American Subcultures

American Subcultures explores cultural identities and marginalized groups to teach you more about their various interactions and experiences while keeping a low price.

This book offers an examination of the Roaring Twenties in the United States, focusing on the vibrant icon of the newly liberated woman—the flapper—that came to embody the Jazz Age. Flappers takes readers back to the time of speakeasies, gangsters, dance bands, and silent film stars, offering a fresh look at the Jazz Age by focusing on the women who came to symbolize it. Flappers captures the full scope of the hedonistic subculture that made the Roaring Twenties roar, a group that reacted to Prohibition and other attempts to impose a stricter morality on the nation. Topics include the transition from silent films to talkies, the arrival of American Jazz as the country's first truly indigenous musical form, the evolution of the United States from a rural to an urban nation, the fashion and slang of the times, and more. It is an exhilarating portrait of a brief outburst of liberation that would last until the Great Depression came crashing down.

First Published in 2002. It is easy to see that we are living in a time of rapid and radical social change. It is much less easy to grasp the fact that such change will inevitably affect the nature of those disciplines that both reflect our society and help to shape it. Yet this is nowhere more apparent than in the central field of what may, in general terms, be called literary studies. ‘New Accents’ is intended as a positive response to the initiative offered by such a situation. Each volume in the series will seek to encourage rather than resist the process of change. To stretch rather than reinforce the boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study.

Youth Subcultures uses a cultural studies lens to explore contemporary American youth subcultures such as skateboarding, punk, Goth, and raves in a brief, flexible, and inexpensive reader. Part of the Longman Topics reader series, this collection of lively essays on controversial subcultures helps students think critically about contemporary culture and issues such as class, race, and gender as well as language, identity, and ritual. Youth Subcultures also contains a variety of writing genres that range from personal creative non-fiction to interviews to traditional research and argumentative essays. Rather than write about topics beyond their experience, students can examine their own experiences critically as they engage an exciting and accessible scholarly field.

This book provides a concise and engaging examination of the subculture of the Crips and Bloods—the notorious street gangs that started in Los Angeles, but have now spread throughout the United States. Despite the dangers and harsh realities intrinsic to street life and criminal activity, the no-holds-barred lifestyle of gangs continues to interest mainstream America. This provocative book provides an insider's look into the subculture of two of the most notorious street gangs—the Crips and the Bloods. Crips and Bloods: A Guide to an American Subculture traces the evolution of the two gangs, covering their origins in South Central Los Angeles to the organizations' current presence throughout the United States. The author analyzes the ways in which the gang subculture is created, promoted, and perpetuated; shows how the groups currently recruit their members; and explores the ways Crip and Blood culture has expanded beyond the gangs into the larger mainstream society.

The only collected work of its kind in the field, The Subcultures Reader brings together the most valuable and stimulating writings on subcultures from the Chicago School to the present day. All the articles have been specially selected and edited for inclusion in the Reader and are grouped in sections, each with an editor's introduction. There is also a general introduction to the collection, which maps out the field of subcultural studies. Providing an essential guide to the subject, it enables students and teachers to understand how subcultural studies developed, the range of work it encompasses, and provides potential future directions of study throughout the field.

Style-based subcultures, scenes and tribes have pulsated through the history of social, economic and political change. From 1940s zoot-suiters and hepcats; through 1950s rock ’n’ rollers, beatniks and Teddy boys; 1960s surfers, rudeboys, mods, hippies and bikers; 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and punks; on to the heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave, hipster and clubber styles of the 1980s, 90s, noughties and beyond; distinctive blends of fashion and music have become a defining feature of the cultural landscape. Research into these phenomena has traversed the social sciences and humanities, and Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change assembles important theoretical interventions and empirical studies from this rich, interdisciplinary field. Featuring contributions from major scholars and new researchers, the book explores the historical and cultural significance of subcultural styles and their related music genres. Particular attention is given to the relation between subcultures and their historical context, the place of subcultures within patterns of cultural and political change, and their meaning for participants, confederates and opponents. As well as Anglo-American developments, the book considers experiences across a variety of global sites and locales, giving reference to issues such as class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, creativity, commerce, identity, resistance and deviance.

This in-depth exploration of Goth culture invites fresh understanding—and a critique of contemporary mainstream culture by comparison. Goth culture is extremely diverse, touching on visual art, fashion, film, music, and body aesthetics. Goths: A Guide to an American Subculture offers a concise, easy-to-follow history of the subculture that explores its emergence and its impact on popular culture in the United States. The book covers films, bands, and artists central to Goth culture, with emphasis on the Goth approach to fashion and body adornment. In addition, it discusses how America's Goth culture has influenced Goth populations elsewhere and how international developments have changed the U.S. Goth community. The volume is enriched with biographies of prominent Goth celebrities, such as Marilyn Manson and Robert Smith, as well as with interviews that offer readers a firsthand view of the culture. It concludes with an evaluation of Goth culture today, a look at what the future might hold, and a discussion of the significance of Goth culture to American society as a whole.