www.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 32

SociologyFactsheet

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Youth Subcultures

Youth can be difficult to define but the Concise OxfordDictionary defines it as:

”the state of being young, the period between childhood andadult age” It is therefore seen as a period of transition betweenchildhood and adulthood. In contemporary Britain, youth isrecognised as an important stage of development in whichindividuals begin to leave the dependent and powerless worldof the child and enter the world of the adult. However, it couldbe questioned that not all children stop being children at thesame time. Frith describes youth as “not simply an age group,but the social organisation of an age group” Sociologists ofyouth, according to Frith, describe youth culture as “the way oflife shared by young people”.

Subculture, as defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is a‘cultural group within a larger culture often having beliefs orinterests at variance with those of the larger culture’. This wouldimply that a subculture is a subdivision of a national culture.

Philip Aries in Centuries of Childhood (1962) argues that ‘youth’ isa relatively modern concept. He argues that it was only from the mid17tth century that ‘young people’ started to be seen as bothdependent on adults and as having special characteristics of theirown (e.g. innocence)

Key changes during youth• May leave education and enter employment

• May become independent of the family

• Increased status in society

• May become involved in adult activities, such as drinking,driving a car

However, it is difficult to identify when youth begins and ends.In Britain, we can get married at 16 with parental consent, we candrive a car at 17 but drink alcohol and vote at 18.

Some researchers suggest that children in Britain are growing upmore quickly in terms of their attitudes and expectations e.g. attitudesto fashion. Equally, young people may continue to be partiallydependent on their parents into their twenties. It is not precisewhen youth begins and ends and therefore the stage of youthseems to be getting longer.

This Factsheet will be useful for the topics of youth and crime and deviance on the Sociology specifications.

This Factsheet will explore the reasons behind the development and existence of youth cultures in previous years and the currentvariations in contemporary youth subcultures. It will allow you to develop your own argument on how and why the range of youthsubcultures of today have developed.

Youth as a social constructionSociologists argue that the experience and definition of youth issocially constructed. Therefore, society constructs the way weunderstand and experience youth.

Empirical observation carried out by sociologists find that youthsubcultures have a distinct individual style. They have certainways of dressing (i.e. shoes, clothing and hairstyles), speaking(i.e. slang), listening to music and gathering in similar places.

These shared activities reflect shared values. Frith states that“culture is all learned behavior which has been socially acquired”

We can see evidence of how youth is socially constructed:

• Through historyChildren had a very different experience of youth in the past.The concept of the teenager did not emerge until post war Britainand Victorian children would often be working at the age of 5 incoal mines, sweeping chimney etc.

Today, British society places a high value on childhood andprotects children through various laws.

• Cross culturallyDepending upon the culture we belong to childhood is alsoexperienced in different ways. Many societies have ‘coming ofage’ (rites of passage) ceremonies for their young; in some thechild becomes an adult overnight. In contrast the transition fromchild to adult contemporary western society is more prolonged.

Our 16th, 18th and 21st birthdays are all significant in allowingvarious adult responsibilities and rights.

In other cultures, the transition fromchildhood to adulthood is moreclearly marked with no period of‘youth.’ In some cultures,individuals may undergo a ‘rite ofpassage’ (a social event orceremony) to indicate their newstatus.

Sociology Factsheet32. Youth Subcultureswww.curriculum-press.co.uk

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History of Youth SubculturesPrior to World War II, young people in Western culture had littlefreedom or influence. The concept of the teenager emerged in postwar Britain and has its origins in America. Some reasons for theemergence of the teenager are:••••• The post war baby boom – after the war soldiers returned home

and started families

••••• Affluence and women in work – the general standards of livingwere rising including pay. More women also began to work andgiving many families a dual income. Consequently, young peoplewere not expected to give all of their working wages to theirparents and had disposable income for the first time. This meantthey could spend money on having fun and being young beforethey had to take on greater responsibilities.

However, Abel-Smith and Townsend in ‘The Poor and thePoorest’ (1965) suggest that the idea of a general affluenceamongst all sections of society in Britain was largely a myth.

••••• Rise of consumer culture – Throughout the 1950s, the growingnumbers of young people began to influence music, televisionand cinema, spurring the explosion of rock and roll in the late1950s and a full blown youth culture in the mid 1960s, partly inthe form of subculltures such as mods, rockers and hippies. Asteenagers created their own identity and their expendable incomeincreased, marketing companies focused their efforts on them.

The tastes of young people began to drive fashion, music, filmsand literature. Companies adapted to this by devising marketingstrategies, creating magazines such as NME and eventually theirown TV channel, MTV. Soon a mass of fashion stores, coffeehouses, discos, music and other commodities rose, all targetingthe affluent teenager. Through advertising, they promised a new,exciting world for young people – that could be experiencedthrough the consumption of their products and services. Thegrowth of capitalist culture and leisure industries has meantthat all young people have access to the cultural resourcesthey need to engage in ‘symbolic creativity’ in their leisure time.Therefore, the media and consumer industries played a largepart in creating an identity for teenagers.

••••• Independence – young people also started to get married later,move out of their family home before they married, and due tothe introduction of contraception, have pre-marital sex.

• Range of styles available - Willis argues that the age ofspectacular subcultures are gone for good. This is because thereare so many style and taste cultures which offer young peopledifferent ways of expressing their identity. He claims that thereis too much diversity for any single youth subculture todominate society.

••••• Extension of Education - The creation of youth cultures wasaccelerated by the introduction of public money for schools. In1875, the Supreme Court made a decision that public moneycould be used to fund school education. This meant thatadolescents and children were gathering together daily, creastingtheir own identities and culture

The extension of education to 14/16 years led to young peopleseeing themselves as ‘different’ i.e. going through a ‘special phase’in their development. This led to the development of specific typesof youth culture that reflected the ‘special importance’ that societygives to this period in their life.

However, this fails to explain the behaviour of all teenagers. Why,for example, do some conform whilst others rebel?

As a result of these changes there many different youth subcultureshave developed

Exam Hint: it is a good idea to show an understanding of thehistory of youth cultures with an explanation of why they havedeveloped

The 90’s and the subcultures of today cannot be described as thesame as the 60’s or 70’s or even the 80’s.

The Increase of Youth SubculturesA number of factors account for the increase in the number ofsubcultures in society today

A. The Size of the SocietyCharles Kraft in Anthropology for Christian Witness says: “largersocieties will also develop more subgroupings. These subgroupingsare usually referred to as subcultures.”

B. The Rate of Change in the SocietyIn societies with a slow pace of social change the transition toadulthood goes smoothly and youth are similar to their parents.There is a unity and a solidarity between the coming generationand the generation of parents. In societies undergoing rapid socialchange, a smooth transition to adulthood is no longer possible andthere is a strong dissimilarity with parent generations. Here anindividual cannot rely on their parents identity patterns as they nolonger fit into the social context. Because youth realise that theycannot learn from past experiences, they search for new identitiesthat are relevant. In fact, the greater the change in a society themore intense and stronger the subcultures as people identify morewith their subculture in order to find identity and security.

C. The Globalisation of the SocietyThe rate at which cultural objects and ideas are transmitted in largeparts of the world today is a significant factor in the number ofyouth subculture groups that are identified. Where a society isconnected through communication technology, they experiencesimultaneous pressures to unity and fragmentation.

D. The Position of Youth in the SocietyPeople who are marginalised or deprived make their sense of lossknown as they resist the dominant culture. Where youth areconnected to the centre of the dominant culture they do not need torebel or form counter-cultural groups.

E. The Generational Size in the SocietyThe size of a generation impacts on youth subcultures because theoverall age structure within a society influences the social,economical and political make up of age groups. When the numberof youth entering the market place drops, then youth as a portion ofthe total labour force also falls. This decline in youth as a marketforce, both as consumers and producers will significantly alter thesocial and political visibility of youth.

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The Features of Youth SubculturesLooking at various writings on youth culture the following featuresare noted (some of which may well overlap): style; language, music,class, rebellion, gender, art, rebellion, relationship to the dominantculture, degree of openness to outsiders, urban/rural living, etc.The following insights were gained from class interaction on youthsubculture groups:

A. Class and Youth SubculturesIt was found that within different socio-economic groups subculturegroups take on different characteristics and are based on differentfactors. Within the working class communities youth tend to havemore interaction with parents and therefore don’t seem to rebel asmuch against their parents as youth in middle to upper classes.Youth subcultures in working class communities will show a greateramount of gang activity, with subculture groups being definedaround gangs in some areas. In middle class areas youth seem toform their subcultures around interests, such as sports.

B. Music and Youth SubculturesMost subculture groups could be identified with a specific musicgenre and in some instances music was the defining characteristicaround which the group was formed (such as Ravers, Metalheads,Homeboys, Ethno-hippies, Goths, Technos, Rastas and Punks). Inother subcultures music is a key feature, but another factor wouldbe the key characteristic, such as with Bladers, Bikers, Skaters,Surfers, etc.

C. Family and Youth SubculturesIn working class families, we noted that families tend to have closerinteraction and youth do not seem so intent on being different totheir parents, whereas in other communities youth may deliberatelychoose a certain subculture group to reinforce their independenceand even opposition to their parents. In upper-class communities(or among youth from upper-class homes) youth are given a lotmore disposable income with which to engage in sports, computers,entertainment, etc. So they are able to engage in a greater diversityof pursuits - so there are possibly more subculture groups in middleto upper-class communities.

D. Fashion and Youth SubculturesFashion plays a role in all subculture groups and some are morestrongly defined by their fashion, while others take the clothingthat relates to the music or sport to define the subculture group.Working class youth tend to place greater emphasis on fashion asit is the one way in which they can show off what they own, whereasmiddle class youth have other things to show off, such as homes,smart cars, fancy sound systems, etc.

Exam Hint: show that you understand how and why youthsubcultures develop and why they are so different.

The Variety of Youth SubculturesAs a result of these factors a number of youth subcultures areevident today

Youth subcultures in today’s societyToday’s youth subcultures point to an interweaving of style withgender, class and age which follows a more contemporary outlookas opposed to some of the classic theories. Under post-modernconditions, identities appear to be in a constant state of change:individuals move freely from one sub-cultural group and enthusiasmto another; they mix and match what were formerly distinct categorieslike the 60s bikers.

Style, enjoyment, excitement, escape from boredom at work or play,being attractive to ones self have now become central life concerns.

In today’s society there does not seem to one dominant youthsubculture. There seem to be a range of subcultures including,emos, chavs and goths.

EmoThe term emo originated in the 1980s to describe agenre of music stemming from the hardcore punkmusic scene in Washington D.C. The term hasbecome broader with time, and now is looselyunderstood to mean ‘rock music with emotionally-based lyrics or effect’. Emo is now often used torefer to a person’s fashion, personality or both, aswell as a musical category. Emo clothing ischaracterised by tight jeans on males and females,long fringes often brushed to one side of their face, dyed black,straightened hair. Tight t-shirts which often bear the name of rockbands (or other designer shirts), studded belts and black shoes.

ChavThis refers to a subculture which originatedfrom within the working class culture ofEngland. Chav fashion is derived fromAmerican hip hop (African American) andGuido (Italian-American) fashions andstereotypes such as gold jewellery anddesigner clothing combined with elements ofworking class British street fashion. Thedefining features of the chav clothing is theBurberry pattern (notably a now-discontinued baseball cap) and from a varietyof other casual and sportswear brands. Tracksuits, hoodies andbaseball caps are particularly associated with this stereotype. LaurenCooper who is played by Catherine Tate in the Catherine Tate show,is a stereotype of a chav female. They aspire to the latest mobilephone and other accessories. They tend to have a dislike of gothsand emos as well as other ‘alternative’ subcultures.

GothThe Goth subculture began in the UK duringthe 1980s in the gothic rock scene, anoffshoot of the post-punk genre. Gothicmusic encompasses a number of differentstyles. Common to all is a tendency towardsa lugubrious mystical sound and outlook.Styles of dress within the subculture rangefrom death rock, punk, medieval, someVictorian style clothing or a combination ofthe above, most often with black attire, make up and hair, includingblack eyeliner, black fingernails.

Exam Hint: Use everyday examples to show that youunderstand how different youth subcultures have developed

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Theories of Youth SubcultureEarly studies in youth culture were mainly produced by functionalist sociologists. Functionalists have apositive view of the structures and systems in society and believe that youth culture has a positive roleto play. Functionalist sociologists Eisentadt believed that youth culture had two key functions:

1. To manage the transition from childhood to adulthoodThis transition can be a difficult time and young people can provide a support network to help each other.Being part of a peer group can help young people become independent from the family and develop aseparate identity. Talcott Parsons saw youth subcultures usually having important positive functions ineasing the transition from childhood to full adult life in marriage and occupational status. It would appearthat the majority of people leave these youth subcultures at some latter point, often at the point ofmarriage, therefore Parsons theory could be justified.

2. To help manage the social pressures young people faceThis is particularly related to education. Youth culture provides a relaxed world away from the meritocratic education system wherehard work is expected and competition is encouraged. Youth culture does not judge its members on the basis of their qualifications orability to do well in school.

Acknowledgements: This Sociology Factsheet was researched and written by Rosie Owens.Curriculum Press. Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, TF1 1NU. Sociology Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, providedthat their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or byany other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136

Exam Hint: You can use one theory (e.g. Functionalist) and then use the other theories to evaluate it. This will give you AO1 marksfor the explanation and AO2 marks for the evaluation.

Evaluation of Functionalists• Young people are not a homogenous group but have very different identities. It can be argued that there is

no one youth culture in society, but many youth subcultures• Youth is often associated with social disorder, so do functionalists overestimate how positive a role youth

culture has?• Functionalists only look at the functions of youth culture and do not offer any explanation of the meanings

behind it

Marxist theoryThese account for some diversity in youth cultures because they focus on class rather than youth as a whole.Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson (1993) describe youth subcultures as symbolic or ritualistic attempts to resist thepower of the bourgeoisie by consciously adopting behaviour that appears threatening to society.

Interactionist TheoryStan Cohen argues youth subcultures are not coherent social groupings that arise spontaneously as a reaction to social forces, but thatthe mass media imposes an ideological framework for young people to identify with.