Club Questions

1. Thornton continues throughout the book to define youth culture in the music scene. “Youth tend to have specialist music tastes with strong preferences for hip-hop, indie, or hardcore dance.” (20) Is her statement about the music taste of youth relevant today? Do they really tend to have specialized taste? Pop music? Thornton discusses in her analysis of the club scene that legal drugs such as liquor are used to symbolize the accomplishment of adult status and illegal drugs used to reject adult culture. Does this mean that to be a part of club culture you need to rebel against the adult norms in society? Are youths really thinking this deeply about their recreational usage when partaking in the club scene? Is the use of illegal drugs just the result of the curiosity of youths for the unknown combined with the feeling of invincibility that is often experienced by young people in terms of their conception of their own mortality?

2. Thornton opens up chapter two with a discussion on authenticity which leads into the way production and consumption of music has evolved over time. It’s interesting to think that before recorded music, the only music was live and in person. “Initially, records transcribed, reproduced, copied, represented, derived from and sounded like performances.” (27) This got me thinking of a few moments in my brief existence when I have purchased an album of a band I heard on the radio or was referred to by someone, and then shortly after, attended one of their shows. To my complete and utter disappointment the live concert version of their music sounded like crap which led me to quickly abandon those bands. Have you ever found yourself experiencing something similar? Is it important that the live experience is similar to what has been recorded? Is this the driving force of authenticity? “In the process of becoming originals, records accrued their own authenticities. Recording technologies did not, therefore, corrode or demystify ‘aura’ as much as disperse and relocate it.” (27) Do you agree with what the author is saying and how is this significant to the evolution of how authentic music is defined today?

3. In chapter 3, Thornton is attempting to define the mainstream through the guise of her ethnographic experience with clubbing. I found myself questioning how authentic and true her portrayal really was considering that it was largely out of character for her to participate in the things that are representative and definitive of the club culture she is describing. She says in her conclusion, “for many youthful imaginations, the mainstream is a powerful way to put themselves in the big picture, imagine their social world, assert their cultural worth, claim their subcultural capital. As such, the mainstream is a trope which betrays how beliefs and tastes which ensue from a complex social structure, in turn, determine the shape of social life.” (115) Is this conclusion valid in terms of her ethnographic experience and scholarly research? Does Thornton’s conclusion represent what is the mainstream today in terms of club culture and youth?