ABSTRACT
When the author teaches the undergraduate course ‘Topics in Cultural Studies’, she typically build it around five or six sub fields or issues in the field that interest students, ranging from, for example, popular culture, media, technology, and science studies to nationhood and national identity, globalization, and postmodernization to fashion studies, body studies, and youth subcultures. With the last-named subject, a consistently popular one and a key area for cultural studies, I usually focus on Dick Hebdige s dated but still productive Subculture: The Meaning of Style, highlighting its pioneering analysis of the punk phenomenon. Subcultures often deviate from mainstream social values and practices, frequently occupying lower rungs on the social ladder. During the author four years as a fan and a participant observer in the blues subculture in Oklahoma City (OKC), she has carried out much qualitative research, especially informal interviews and oral histories.
