ABSTRACT
It is quite possible that, without the mass media, we might not be discussing adolescence as an important stage in human development. Historically, the invention of “the teenager” is simultaneous with the rise of the adolescent as consumer and the cultural revolution of the 1950s, through which the mass introduction of television and the commercialisation of popular music led to the emergence of rock’n’roll as the first youth-oriented cultural phenomenon. The worldwide changes that this period effected are hard to contemplate without standing back and imagining a world without 24-hour music television, designer training shoes, jeans, nightclubs, and pop stars. As the original rock’n’roll generation reaches retirement age, what has happened to youth culture?
