The concept of 'subculture' has long been of significant importance in research on youth, style, deviance and popular culture. Although in more recent years subculture has been the subject of sustained critique, it still provides a valuable point of reference for study and research. This text offers students an up-to-date and wide-ranging account of new developments in youth culture research that reject, refine or reinvent the concept of subculture. Bringing together key theoretical statements with illuminating analyzes of particular aspects of youth culture - popular music, clubbing, body modification, the internet, etc. - this is an ideal introduction to a diverse and wide-ranging field.

ANDY BENNETT is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey. He is author of Popular Music and Youth Culture (Palgrave, 2000) and co-editor of Guitar Cultures (Berg, 2001). He is Chair of the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group. KEITH KAHN HARRIS received his doctorate from Goldsmith College on the global Extreme Metal music scene. He has been a Fellow at the Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership, Jerusalem and a visiting scholar at Monash University Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Melbourne. He currently works as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and as an independent research consultant, specialising in the field of Jewish communal and educational development.