This course investigates the notion of youth culture and its relation to music and society. It examines history and theory of youth cultures, and looks closely into particular case studies from around the world. Historically, the class covers early youth ‘subcultures’ such as 1960s counterculture (‘hippies’), mods, rockers, skinheads, punks, grunge youth, riot grrrls, and ravers. Case studies include subcultural and mainstream youth cultures from Great Britain and the US, African American youth cultures in the US, Asian and African diasporic youth cultures in Great Britain and France, and hip-hop, electronic dance music, heavy metal, and punk related youth cultures in Mexico, Brazil, East/Central Europe (before 1989), Caribbean Islands, West Africa, and the Middle East. Course discussions are framed around the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality. Moreover, particular interest is directed toward social and cultural aspects that shape youth cultures, specifically media, technology, economy/capitalism, politics, and place. The whole class is framed through the topic or resistance. We will also host a guest in our class who will talk about his experiences of making music and participating in local youth cultures in socialist Czechoslovakia. Class discussions will be based on weekly readings, music examples, and films. Students’ assignments will include brief weekly writing responses to the readings, and a final paper (on the topic of “complexities and contradictions of resistance”). No preliminary requirements. See attached class syllabus above.

This course investigates the notion of youth culture and its relation to music and society. It examines history and theory of youth cultures, and looks closely into particular case studies from around the world. Historically, the class covers early youth ‘subcultures’ such as 1960s counterculture (‘hippies’), mods, rockers, skinheads, punks, grunge youth, riot grrrls, and ravers. Case studies include subcultural and mainstream youth cultures from Great Britain and the US, African American youth cultures in the US, Asian and African diasporic youth cultures in Great Britain and France, and hip-hop, electronic dance music, heavy metal, and punk related youth cultures in Mexico, Brazil, East/Central Europe (before 1989), Caribbean Islands, West Africa, and the Middle East. Course discussions are framed around the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality. Moreover, particular interest is directed toward social and cultural aspects that shape youth cultures, specifically media, technology, economy/capitalism, politics, and place. The whole class is framed through the topic or resistance. We will also host a guest in our class who will talk about his experiences of making music and participating in local youth cultures in socialist Czechoslovakia. Class discussions will be based on weekly readings, music examples, and films. Students’ assignments will include brief weekly writing responses to the readings, and a final paper (on the topic of “complexities and contradictions of resistance”). No preliminary requirements. See attached class syllabus above.

Class discussions will be based on weekly readings, music examples, and films.
Students’ assignments will include brief writing responses to the readings, and a final paper. No preliminary
requirements.

(see attached word doc syllabus for more details)

WEEK 1 (21.2.). Theoretical approaches to the study of youth cultures. 

 

WEEK 2 (28.2.). Hippies and Punks.

 

WEEK 3 (7.3.). Post-subcultures 2. 1990s and 2000s rock music youth cultures. "Grunge," music industry, and Generation X. 

 

WEEK 4 (14.3.). Post-subcultures 1. Rave culture. Subcultural capital

 

WEEK 5 (21.3.). Gender and youth music cultures.

 

WEEK 6 (28.3.). Place, creative industries, and neo bohemians. 

 

WEEK 7 (4.4.). Media, and youth cultures. 

 

WEEK 8 (11.4.). Hip hop and and black music.

 

WEEK 9 (18.4.). Glocalization: hip hop in Ghana. 

 

WEEK 10 (25.4.). Latin American youth cultures.

WEEK 11 (2.5.). Youth cultures in socialist Czechoslovakia.

 

WEEK 12 (9.5.). Youth cultures in Iran.