ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the consequences of individualistic socialization for adolescents reaching the transition to adulthood. If heavy metal did not exist, adolescents would have to invent it, or some comparable way of declaring their alienation. Far more important than heavy metal music, as a source of adolescent alienation, is people's cultural ideology of individualism, which has had consequences that its original proponents did not intend and most of its contemporary proponents do not even realize. Although many people from all quarters of American life would agree that adolescent alienation and related problems have increased dramatically, fewer see a cultural ideal of hyperindividualism as the ultimate source of the problems. Self-regulation is required in any hierarchy, because it enables people to comply with demands from those higher up even when they would prefer not to. Adolescents grow ineluctably into adulthood, and adult roles inherently hold demands that require people to modify their individualism.
