1 definition by Revilo McC
Term used to describe unjustly confident or successful youths, often concerned with image and persuing career's in the media. Originating from the character invented by Charlie Brooker's TVGoHome website, it was later the inspiration for the Channel Four Sitcom Nathan Barley, written by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker. There are two predominant types of Barley. The first type are generally loud and self-important, with an overconfident opinion of themselves. They feel that their lives are more important than those of others around them, hence the loudness. They have designer-scruffy hair, wear tight jeans, tight t-shirts, zip-up jackets and Von Dutch caps. They wear whatever is put in the front window of Topshop, study in-vogue subjects such as psychology and human biology, despite having no real career aspirations, and are easily entertained by idiotic teen-prank humour. They will also mindlessly buy mobile phones, mp3 players etc. regardless of whether they are neccessary. Though they binge drink, drive Euro-box cars and speak with a pseudo-Essex estuary accent tinged with their local dialect, they lack the nerve of chavs. They can be very aggressive in their appearance and behaviour, but lack the courage, individuality or drive to live up to the aggressively confident image they put up.
The second group derive from the "alternative" music scene. they too study in-vogue subjects, though this is often coupled with the arts. Again, while they profess a love for arthouse films, unsigned experimental bands and radical socialist politics, this is often not true and founded on a desire to be "an individual." These people are often bullied in early adolescence and they find an escape from this through embracing what they see as "individualism." They feel a bond with others who have been bullied and in the process attempt to form a new identity, deliberatley distanced from their previous one, and due to past experiences their uniformness is often greater than that which they previously had, contradicting their beliefs in "individualism." They are also often even more judgemental than they had been previously. They are deeply cynical despite professing a fundamental commitment to being open, expressive and experimantal, though this "openess" is often only in terms of what their group deems acceptably open, and not what they consider to be "mainstream open." They will also reject things based on whether they are popular, despite claiming to value things on content rather than image. They usually seek in vain for careers in the media or arts with the notion that their openess and creativity are somehow greater than the average. They tend to be more open to drug use than other Barley's in conjunction with their self-proclaimed experimental nature.
The second group derive from the "alternative" music scene. they too study in-vogue subjects, though this is often coupled with the arts. Again, while they profess a love for arthouse films, unsigned experimental bands and radical socialist politics, this is often not true and founded on a desire to be "an individual." These people are often bullied in early adolescence and they find an escape from this through embracing what they see as "individualism." They feel a bond with others who have been bullied and in the process attempt to form a new identity, deliberatley distanced from their previous one, and due to past experiences their uniformness is often greater than that which they previously had, contradicting their beliefs in "individualism." They are also often even more judgemental than they had been previously. They are deeply cynical despite professing a fundamental commitment to being open, expressive and experimantal, though this "openess" is often only in terms of what their group deems acceptably open, and not what they consider to be "mainstream open." They will also reject things based on whether they are popular, despite claiming to value things on content rather than image. They usually seek in vain for careers in the media or arts with the notion that their openess and creativity are somehow greater than the average. They tend to be more open to drug use than other Barley's in conjunction with their self-proclaimed experimental nature.
by Revilo McC May 18, 2005