ABSTRACT
The preceding chapter sketched some aspects of the consumption of popular music, and its fans, in relation to identity formation. A related area of study has been the nature and significance of youth subcultures, the initial focus of this chapter. Emerging out of the earlier study of ‘youth culture’, subcultural analysis was prominent in popular music studies through the 1980s and 1990s. Its theoretical utility was then challenged and displaced by ‘post-subcultural’ theory, with greater attention being paid to musical sounds and scenes. It is now appropriate, I argue, to view particular physical locations as scenes that include subcultures, and specific sounds, with these placed within an international music and leisure market. Goth provides an example of this conflation, which has been accentuated by the impact of the internet.
