Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World

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.

1. Introduction: Generation X, Youth Culture and Identity: Jonathon S. Epstein. 2. Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics and the Pedagogy of Display: Henry X. Giroux. 3. Teens and School: Who′s Falling Through the Cracks and Why: Sarah Nixon–Ponder. 4. Beavis and Butthead: No Future for Postmodern Youth: Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. 5. The Industrial Identity Crisis: The Failure of Newly Forming Subculture to Identify Itself: David A. Locher. 6. Identity and Status Stratification in Deadhead Subculture: Robert Sardiello. 7."Don′t Need you": Rethinking Identity Politics and Separatism from a Grrrl Perspective: Mary Celeste Kearney. 8."Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle": Pan Capitalism and Alternative Rock: Javier Santiago–Lucerna. 9."This Ain′t No Disco" Or is It? Youth Culture and the Rave Phenomenon: Lori Tomlinson. 10. Growing Up Punk: Meaning and Commitment Careers in a Contemporary Youth Subculture: Linda Andes. 11."When it All Changed": Cyberpunk and the Baby Boom′s Rejection of Religious Institutions: 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: Brice K. Friesen and Warren Helfrich. 13. Incubus: Male Songwriters Portrayal of Women′s Sexuality in Pop Metal Music: Lisa J. Sloat. 14. Explorations in Youth Culture: Amateur Stripping – What We Know and What We Don′t: Thomas C. Calhoun, Julie Ann Harms Cannon, and Rhonda Fisher.

Jonathon S. Epstein is an internationally recognized expert on youth culture and rock music. He is a senior consultant for the Rock ′n Roll Hall of Fame and a Lecturer at Kent State University. He is the author of Adolescents and Their Music: If It′s Too Loud You′re Too Old (1994).