Youth cultures and identities: the surfaces of the underground

Abstract

The chapter aims to analyze "the surface of the underground", that is, the cultural images that construct and deconstruct youth identities through language, music, aesthetics, cultural productions and focal identities, as a creative reflection of social conditions of generation, class, gender, ethnicity and territory. It is divided into four sections. In the first one it will be carried out a look towards the past, analyzing the historical antecedents of the studies on youth cultures in Latin America. In the second section we carry out a look towards different youth cultural actors: “tribes” in Spain in the 80s, “gangs” in Mexico in the 90s, “scenes” in Spain in the mid 90s, “cybercultures” around 2000, and “movements” after 2011 uprisings. In the third section it will be analyzed a transnational youth subculture that can be seen as a synthesis of the previous types. In the fourth and last section we introduce some theoretical reflections about youth cultures today as a way of conclusion.