Understanding youth development and social outcomes

Youth Subcultures

Sociologists base their studies of youth subcultures on structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation and analysis of media, texts and music. Unlike similar studies in the 1950s and 1960s, such as Albert Cohen's Delinquent Boys (1955) that described post-World War II youth cultures as a relatively new and unknown phenomenon, more recent research over the past thirty years has been heavily based on feminist and postmodernist theories. These place special emphasis on the diversity and multiplicity within each subculture, while trying to avoid the stereotypes that commonly appear in the mass media. This new type of sociology also appears to me more journalistic than objective, scientific or value free, rejecting the principles and pretensions of Talcott Parsons and his generation of postwar sociologists. Of course, any type of sociology should still consider questions of ethnicity, social class, immigration, poverty, inequality and violence, although the funding to investigate these issues is far more limited than it was in the past. Both the straight-edge and rave subcultures are highly diverse and pluralistic, and contain radical, countercultural and 'resistance' elements, as well as large numbers of relatively apolitical youth who simply enjoy the music and want to have a good time. This was also the case with rock music from the 1950s to the 1970s as well as more contemporary subcultures. Straight-edge also has a more conservative anti-drug and alcohol element than rock or rave, although it also developed a leftist and radical side in the 1990s. Both subcultures are also segregated by color, social class and sexual orientation, with different styles of music and dance for their separate audiences. They have also generated some moral panics, as rock did in the 1950s and 1960s, and this is particularly true of rave and the drugs associated with it.

Straight-edge subculture is descended from the punk rock scene of the 1970s and 1980s, and began with Ian MacKaye and his band Minor Threat, and later by another group Youth of Today. In the 1980s this subculture was generally conservative and opposed to drugs, premarital sex and alcohol, and may have been inspired by the Reagan administration's War of Drugs and Just Say No rhetoric. A more radical version appeared in the 1990s, typified by Ebullition records and its fanzines. Wood does not describe this leftist version of the subculture in any great detail, however, but notes that its participants are mostly university students. Straight-edge youth wear sports clothing or second-hand items and t-shirts, and mark the backs of their hands with a black X (Wood 2006). Some of its supporters are also vegetarians and oppose abortion, and at times they have been accused of attacking other youths who do not share these conservative values. Live concerts or shows are the most important part of the scene, where participants meet each other and their favorite bands, and also buy or exchange CDs. At times, the subculture's emphasis on purity and order has attracted racist and sexist elements, although these ideas do not represent the majority of straight-edge youth. Wood also found that many of them were reluctant to be interviewed, even by phone or Internet.

Rave subculture is even more diverse, although this scene is also segregated by color, social class and sexual orientation, with each group preferring its own music. Some of the rave supporters are quite political and motivated by the ideology of Peace, Love, Unity and Respect (PLUR), as well as multicultural and feminist values, but the majority of participants simply attend in order to enjoy the music and dancing without any Politically Correct overtones. This subculture seems more commercialized than straight-edge, with well-paid disc jockeys, promoters and organizers (Wilson 2006). Drugs like ecstasy are very common at these events and have resulted in moral panics from time to time, as well as threats to ban raves completely. In the larger cities, though, police tend to take a more relaxed attitude towards these 'soft' drugs being used for personal consumption, if not to the producers and distributors. Rave does come closer to being a counterculture of 'resistance' subculture in this respect than straight-edge, and for obvious reasons, but the diversity of its participants and their motivations for joining the scene should rule out any facile generalizations along these lines. Nor does it unite all youth, black and white, male and female, working class and lower class into one common subculture, but in reality none ever has. Differences in education, social caste and class still affect youth as much as the larger society (Wilson 2006).