The document discusses the emergence of teenagers and youth subcultures in Britain. It provides several reasons for the emergence of teenagers in postwar Britain, including the postwar baby boom, rising affluence that gave young people disposable income, and the rise of consumer culture that targeted youth markets. It also discusses factors that have led to an increase in the number of youth subcultures today, such as larger society size, rapid social change, and increased globalization. Finally, it notes that today's youth subcultures are more fluid and interconnected than classic theories portrayed.

1. Collective Identity
Prompt Question 2:Emergence of the
teenager/youth sub cultures

2. Through history
• Children had a very different experience of
youth in the past. The concept of the teenager
did not emerge until post war Britain and
Victorian children would often be working at
the age of 5 in coal mines, sweeping chimney
etc.
• Today, British society places a high value on
childhood and protects children through
various laws.

3. Some reasons for the emergence of
the teenager are:
• The post war baby boom – after the war soldiers
returned home and started families
• Affluence and women in work – the general standards
of living were rising including pay. More women also
began to work and giving many families a dual income.
Consequently, young people were not expected to give
all of their working wages to their parents and had
disposable income for the first time. This meant they
could spend money on having fun and being young
before they had to take on greater responsibilities.

4. Some reasons for the emergence of
the teenager are:
• Rise of consumer culture – Throughout the
1950s, the growing numbers of young people
began to influence music, television and
cinema, spurring the explosion of rock and roll in
the late 1950s and a full blown youth culture in
the mid 1960s, partly in the form of sub cultures
such as mods, rockers and hippies. As teenagers
created their own identity and their expendable
income increased, marketing companies focused
their efforts on them.

5. Some reasons for the emergence of
the teenager are:
• Independence – young people also started to
get married later, move out of their family
home before they married, and due to the
introduction of contraception, have pre-
marital sex.

6. The Increase of Youth Subcultures
• The 90’s and the subcultures of today cannot
be described as the same as the 60’s or 70’s or
even the 80’s.
• A number of factors account for the increase
in the number of subcultures in society today

7. Factors
• A. The Size of the Society
Charles Kraft “larger societies will also develop
more sub groupings. These sub groupings are
usually referred to as subcultures.”
• B. The Rate of Change in the Society
The greater the change in a society the more
intense and stronger the subcultures as
people identify more with their subculture in
order to find identity and security.

8. Factors
• C. The Globalisation of the Society
The rate at which cultural objects and ideas are
transmitted in large parts of the world today is
a significant factor in the number of youth
subculture groups that are identified.

9. Youth subcultures in today’s society
• 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.

10. Features of youth sub cultures
• Fashion- may have certain characteristic in
cloths e.g. Mods
• Music- identity may be defined by music e.g.
punks
• Class- identity may be defined by your social
or economic class e.g. Youth subcultures in
working class communities will show a greater
amount of gang activity

11. Task
• Pick one past text (Quadrophenia or The Young Ones) and
one current text (Attack the Block, E20 and The
Inbetweeners) and answer the following
• How are ‘the reasons for the emergence of teenagers’
represented in the past text you have picked?
• What sub cultures are represented in the texts you have
picked?
• In what ways can we recognise the sub cultures and how
are they different?