Yeah, this—and more! Being “a culture forming around a band” puts them in the same category, making it reasonable to compare the two, but the actual details of the two groups are quite different, like @anon61221983 points out. There is definitely a very real, perceivable difference between Juggalos and Deadheads. That said, there may be some important similarities (beyond being cultures of music fans); for example, they have both been treated with suspicion by the dominant culture of the U.S. at some time in their respective histories.
I think that’s true… in the 60s and 70s, there was certainly some side eye aimed at deadheads. This was promoted both by law enforcement (drug use that followed them around) and by some in the recording industry who did not take kindly to the Dead’s laissez-faire attitude towards bootlegs. I’d say that by the 80s that was sort of more acceptable, in part because of the demographic that loved the dead were becoming more a part of the establishment culture at the same time that we started to see a push for stronger criminal enforcement… the Juggalos are more working class and are even classified as a gang (something that never happened with Deadheads, as far as I know). Even other people in musical subcultures look down on Juggalos to a certain extent.
I was a deadhead.
I still blame them for involving me so deeply in their music and the the music of connected and spin-off bands that I missed a lot of other great stuff in well, I guess the '70’s.
It’s my fault I guess but fuck 'em.
I can’t listen.
I can leave the affected area.
That said, all scenes have an orthodoxy,
and an accepted collection of standards and practices.
Oh, and organic groceries had to put on extra staff when the dead came to town
to try to limit rampant shrinkage.
The phenomenon of a band begetting a subculture begins with the Grateful Dead, so there’s a natural tendency to make the comparison. I think the Deadhead culture grew up around The Dead organically (pun intended) without the band really understanding what was happening until maybe the late 70’s when it became a full-blown movement. Bands now look at that and perhaps try to cultivate something similar as a business model.
Someone said to me today “Juggalos are endearing, Phish heads are annoying” then in a roundabout way he said Deadheads and Phish Phans are slumming when they go on tour, while Juggalos aren’t-- I’d say that’s an accurate distillation of the class differences.
Well, what about all those Django Rheinhardt stans in the 30s?
Roger that!
Another outcropping of working class culture? Certainly not the only music subculture that had some homophobia… hardcore punks could be homophobic, for example. But I wonder if Juggalos improved in that department.
When I was still interacting with them, there was a whole lot of “fags are unnatural fucking shit. The reason you were put on this earth is to fucking knock up your old lady and have a bunch of little hatchet kids fuckin up the place”
Uh, I doubt Milo would last more than a few minutes around a large group of Juggalos. The instant someone shows his fur-sona, the insults will fly, then the fists.