Subcultures: the Basics

Scholarly studies of subcultures have a rich history and seem to only be gaining steam, as people who grew up participating in scenes go on to become subcultural scholars. The topic is certainly close to my heart. Not only do I teach, research, and write about subcultures, I grew up in the punk, heavy metal, and straight edge
scenes. The more I learn about the vast array of subcultures, the more I appreciate what they teach me about my own life and the larger social worlds in which I live.
I hope that for students new to subcultures this book serves as a gentle but thorough introduction to a very rich and complicated field. As the title promises, you have before you its basic history and essential topics. You will see that I have organized the book in terms of common questions people raise about subcultures: How do they emerge? Why do people participate? How does society react? and so on. Perhaps just as importantly, each chapter includes a variety of citations and suggestions for further study, enabling you, I hope, to more thoroughly pursue the topics most interesting to you. Rather than include a glossary, I have bolded important
terms and ideas in the text and the index to highlight particularly important concepts.