ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rise of the youth market as a leading area of commerce. It identifies the early stirrings of a commercial youth culture amid the trends towards urbanisation and consumerism that characterised North America and Western Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Throughout, emphasis is placed on the relation between the youth market and wider patterns of social, economic, and political change the development of modern youth culture being constituent in the broader transformation of production, distribution, and consumption in industrialised societies. The origins of the modern youth market lie in the industrialisation and urbanisation of North America and Western Europe during the late nineteenth century. While broad commercial trends are highlighted, recognition is also given to the unique characteristics of national experience (for example, the contrasting forms of ‘teenage’ market that appeared in postwar America and Britain) as different countries entered the age of modern consumerism.
