American Youth Cultures

Surfing, punk rock, "Dawson's Creek, " teen movies, MTV, and S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" are among the many popular cultural texts examined in "American Youth Cultures." The ten essays gathered here explore the contested meanings of youth representation in American culture, focusing on familiar books, films, and television shows. Drawing upon a framework of ideas from cultural and social theory, the contributors consider themes such as race, class, gender, power, sexuality, and explore the ideological nature of youth and its centrality to American popular culture.
In the scope of their innovative and provocative readings" American Youth Cultures," the contributors show how the cultural politics youth are no longer simply about being young-instead, they have become definitive personal and public values, aspirations, and ideologies that shape everyday life for Americans of any age. "American Youth Cultures "is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand contemporary popular culture.

Neil Campbell is Principal Lecturer and Head of American Studies at the University of Derby. He is author of The Cultures of the American New West and co-author of American Cultural Studies, also published by Routledge.