Between Cultures? On the Importance of Music in the Everyday Lives of Young

Going out of one’s way to stress the importance of music in adolescents ’ lives must seem (as Bennett (1995, 2000) might have said) like carrying coals to Newcastle. Young people listen to music, and indeed the omnipresence of music seems to constitute a guiding influence in their lives. These and similar thoughts are based primarily on the growing consumption of recorded popular music. Blanket statements such as this, however, are inaccurate because there is no longer a precise term for this broad area. From since the end of Punk, during the late 1970s, ‘dominant ’ styles of popular music have, or so it seems, ceased to exist. The current scene seems to be determined by what has been called a postmodern mixing- David Muggleton (2000) talks about ‘postmodern subcultures ’- and by the simultaneous ‘validity ’ of a wide range of trends. heavy- and death-metal, indie, rave, dance, and hip-hop (in its chart form) etc. all coexist and form something like a common pool. It has been argued that the end of a leading style means a decline in the importance of popular (rock) music in youth culture. Steve Redhead has contended that rock music ‘is no longer simply “youth music”; music that became associated with th