What factor(s) best explain the participation of young people in youth cultures? Be sure to explain how these factors operate.
Kahn and Kellner (2004) describe youth culture as a trans-disciplinary category which is used by theorists as they try to understand and explain the emergence of the complex forms of hybrid culture and identity that increasingly occur amongst youth throughout the world, but what factors best explain the participation of young people in these subcultures? Also, how do these factors operate? The purpose of this paper is to argue that the participation of young people in youth cultures is best explained by 2 factors; the media and one’s ethnicity. This argument is will made with particular reference to punk and hip hop subcultures as well as brief discussion of Indigenous subculture. The paper will begin with an over view of how subcultures are used to form identities and invent cultural meaning which will be followed by a discussion of the mass media’s influence on youth in today’s society and how and why the media is a major factor in determining youths involvement in different sub cultures. The influence a young person’s ethnicity has on their participation in subcultures will then be addressed with reference to Cohen’s (1955) version of strain theory and how this effects the formation and involvement in subcultures such as indigenous subculture and hip- hop. A conclusion will then be given stating that both ethnicity and the media are the best means of explaining youth participation in subcultures as they are largely influential in determining youth involvement in, as well as the original formation of subcultures.
Sub- cultures are often seen as a way of forming collective identities from which an individual identity can be achieved outside that which is ascribed by class, education and occupation. Brake (1980) explains that sub- cultures appropriate and invent cultural meanings through the consumption of clothing, music and other leisure commodities (Williams, 2007. Pg. 7) in an attempt to reject mainstream cultural goals or meet mainstream cultural goals associated with acceptance and belonging through unconventional strategies. These ideas are apparent in both the punk and hip- hop sub- cultures, as Clarke (2003) explains, members of these sub- cultures find solidarity, revolt, and individuality by inhabiting a shared costume and musical style which signifies their membership in a subculture however often have a ‘normal’ job and live everyday lives separate from their involvement in the sub-culture they are a part of.
There are many factors which come into effect when determining young people’s participation in sub- cultures, however as highlighted by Kellner (2005) in today’s society, due to technological advances and globalisation, the mass media has arguably become the most dominant force defining the sense of self, driving our understanding of the ‘Other,’ and providing symbols, myths and resources for generating culture and is therefore a major factor contributing to the participation of youth in sub- cultures.
Kahn and Kellner (2004) state that one of the major contributors to the formation of youth cultures is the proliferation of media such as film, television, popular music, the Internet and other information and communication technologies in their everyday lives, after all ‘young people are the subjects, consumers and producers of media’ (Bessant, 1998), as a result sub- cultures are represented in many different ways and representations of them are consumed by many young people which effects youth participation in them. When a sub- culture is represented in the media it is subject to a societal reaction upon consumption by the public, this reaction is the key to the role the media plays in the participation of youth in sub- cultures. For instance Williams (2007) points out that media utilized by subcultural insiders, often referred to as ‘micro- media’, usually presents particular sub- cultures to consumers in a positive and encouraging way. ‘Micro-media’ is used on internet sites, radio stations and television programs and often results in a sub- culture gaining popularity and in-turn more members. Williams (2007) draws attention to this as he describes how young people who participate in a variety of sub- cultures including both hop- hop and punk subcultures claim that they first learned about the particular sub- culture they participate in through engagement with media.
However, more often sub- cultures are represented and portrayed in mass media by ‘outsiders’ rather than ‘micro- media’ which can often lead to a negative perception of particular youth cultures which in-turn leads to a reduction in its popularity as the sub- culture’s styles, events and actions become subject to categorizing, labelling or marginalizing (Williams 2007). The influence the media plays in youth participation in sub- cultures can be seen in the history of punk- subculture as the punk ‘scene in the US remained small until the punk movement in Britain was given considerable media attention’ (Swanepoel, 2012), this resulted in people in the U.S producing a societal reaction to this media coverage and joining the sub- culture and greatly expanding the number of members. Similarly the mass media took an element of culture from New York and spread it across the nation and it was not long before hip- hop was an international success influencing youth all over the globe.
Youth of different races and ethnicities now interact through the common ground of hip hop and punk sub- cultures due to mass media coverage through forms such as magazines, television and film and also through social media. Due to the use of negative or positive representations of subcultures through this media coverage, which result in a societal reaction, the media’s ability to control what youths are subjected to and the power of the media to reach and influence such a large variety of youth throughout the globe, it can be said that the media plays a significant role in determining what sub- cultures youth participate in and which they do not, in different points of time.
Despite the claim that globalisation is resulting in the erosion of ethnicity, it can be said that ethnicity still currently plays an important role in determining young people’s participation in youth cultures. Brown (1997) concurs that ethnicity is understood in contemporary times as a social concept referring to cultural distinctiveness of a social group and has been associated with inequality and conflict in many parts of the world, for example Rwanda. Burundi, East Timor and Sri- Lanka. Given that Robert Merton’s ‘strain theory’ on sub- cultural ties links individuals behaviours to dominant social structures and that Cohen’s (1955, as cited in William’s 2007)) version of strain theory emphasizes that subcultures often emerge when a number of people with similar problems of social adjustment interact with one another and innovate new frames of reference, (Williams, 2007) it can be said that ethnicity can determine young people’s participation in youth culture as marginalized people experience a state of anomie due to the conflict and inequality experienced based on their ethnicity and unite in order to meet mainstream cultural goals such as a sense of belonging and a strong sense of self.
Sub- cultures are often formed of a group of people with similar hardships or a struggle for cultural or social power, youth participation in these sub- cultures can therefore be determined and controlled by the hardships and struggles which are often a result of, or connected to ethnicity. For instance, there is ‘a general consensus in both academic and non-academic studies of the Hip-Hop sub- culture that the music style and associated sub- culture originated in the South Bronx area of New York in the 1970s’ (Bennett 1999) based on the hardships the people living in the area experienced at the time and Lynch and Krzycki (1998) claim that rap music is still currently the story and voice of the environment experienced by low-income minority groups, again experiencing similar hardships and struggles. Youth participation in punk sub- culture can be linked with hardship and struggle experienced by ethnic groups as it was first formed around 1975 at a time when Britain was suffering from recession and experiencing great hardship, the youth of the time were looking for an outlet for their anger and a way to show their frustration and dissatisfaction of their conditions (Cahill 1998: 1). As result the punk subculture began to take shape as people took a stand against conformity (Cahill 1998).
The hardships and struggles which determine and effect the participation of youth in sub- cultures are often directly linked to ethnicity and, as argued by Williams’ (2007), many sociologists have studied sub- cultural activities in specific social spaces, and in turn ethnic groups, such as Baron’s (1989) study of street punks which highlights the significance of bounded geographical places for embodied, situated social practices (Williams, 2007) which again, is often equivalent to, if not directly linked to a groups ethnicity. For instance Hip-hop has become the most prominent voice for black culture and although is no longer limited to one particular geographical area often displays a pronounced emphasis on place and locality (Foreman, 2004) focusing on places populated by marginalised ethnic groups.
The role of ethnicity in the participation of young people in youth cultures can also be seen in the formation of indigenous sub- cultures which are also based on power struggle and hardships , this is argued by White (2009) when he states that that the dislocations and social marginalisation associated with colonialism have had particular ramifications for Indigenous young people and that indigenous youth have formed a sub-culture in order to deal with a hostile environment characterised by racism and extreme social economic and political marginalisation. White (2009) describes how this Indigenous sub- culture, like many others including the hip- hop subculture which was formed on ethnicity, is both a network of support and an important outlet for aggression and resistance. Therefore it can be said that Cohen’s (1955) version of strain theory can be used to explain why ethnicity is a major factor in determining youth involvement in subcultures as it emphasizes the emergence of subcultures from shared problems and hardships which bring people together, these hardships often relate to marginalized ethnic minority groups and therefore ones ethnicity plays a large part in determining youth involvement in subcultures.
In conclusion, when attempting to explain young people’s participation in subcultures there are many factors which effect come into effect. However this paper has argued that a young person’s ethnicity and the mass media are the key factors. With reference to the hip- hop and the punk subculture being subjected to positive and negative media representation resulting in positive or negative societal reaction and the use of media and social media in spreading sub- cultures throughout the world it has been shown that the media plays a significant role in determining what sub- cultures youth participate in and which they do not, in different points of time and in different geographical areas.
In conjunction, is was shown with reference to Indigenous youth subcultures and again the hip- hop subculture that one’s ethnicity determines many of the shared hardships and struggles one faces throughout their youth and therefore determines the group which youth marginalized unite with in order to deal with these hardships and unite to create a sense of belonging. It has been argued that as youth experience a state of anomie due to the conflict and inequality bought about by their ethnicity they forms social bonds through subcultures, therefore it is accurate to claim ethnicity along with the mass media as the most appropriate factors to use when explaining youth participation in subcultures.

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