The persistence of class as a meaningful category within youth culture was not, however, generally acknowledged until fairly recently and, as well we shall see, the seemingly spontanious eruption of spectacular youth styles has encouraged some writers to talk of youth as a new class-to see in youth a community of undifferential Teenage Consumers.
Dick Hebdige
Hebdige's article on subculture ultimately becomes a discussion about media and consumption of styles promoted by the media. Hebdige's article reminds me of Adorno's article because Hebdige is basically describing Adorno's idea of "encoding and decoding."
The working-class youth have a life that the media tries to capture in an image and then relays it back to those same youth. The media cycle seems to have been around for as long as it has existed. Whether through press, television, or film, a message is delivered and decoded.
Hebdige focuses on England after World War II, and thus, he refers to the punks.
The punks appropriated the rhetoric of crisis which had filled the airwaves and the editorials throughout the period and translated it into tangible (and visible) terms.
When the economy changes, the subculture changes. When the youth were unable to work due to a lack of job opportunities, they began to think of their time as "Britain's Decline." Thus ensued a kind of rhetoric, dress, music, etc. When many feel hopeless, a group like this seems appealing to join. The Punks were trying to develop their own identity apart from the parent culture or the dominant culture. Youth found a way to let out their aggression through their style. Their reaction to the media and economy provoked a reaction to the adult culture and what Hebdige describes as "moral panic" ensued. (This has happened with each new adolescent craze: Mod rocker, punk, hip hop, etc.)
In what ways does the media respond? Hebdige argues that the media responds in all kinds of way depending on the angle that they want to give (their encoding.) Hebdige believes that their response is first provoked by the outward appearances of the subculture (i.e their style.) However, soon their attitudes and rhetoric are acknowledged.