong with that, it's just ironic he's like the only non- alt one out of all the fan favs). And near? You could possibly argue hes Shrio-goth which is just goth bit all white instead of all black clothes. But that's just based off his style, which is pyjamas. So I don't think I could thoroughly pin point something to him.

So yeah, that's my hot take on the DN characters subcultures based on their looks and behaviour as well as impact on fandom and subcultures. Bc DAMN death note is LOVED among darker subcultures.

Remember! OG alt kids will only gatekeep you if you don't follow the politics or like the music. If we don't then the subculture will loose it's core meaning. We don't bash baby bats who are just getting into it and don't know much! That's valid. But alt subcultures are heavily based in music and politics, the style is just a bonus. You aren't alt if you make fun of other alt subcultures, or participate in cringe culture. You aren't alt if you don't stand by the politics. You don't have to listen to the music every single day but you still have to like it an support the artists. If you wanna dress the style that's ok! But don't say you're part of that subculture if you don't stand by the politics. If you say your punk and are racists you're just going to get stomped on with doc martens and demonias.

So, any baby bats who want suggestions in either goth or emo songs I have plenty man. I wasn't searching 'girl with black side fringe' in year 4 for nothing. It's no surprise I ended up an L and Misa mix.

That's all, I had like half of this done and forgot about it for a month and just now remembered to finish it. If anyone wants to take a crack at labelling Near, Light or any of the others, feel free to in the comments.

Bye for now