ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses matters prevalent to all music scenes with longevity and those with an ageing fan-base via discussion of adult influence in popular music and the familial inheritance of subcultural capital. The Northern Soul scene offers an unusual opportunity to explore distinctions and similarities in youth culture practice across generations. The impact of physical ageing has been contained by the promotion of experience beyond physicality within performances of fandom. The capital that soul children achieve is somewhat akin to Pierre Bourdieu’s original concept of cultural capital, achieved in the home. The children cannot un-know such cultural practice and objects of fandom as introduced to them by the socializing agent that is the family, but they do have the option to accept or reject continued engagement with Northern Soul when they grow older. The case studies show that there are varying degrees of parental encouragement for child scene participation.
