Author: Ellen Melissa Bernhard

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 714

ISBN-13:

Postsubcultural theory, a more recent school of thought in the study of youth cultures, grew in popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s as a response to the Birmingham School’s Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies’ assumptions of subcultures. The Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), a school of thought that arose from the UK after World War II, argued that youth cultures were maled-dominated and largely the result of class inequalities. In looking at today’s youth cultures, the characteristics presented by subcultural theorists are no longer the norm and subcultures are no longer seen as phenomena based entirely on class and gender. As a response, postsubcultural theory argues that contemporary subcultures are multi-faceted and diverse, and no longer meet the definition set forth by the Birmingham School. Using today’s current punk rock subculture a case study, this dissertation explores the findings of fifteen interviews with members of the contemporary punk rock community. These interviews were conducted with a variety of participants within the community such as fans, blog editors, and band members, which were conducted through two separate studies. Through the application of discourse analysis literature to the interview data, the dissertation investigates the ways in which the values and norms of the subculture are perpetuated and demonstrated. Excerpts from interviews support the postsubcultural notion that today’s punk rock subculture is not necessarily a working class response to the status quo, but instead, this subculture relies on its own set of norms and values that align more closely with the assumptions of postsubcultural theory. Common themes across these interviews were presented to support the notion that this specific community does, in fact, fit many of the qualities of a postsubculture. Though the contemporary punk rock community does, in fact, reflect many of the characteristics set forth by postsubcultural theory, the research conducted for this dissertation discovered some additional traits (such as the importance of diversity and early introduction of participants to the subculture) that further support the argument for more research of subcultures that exist today.