Analysis and Research into youth sub-culture

A subculture is the common things that bond a group of people for example they share the same values and beliefs and also tastes like fashion, music, way of life. Also a subculture can be described as a group of people outside the mainstream going against what is favourable by most of the population. A youth subculture is a group of youths outside the mainstream going against what is favourable by most of the population which share the same values, beleifs and also tastes for example fashion, music and way of life.
• Grant McCracken believes that that today in this current world there is too much creativity and diversity for all sub-cultures to be from one main source one main culture because there are too many different and widespread values and ideologies to believe that
• Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies believes that all different sub-cultures come from one main source and one main culture and there are branches coming off this main culture which they believe are the sub-cultures
• Dick Hebdige believes that although people believe sub-cultures to be different but deep down they are all they same and people should deeper into it and if they do so they will realise it should be renamed little cultures rather than sub-cultures
This is true because there is a fight back against the mainstream through sub-cultures but there are different forms and is internally coherent. CCCS generalises when it should be particularising, also doesn’t take account of the fact teens will often move between subcultures, and older youths mix and match styles/values from a mix of subcultures. Or that adults can appear to conform for most of the working week, but re-enter the subculture at a specific time for instance at the weekend or at festivals.
The CCCS ideology is out of date because currently the dominant meaning systems to define the mainstream are disappearing. There is no mainstream, there are many streams mainstream is changing all the time taking in different cultures so quickly the idea of a mainstream does not exist. So if there is no mainstream there is nothing for teens to react against because that is what youth/teens want to do they want to rebel against the normality’s and the favored way instead they are driven by different motives individual to them.
Pop and youth sub-culture
• Pop stars are constructed to appeal to specific market with specific values
• The audience are so unpredictable in their likes and dislikes that record companies can never truly know how to target them
Richard Dyer’s star theory
• Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and will promote a certain ideology.
• Fans who agree with that set of values will support the star
• Fans will imitate stars in an aspiration like effort to get ‘closer’ to the glamorous, fantasy lifestyle they appear to have – this may take the form of ‘dressing up’, imitating performances, adopting behaviour etc.
• Though Dyer was applying this theory to movie stars, it can also be applied to pop stars, who often have a far faster rise to stardom by promoting values.