Are youth subcultures genuine signs of revolt or simply the manifestation of style?
When teenagers or youth in general join a social group or subculture it can be a result of a genuine sign of revolt and wanting to be different from their parents and or fit in with a crowd of peers. However, the subcultures which they may end up joining, the fixed identity of these cultures, is generally set up as a consumable commodity by bigger more corporate organisations. For example if a teenager decides in as part of a ‘rebellious’ streak to become a Goth, then the means to do it are already available neatly in on line or mail order catalogues so the youth can immediately buy into a manifestation of style provided for them. These two ideas should however be mutually exclusive and the commerciality of buying your Goth ‘uniform’ from an online shop defeats the purpose of being said Goth. I think that youth will always want to revolt but the means for them to do it have become a manifestation of style.