11. Music and youth culture

11. Music and Youth Culture

profile: The 60s, Politicised Youth Movements, Media Amplification, Post-modernism and Drug culture

state: The British of the Teenager and Consumerism/An Overview of Youth Subculture

“In conventional pop-culture narratives, the creation myth of The Teenager goes something like this: the period between the onset of puberty and the attainment of full maturity was always a shabby, uncomfortable refugee camp located on the border separating childhood and adulthood, until the simultaneous arrival of youthful affluence and Elvis Presley. At this point the Teenager was suddenly born, armed with a wallet full of cash and underwear full of raging hormones, demanding cultural control of the Western world.”

(The Independent, Charles Shaar Murray, Friday, 27 April 2007)

• as the above quote notes puberty has always been a difficult time but the creation of the teenage as a distinct group quite separate from both children and adults is a post-war development which came because of an increase in affluence (zvýšený blhaobyt)/spending power and leisure time as well as a slightly more relaxed attitude to relationships between the sexes

• until the birth of a mass consumerist society where teenagers could define themselves differently through fashion it was not possible for teenagers to assert their individuality and identity

• American sociologist – 1920‘/30‘founded the word teenager, difference between the age of 12 and 13

• Teenage identity – lifestyle choices (smoking, different music taste – “I’m separate”, fashion – sexuality – sexy/tough, piercing, tattooing) make-up, going against the mainstream – political choices etc.)

• transgressions (breaking the rules) what is needed? Freedom

• until the 1950s, the teenager as we know them now did not exist on mass though we can find some movement towards it (Jazz 1920/30s)

• the birth of the teenager also saw the birth of youth culture and youth subcultures.

• youth culture is a subculture defined by lifestyle, music and fashion

• Early 50’, USA: youth culture started – Post war economic boom: working class people and young people has more money to spend, increase in youthful affluence and spending power

  • Increase in leisure time (people have more free time – less hours in school and work, free days)

  • Liberalization of social norms: gender and gender roles: during WW2 women had to go and dominate the industries, women are not pushed back into being at home and in the kitchen (which happened after WW1)

  • Youth culture is a subculture defined by lifestyle, music and fashion. Originally it was often rebellious, anti-establishment and intentionally shocking. In the period between the 1960s and 1980s, it was also often politically defined; this political content becoming less and less important into the 1990s. This may in part be because of a change in social values. What was shocking in 1955 is no longer or less shocking now especially regarding attitudes to sex and marriage, soft drug use, social behaviour and many other areas. Originally it was often rebellious, anti-establishment and intentionally shocking. In the period between the 1960s and 1980s, it was also often politically defined; this political content becoming less and less important into the 1990s. This may in part be because of a change in social values. What was shocking in 1955 is no longer or less shocking now especially regarding attitudes to sex and marriage, soft drug use, social behaviour and many other areas.

  • Consumer target group (young people) – fashion, music, film industry