A Single Youth Culture Essay Research Paper free essay sample

A Single Youth Culture? Essay, Research Paper Youth civilization and young person subcultures have been a topic of research since the early 1930s. It is most surely true today that there is non one remarkable young person civilization but a assortment of different young person subcultures. The 90 # 8217 ; s can non be described as the same as the 60 # 8217 ; s or 70 # 8217 ; s or even the 80 # 8217 ; s.There are many grounds put frontward by sociologists for this such as there are more manners available today, media influences us more and there is a higher disposable income per family to pass on manners. This paper will research the grounds behind the being of young person civilizations in old old ages and why the same format has non occured in the 1990 # 8217 ; s. Defining # 8216 ; youth # 8217 ; can be hard and is described in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as: # 8220 ; the province of being immature, the period between childhood and grownup age # 8221 ; # 8211 ; Oxford Dictionary ( 1990 ) . This would bespeak that young person is described as an age group and people can be distinguished by the different age groups. However, it could be questioned that non all kids stop being kids at the same clip. Frith describes youth as # 8220 ; non merely an age group, but the societal organisation of an age group # 8221 ; Sociologists of young person, harmonizing to Frith, describe young person civilization as # 8220 ; the manner of life shared by immature people # 8221 ; . Subculture, as defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is a # 8216 ; cultural group within a larger civilization frequently holding beliefs or involvements at discrepancy with those of the larger civilization # 8217 ; . This would connote that a subculture is a subdivision of a national civilization ; it exists between the parametric quantities of certain civilizations. TalcottParsons saw youth subcultures normally holding of import positive maps in easing the passage from childhood to full grownup life in matrimony and occupational position. It would look that the bulk of people leave these young person subcultures at some latter point, frequently at the point of matrimony, therefore Parsons theory could be justified. Empirical observation carried out by sociologists find that youth sub-cultures have a distinguishable single manner. They have certain ways of dressing ( i.e. places, vesture and hairdos ) , talking ( i.e. slang ) , listening to music and assemblage in similar topographic points i.e. rockerss at race meetings and bars and ravers at dance nines or out-of-door raves. It is so assumed that shared activities reflect shared values. Firth states that # 8220 ; civilization is all learned behaviour which has been socially acquired # 8221 ; To concentrate on the rockerss of the 60 # 8217 ; s seems suiting. This was one big young person civilization and still exists is a smaller subdivision of society. It could be said that non all rockerss today portion the same values and bask the same activities as do the 60s manner of rockerss. This could be because members of the subculture interrupt away from a peculiar group or neer # 8216 ; join # 8217 ; in the first topographic point. Age could hold deductions here ; the passage from young person to grownup may find how long a member stays in one peculiar subculture. Although there are discrepancies of bike-boys they were loosely from a working category background and were seen as foreigners and lone wolfs linked by the love of motor-bikes and heavy stone music. Their manner was masculine and their visual aspect was aggressive. The motor-cycle cogwheel looked tough with its leather he-man, jean and heavy leather boots. Hair was worn long in a oily swept-back manner and many were tattooed on the custodies, weaponries and thorax. A typical eventide for the motorcycle male childs would dwell of substitutions of the same activities: a drink and a game of darts in their local saloon, a game of pinball and a java in the java saloon and general horseplay and yak in a nine. Paul Willis conducted an ethnographic survey of a group of rockerss during the 70s and described the group as being about all male and from typical working category backgrounds. The composing of Willis # 8217 ; s group revealed members working backgrounds included scaffolders, foundry workers, pupils, a milkman and a figure of unemployed. However, it could be argued that today # 8217 ; s rockerss come from a assortment of category and professional backgrounds from bricklayers to bankers. In Britain, the general frights about immature people and young person subcultures have been focused on working category young person manners. The immature people concerned, harmonizing to Frith # 8220 ; come from working category households and vicinities, have a on the job category experience of turning up, in lower watercourse of school and leave every bit shortly as possible frequently going unemployed or traveling through a sequenc e on dead-end jobs. # 8217 ; This appeared to be the instance in Willis # 8217 ; s survey which seemed to follow a Marxist position. However different young person groups are from each other, i.e. rockerss as opposed to the more # 8216 ; recent # 8217 ; ravers, they appear to shock # 8217 ; straight # 8217 ; society and are frequently labelled pervert or delinquent. Young person has been seen as a # 8217 ; societal job # 8217 ; for at least one hundred old ages. Analysis of youth civilization in Britain has been influenced chiefly by Marxist idea. Marx believed all civilizations are produced by # 8217 ; societal conditions # 8217 ; and that these # 8217 ; societal conditions # 8217 ; depend upon societal category and the jobs societal category provides ; age, harmonizing to Marx, was besides a subscriber. It is just to state that societal conditions have greatly improved in Britain since the 1960 # 8217 ; s and societal category seems about a thing of the past with John Major # 8217 ; s # 8216 ; classless society # 8217 ; and Tony Blair claiming that we are # 8216 ; all in-between category # 8217 ; . If a youth civilization is attatched to a societal category and societal categories are now partially disintegrated so this explains why there has been no significant young person civilization in a decennary. Although rockerss, as a subculture, still exist today, it would look that alterations have been made as to the composing of members within the subculture ; their values, beliefs and shared activities. The # 8216 ; ravers # 8217 ; from the 1880ss are a good illustration of another post-war young person civilization. During the late 80s, immature people with bandanas, brilliantly coloured apparels and a deranged expression in their eyes were being presented as the following young person subculture. For the ravers ( besides known as clubbers ) the shared experience is go toing a rave and perchance taking rapture which has become synonymous wi th the rave civilization. This is frequently the lone thing ravers have in common with each other unlike other subcultures. These parties, where extended usage of stroboscope lighting and psychedelic imagination was used, were attended by immature males and females stereotypically dressed in loose-fitting outsize Jerseies, path suits and loose-fitting denims. The apparels were comfy, brilliantly gap oured and cheap. The intensive dancing to fast beating music, along with the use of hypnotic drugs, went hand-in-hand. This style of clothing suited excessive body movement, however, this fashion style began to change. With interest coming from the fashion industry, the style began to change and evolve. Baggy clothes for girls were replaced by tight body-hugging outfits made of materials such as lycra emphasising appearance rather than comfort and practicality. It is difficult to define the common experiences that lead people to go to raves. It could be that many youths wanted a form of ‘escapism’ to get away from the norms of every day life or problems like unemployment. Most ravers only attend raves or clubs at the weekend; it could be argued that rave is more a leisure pursuit as opposed to a subculture. Ravers appear to cut across all social divisions, classes, gender and age. Unlike the 60s bikers, ravers are not exclusive to the working class, the unemployed or d ominated by male members. It is difficult to make analogies between the common experiences of an eighteen year old student and a thirty year old computer analyst both attending raves on a Saturday night Willis argues that the age of spectacular subcultures are gone for good. This is because there are so many style and taste cultures which offer young people different ways of expressing their identity. He claims that there is too much diversity for any single youth subculture to dominate society. The growth of capitalist culture and leisure industries has meant that all young people now have access to the cultural resources they need to engage in ’symbolic creativity’ in their leisure time. Basically, youth culture has become complicated. There are so many different theories now that they could easily come into doubt. It would seem that, when comparing the two different subcultures, that patterns and common beliefs differ and have changed over the last 20 years. Bikers had a tighter sense of belonging to their subculture than the more recent ravers. Society appears to be so complex now; there seems to be a wider social system with changes in class, occupational structure, neighborhood structure and family and leisure patterns. Today’s youth subcultures point to an interweaving of style with gender, class and age which follows a more contemporary outlook as opposed to some of the classic theories. Under post-modern conditions, identities appear to be in a constant state of change: individuals move freely from one sub-cultural group and enthusiasm to another; they mix and match what were formerly distinct categories like the 60s bikers. Style, enjoyment, excitement, escape from boredom at work or play, being attractive to ones self have now become central life concerns. Media also plays a great part in the prevention of a nw youth culture forming. Nowadays young people have access to the ‘back catalogue’ of previous forms of musi c and subcultural styles through television stations and magazines. Subcultural dress now becomes a matter of surface style. Furthermore, during the 1980s, market researchers began to change ways in which they saw the various groups of consumers. This change in the way in which consumption patterns are perceived by market researchers from being seen as influenced by socio-economic class to being seen as influenced by life-cycle stages. Mike Featherstone has written: â€Å"The term life-style is currently in vogue. While the term has a more restricted sociological meaning in reference to the distinctive style of life of specific status groups, within contemporary consumer culture it connotes individuality, self expression, and a stylistic self-consciousness. Ones body, clothes, speech, leisure pastimes, eating and drinking preferences, home, car, choice of holidays, etc. are to be regarded as indicators of the individuality of taste and sense of style of the owner/consumer. In contr ast to the designation of the 1950s as an era of grey conformism, a time of mass consumption, changes in production techniques, market segmentation and consumer demand for a wider range of products, are often regarded as making possible greater choice (the management of which becomes an art form) not only for the youth of the post 1960s generation, but increasingly for the middle aged and the elderly†¦..we are moving towards a society without fixed status groups in which the adoption of styles of life (manifest in choice of clothes, leisure activities, consumer goods, bodily disposition) which are fixed to specific groups have been surpassed. It is also worth noting that in recent years the subcultures that have occured have been seen to be deviant such as the skinheads, ravers, football ‘hooligans’ and punks. Two different, yet similar, deviant groups can be used to describe the entire deviant subculture. Those who classify themselves as punks and anarchists are o ne type and those that spout â€Å"free love† and peace (hippies) are another type of deviant subculture. The first group chooses to be social outcasts because of a hatred of norms. This group attempts to destroy society and with it the means for bettering it. They believe in a type of anarchy that stems from loathing toward excepted values and refuse to get jobs or even conform to society in the most basic ways. Hippies on the other hand choose a method of peace and tranquility, believing that people should all love one another and anarchy would be beautiful if everyone could simply understand how to live at peace with themselves and nature. Although both groups believe in anarchy one chooses hate and aggression to show their views while the other uses love and passive resistance to demonstrate theirs. Both of these groups have a very specific and useful function in a society. They both show the need for change in a radical way, acting as a catalyst for social change. Howeve r, nowadays it is valid to say that there are other ways of expressing our hatred of norms. There are political parties and pressure groups to join, there are a number of relaxational therapies available and the use of psychologists is much more widespread. All hope of meaningful cultural activity is denied; young people face a future in which any genuine radicalism is quickly incorporated into the commercial marketing system and used to sell more commodities. Although there are a number of subcultures left in today’s society such as ’surfies’, ‘townies’ and people who follow the grunge movement, there is no singular youth culture left.