Youth subculture

A youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Youth subcultures that show a systematic hostility to the dominant culture are sometimes described as countercultures.

Youth subcultures are often distinguished by elements such as fashion, beliefs, slang, dialects or behaviours. Vehicles — such as cars, motorcycles, scooters or skateboards — have played central roles in certain youth subcultures. In the United Kingdom in the 1960s, mods were associated with scooters while rockers were associated with motorcycles. In the United States, during the 1950s and 1960s, cars were associated with greasers. Specific music genres are associated with many youth subcultures, such as punks, emos, ravers, metalheads and goths. The study of subcultures often consists of the study of the symbolism attached to clothing, music, other visible affections by members of the subculture, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture.

Socioeconomic class, gender, intelligence, conformity, morality, and ethnicity can be important in relation to youth subcultures. Youth subcultures can be defined as meaning systems, modes of expression or lifestyle developed by groups in subordinate structural positions in response to dominant systems — and which...
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