UNIT 5: A SUMMARY OF AN ARTICLE In this unit students have learned to summarize an article using formal English to show that they have thoroughly understand the original text. The main key points to successful summarizing are: • Identifying important information in the original source • Highlighting the main points of the text. • Leaving out minor details. They are not important when writing a summary, because the text should cover the original just as a whole. Last but not least, summaries must be totally objective. Students should not include their own comments or evaluation. Here are the summaries my students have written of the article on pag. 55 in their students book. I do think their job has been great! Judge for yourselves!
Youth Culture and its Origins. The significant economic developments after the Second World War allowed youth culture to develop thanks to the increase of their disposable income, as many industries identified them as a possible niche market. Many types of youth culture were defined by the products catered to them while other smaller subcultures were innovative and created by the young people themselves, or like the punk culture, they were a reaction to the commercialization itself. Hip-Hop was originated in the inner city by black people but spread to the rest of the world. Finally, the manga and video games subculture came from products that were commercial on it original purpose but from which the subculture and fashion ended up developing to high-level stores. To sum up, youth culture is directly, but not in a simple way, connected to the mainstream consumer culture.
YOUTH CULTURE The economic boom after WW2, led young people to increase their purchasing power as they joined a job market craving for labor force and with salaries on the rise. Before long, many companies saw the opportunity and begun to provide goods and services specially aimed to them as consumers and, as a consequence, youth culture become defined by those products. However, not all kinds of young culture followed that pattern; punk, hip-hop, and manga culture, for instance, did not. Punk was created by the youngsters as a reaction against the business of youth fashion and music, although, ended up assimilated by the mainstream overtime, and became part of it, at least in its basic features. Hip-hop subculture behaved in a similar way. It emerged from a specific social, racial, and geographical context to, later on, spread out throughout other countries and cultures by the hand of companies with a global projection, looking for increase their profits. Manga fashion subculture, related to the comic and video gaming world (and so, commercial in purpose), differs in its origin to punk and hip-hop, but its journey is alike to those. Therefore, it could be stated that youth culture is directly connected to the mainstream consumer one in a way or another.
YOUTH CULTURE One of the consequences of the WWII was a deep change in the social and economic situation of the youngsters, who quickly turned into a powerful niche market, hugely appealing for the business sector. Since then, youth culture and the mainstream have been functioning as communicating vessels. However, this relationship has never been nor unidirectional neither openly planned. While some of these expressions were created and promoted by the mass cultural industry, a few have their bedrocks in suburban areas very far from the official artistic expression. Both Punk and Hip Hop cultures could be considered as perfect examples of this mechanism, although it was just a matter of time that some of the main emblematic features of these subcultures were adopted by some of the most popular fashion and music industries. On the other hand, the Manga fashion subculture was born from the consolidated world of comics and video gaming, but it was also absorbed by the mainstream culture. In conclusion, we can consider that this complicated and symbiotic relation will remain working this way for the time being.
Youth culture vs mainstream culture Particular fashion and styles for young people emerged after 1945, which was a time when the high demand for labour provided young people with higher salaries and thus more spending money. Consequently, many products and services were elaborated directly for these young people, who became target consumers. As a result, youth culture was defined by industry and commerce through their goods. However, original subcultures created by the youngest appeared apart from the main youth culture developed by industries. For example, punk and hip-hop cultures were created as a fight against commercialisation. In 1970, the punk culture of England, which appeared independently of youth culture thanks to the youngest, was an influence to fashion industry. In the same way, the hip-hop culture that emerged from the young black culture of inner city North America extended, really, from all over the world. No matter where you came from, rap music and an urban-look with baggy jeans, sport shoes and baseball caps were a product of direct marketing. On the other hand, the manga fashion subculture, which has its origins in a commercial purpose, has expanded to high fashion. Although it can appear that youth culture and mainstream consumer culture develop together, in fact, it is not true.
Youth culture and its link with the mainstream The economic boom after WW2 led young people to increase their purchasing power as they joined a job market craving for labor force and with salaries on the rise. Before long, many companies saw the opportunity and began to provide goods and services, specially aimed to them as consumers, and, as a consequence, youth culture become defined by those products. However, not all kinds of young culture followed that pattern; punk, hip-hop, and manga culture, for instance, did not. Punk was created by the youngsters as a reaction against the business of youth fashion and music. However, it ended up assimilated by the mainstream overtime, and became part of it (at least in its basic features). Hip-hop subculture behaved in a similar way. It emerged from a specific social, racial and geographical context to, later on, be spread out throughout other countries and cultures by the hand of companies with a global projection, looking for an increase in their profits. Manga fashion subculture, related to the comic and video gaming world (and so, commercial in purpose), differs in its origin to punk and hip-hop, but its journey is alike to those. Therefore, it could be stated that youth culture is directly connected to the mainstream consumer one, in a way or another.
COMMERCE, PUNK, HIP-HOP AND MANGA: THE EMERGENCE OF YOUTH CULTURE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MAINSTREAM. The first signs referred to young fashion emerged after the Second World War, motivated by the high demand for labour, allowing the young to access high salaries which enabled them to enjoy that period of their lives prior to marriage. Having more money to spend made businesses, mainly leisure and fashion, design specific products for them. So, youth culture was defined by these goods created for the young. Nonetheless, we can not say that all types of youth culture arose as a result of commercial activity. There are smaller and stylistically revolutionary subcultures originated by young people themselves. Punk and hip-hop culture are examples of this and show bonds between mainstream society and youth culture. The punk culture appeared in England in 1970s and was a response against the intensive marketing of youth fashion and music. Despite the fact that this subculture emerged directly from the young, its look was assumed by fashion companies. The same issue happened with the hip-hop culture, when this subculture was adopted by the mainstream culture. Born in the young black culture inner city North America, today it is embraced by the youngsters from all over the world thanks to a marketing campaign aimed at increasing the companies´ income. In relation to the manga fashion subculture, whose origins are commercial video games and graphic novels, therefore different to hip-hop and punk, it has been on a similar journey, spreading until becoming more accessible in fashion centers. As a consequence, we can associate youth culture with mainstream consumer culture. However, this direct connection is not as straightforward as what we could think at first.
DISTINCT YOUTH FASHIONS
As a consequence of the end of the Second World War, the economic situation boosted in the west, and this brought about an increase of money to spend, above all, among young people. As a result, new different well-defined fashion styles emerged. These clusters were characterised by an improvement in the standard of living and the evolved into target audience for many industries, such as TV, fashion and music, which created exclusively products and services for them. In this way, youth cultures were related to the goods they consumed. Although, most of the youth cultures appeared because of the effect of consumerism, some of the youth cultures, created by themselves, became stylistically revolutionary, such as Punk and Hip-Hop, which became state-of-art, as well as being between traditional society and youth culture. The Punk culture may be viewed as a youth culture emerged as a reaction against consumerism in 1970s, England. What is more, this youth culture was only created by young people, which had a distinct way of relating to traditional culture, when its style was adopted by the fashion industry. Another revolutionary youth culture that surged was Hip-Hop, specifically, the young black culture of inner city North America. This specific style is still spreading all around the world, among all races, and it is suburban as well as urban. Last but not least, Manga Fashion subculture. Its roots are different from Hip-Hop and Punk. The goal of Manga Fashion is business and they are the essence of themselves. Although, the relation between both cultures, youth and mainstream, could apparent simple, in fact it is more complicated than what it seems.
YOUTH CULTURE AND THE MAINSTREAM CULTURE While youth culture is a part of Western societies, this has not always been the case as, for a very long time, young people only had adult clothes to choose from. The change arrived after 1945 when the enormous demand for work force and the rise of salaries made youngsters have much more money to spend. As a result, many industries looked at them as a new consumer market and produced goods and services which determined youth culture. In contrast, some smaller subcultures, such as punk and hip-hop cultures, appeared directly from the youngsters themselves. Although the punk culture was created as a defense against the intense commercialisation of youth culture, in the end, fashion industry adopted its style. This happened also, with much success, with the hip-hop culture coming from the young black culture of inner city North America, due to the fact that businesses and companies led on firmly towards spreading this style all over the world, in order to increase their benefits. So, it can be considered that youth culture is associated to the industry and commerce, even so this connection differs from one case to another.
COMMERCE, PUNK, HIP-HOP AND MANGA: THE EMERGE OF YOUTH CULTURE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MAINSTREAM. In 1945, after the Second World War, different youth fashions emerged to show the whole world young people’s own taste and style. At that time, a huge demand for labour led to increase salary levels. As a consequence, young people started enjoying their lives before getting married, after the school years, since they had enough disposable income. As a result, they were targeted by the industry as a consumer market producing goods and services directly aimed at them. However, other smaller subcultures created by young people themselves, like punk or hip-hop, were stylistically innovative and revealed connections with the mainstream society. The 1970s punk culture of England was seen as a direct young people reaction against the intense commercialisation of youth fashion and music. After a time, its style was adopted by the fashion industry, wearing it on the catwalks, establishing a connection with the mainstream culture. Besides, hip-hop and manga are other subcultures. Although they have different origins, their specific styles have been connected with the mainstream culture. The first emerges from the young black culture of inner city North America while the second comes from the world of video gaming and graphic novels. Owing to the global scale marketing that companies have made with these subcultures to increase their profits, these styles are now spread amongst young people of all races across the world. Therefore, youth culture is directly connected to mainstream consumer culture.