Year 13 Emergence of Youth

1. Emergence of youth subculture
• Gain an understanding of the development of youth
as a subculture 1950s to present day

2. Who said it?
A: 'Kids are out of control... They're roaming the streets. They're out
late at night.’
B: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt
for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at
the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
A: Gordon Brown 2008
B: Plato 4th Century BC
What does this show
about our attitude
towards youth?

3. ‘Youth’ as a subculture: post WW2:
1950s
• Young people were spending lots of money on fun
(entertainment)
• As a response products were being made more and
more for youth (music, clothes, etc)
• This annoyed adults who were still in the mind set of
rationing as a result of the war.
• This created a divide between adults and young
people.
• Adults were wary, but also very envious of the youths
carefree attitudes towards life.
• In the 1950s the term ‘teenager’ was coined to label
this group.

4. Emergence of youth subcultures
Teddy boys
Mods and Rockers (1960s)
Punks
Hippies
Acid house/ ravers
Hoodies (contemporary)
This video shows you a glimpse into some of these youth cultures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kgq0miXxvQ

5. The changing representation of the ‘hood’ in fiction and non- fiction.

6. From these and others, we were able to identify the use
of the hood as a sign of comfort, protection, religious
and academic status but also of disguise, transformation,
concealment and violence. Most recently in relation to
youth it has often become almost synonymous with
criminal behaviour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqyU2z-FJr8

7. A survey of the content of national and regional newspapers found that out
of 6500 stories about teenage boys, over half were about crime and only in
one in ten allowed the voice of a young person to be heard in a quote. The
language used to describe teenage boys was quite harsh: nearly 600
references to 'yobs', 250 to 'thug' and over 100 to 'sick', with 'feral' and
'hoodie' close behind. There were some positive terms used, such as 'angel',
'altar boy'. 'model student' and 'every mother's perfect son' but these only
appeared in relation to boys who had died, either murdered or in accidents.
Representation of youth in
newspapers
‘Brainless’
‘Yob’
‘Disgraceful’

8. For this question you need to
understand:
• How media today represent youth in different
ways

9. How these representations differ from
those in the past

10. What effect these representations have on
how young people use the media to form a
collective identity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnJ8p
PSEW6k

11. How far identity is increasingly constructed
by, through or in response to the media.

13. Homework: Research presentation
Mods and Rockers
1. Who were/ are they?
2. Where are they from? Location? Socio
economic group?
3. What are they known for? Eg fashion?
Music? Behaviour?
4. Examples of how they are represented in the
media?