Emerging out of the American punk rock scene of the early 1980s, straightedge youth have held their ground and made important inroads on the broader terrain of American youth culture for the last twenty-five years. Known primarily for their militant opposition to drinking, drug use, and casual sex, as well as for their commitment to vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, straightedge youth have received little scholarly attention, and then primarily through studies focused on the larger subcultural framework of punk rock. Robert T. Wood presents the first theoretical and in-depth treatment of the straightedge culture. Drawing on interviews with founding members and current straightedge youth, content analysis of the music lyrics, and straightedge "zines," Wood places the movement within the context of contemporary subcultural theory and the framework of cultural studies. Identifying straightedge as a movement whose cultural boundaries have transformed over time, Wood explores the ways in which the group members’ diverse and often contradictory self-understanding has contributed to the movement’s evolution. Wood details the complexities of the subculture from its origins in Washington, D.C., through the emergence of schismatic straightedge factions and the adoption of animal rights and vegetarian agendas. This book offers an excellent introduction for those interested in the sociology of punk rock and its subcultures and will be an invaluable resource for sociologists and straightedge adherents.

This volume critically examines ’subculture’ in a variety of Australian contexts, exploring the ways in which the terrain of youth cultures and subcultures has changed over the past two decades and considering whether ’subculture’ still works as a viable conceptual framework for studying youth culture. Richly illustrated with concrete case studies, the book is thematically organised into four sections addressing i) theoretical concerns and global debates over the continued usefulness of subculture as a concept; ii) the important place of ’belonging’ in subcultural experience and the ways in which belonging is played out across an array of youth cultures; iii) the gendered experiences of young men and women and their ways of navigating subcultural participation; and iv) the ethical and methodological considerations that arise in relation to researching and teaching youth culture and subculture. Bringing together the latest interdisciplinary research to combine theoretical considerations with recent empirical studies of subcultural experience, Youth Cultures and Subcultures will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences.

In this first in-depth sociological analysis of the movement, Ross Haenfler follows the lives of dozens of straight-edge youths, showing how for these young men and women, and thousands of others worldwide, the adoption of the straight-edge doctrine as a way to better themselves evolved into a broader mission to improve the world in which they live. Although the original definition of straight edge focused only on the rejection of mind-altering substances and promiscuous sex, modern interpretations include a vegetarian (or vegan) diet and an increasing involvement in environmental and political issues.

This reader was developed to be used in numerous courses taught in sociology. It is appropriate for an introductory course, as well as a social problems or special topics course. The readings have been selected from numerous well respected sociology journals and they have been edited to make them more "user friendly" for the undergraduate student. This reader allows undergraduate students to read about the major topics in sociology in the words of the original authors. The reader includes a topic guide to help the instructor better integrate the material into their course and well-crafted section openers place each article in context for the student. This series of readings has been vetted by an Advisory Board of sociology instructors to ensure quality.

Screaming for Change advances an understanding of punk rock by going beyond description of punk as a musical, political, social, and cultural genre of communication. Previous scholarship about punk rock has primarily dealt with those boundaries of genre. Previous scholars neglected to examine the ideology of punk across the decades and continents. That ideology, in a word, is deviance. Through Gramscian textual analysis, this book uncovers this ideology of deviance with some surprises along the way. Students and scholars of punk rock will value the book's attention to both well known and more esoteric punk artists. Punk is arguable the most studied "subculture" to ever launch itself onto the larger social agenda as a possible counterbalance to the mainstream cultural hegemony. During the late 1970s, punk scenes sprouted up in large numbers all over the globe, and it appears that deep feelings of discontent towards the inherent alienation present in the capitalist system were the motivational seed that facilitated their growth. Unconvinced that the historical accounts have been successful in adequately describing and proficiently capturing the essence of punk, this study examines the phenomenon in slightly different terms. This study proposes that punk should be understood as a way of seeing the world, as a way of reasoning, or, essentially, as a philosophy on its own terms.

Rock and roll is more than just music. Rock is a culture and an ideology, which carries its own ethos. It is forcefully countercultural and exists as a bane in the sight of dominant Western culture. As rock engages and critiques culture, it invariably encounters issues of meaning that are existential and theological. A transformational theology of rock begins with those existential and theological issues raised by and within rock music. With God On Our Side attempts to respond to these queries in a way that is faithful to the work of the kingdom of God on earth by mining our long theological tradition and seeing what cohesive responses can be made to the issues raised by rock music. At its best, rock acknowledges there is something wrong with the world, raises awareness of marginalized voices, and offers an alternative mode of existence within our present reality. By teasing out the theological issues found in rock music, this book synthesizes the findings to create a distinctive cultural theology that is sensitive to the plight of the marginalized in the West. In this way, the book offers a way forward towards a transformational theology of rock and roll.

This accessible book takes a fresh and original approach to the concept of youth, placing changes in the social construction of ‘youth’ within a more general story of the rise and fall of grand theory in social science. Gill Jones evaluates the current relevance of these wider social theories to understanding youth in late modernity in the light of key examples of empirical work on young people. Individual chapters are organized around the themes of action, identity, transition, inequality and dependence – conceptual themes which cross-cut young people’s lives. The book considers the validity of youth as a social concept and examines ways of identifying what is specific to young people without resorting to seeing them as a homogeneous group defined by their age; in so doing, it uncovers notions which are erroneously attributed to young people. Youth represents a thought-provoking challenge to a new generation of social science students, youth researchers and practitioners to distance themselves from the politically- and emotively-charged issue of youth in contemporary society and move further towards re-theorizing the concept of youth in ways which are relevant to young people’s lives today.

Music Sociology explores 16 different genres to demonstrate that music everywhere reflects social values, organisational processes, meanings and individual identity. Presenting original ethnographic research, the contributors use descriptions of subcultures to explain the concepts of music sociology, including the rituals that link people to music, the past and each other. Music Sociology introduces the sociology of music to those who may not be familiar with it and provides a basic historical perspective on popular music in America and beyond.

This book brings together contributions that analyse how subcultural myths develop and how they can be studied. Through critical engagement with (history) writing and other sources on subcultures by contemporaries, veterans, popular media and researchers, it aims to establish: how stories and histories of subcultures emerge and become canonized through the process of mythification; which developments and actors are crucial in this process; and finally how researchers like historians, sociologists, and anthropologists should deal with these myths and myth-making processes. By considering these issues and questions in relation to mythmaking, this book provides new insights on how to research the identity, history, and cultural memory of youth subcultures.

This is a clear, jargon-free and accessible textbook which will be invaluable in helping to explain concepts, theories and trends within youth studies. It raises questions for discussion, with international case studies and up-to-date examples.