Youth Culture

This innovative collection of newly commissioned essays from leading experts in sociology and cultural studies looks at youth culture through subcultural identity. Youth Culture is the first text to bridge sociology and cultural studies in order to understand youth identity replacing the outmoded theories based on deviance. This volume examines the social worlds of young people in their "natural environments"; suburban bedrooms, shopping malls, rock concerts, and school. In addition, it explores the impact of the media and music on youth, using Beavis and Butthead, "grunge", and heavy metal bands as examples of youth subcultural identity. Epstein's collection of prominent writers and researchers will give you a better understanding of why youths, in particular, are prone to collective identity, and how they achieve their sense of self through fashion, music, sports and entertainment.

List of Contributors vii Acknowledgments x 1 Introduction: Generation X, Youth Culture, and Identity 1 Jonathon S. Epstein 2 Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics, and the Pedagogy of Display 24 Henry A. Giroux 3 Teens and Schools: Who is Falling through the Cracks and Why 56 Sarah Nixon-Ponder 4 Beavis and Butt-Head: No Future for Postmodern Youth 74 Steven Best and Douglas Kellner 5 The Industrial Identity Crisis: the Failure of a Newly Forming subculture to Identity Itself 100 David A. Locher 6 Identity and Status Stratification in Deadhead Subculture 118 Robert Sardiello 7 “Don’t Need you:” Rethinking Identity Politics and Separatism from a Grrrl Perspective 148 Mary Celeste Kearney 8 “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle:” Pan-capitalism and Alternative Rock 189 Javier Santiago-Lucerna 9 “This Ain’t No Disco” … or is it? Youth culture and the Rave Phenomenon 195 Lori Tomlinson 10 Growing up Punk: Meaning and Commitment Careers on a Contemporary Youth Subculture 212 Linda Andes 11 “When It All Changed:” Cyberpunk and the Baby Boom’s Rejection of Religious Institutions 232 Samuel R. Smith 12 Social Justice and Sexism for Adolescents: a Content Analysis of Lyrical Themes and Gender Presentations in Canadian Heavy Metal Music, 1985-1991 263 Bruce K. Friesen and Warren Helfrich 13 Incubus: Male Songwriters’ Portrayal of Women’s Sexuality in Pop Metal Music 286 Lisa J. Sloat 14 Explorations in Youth Culture. Amateur Stripping: What We Know and What We Don’t 302 Thomas C. Calhoun, Julie Ann Harms Cannon and Rhonda Fisher Index 327