How Modern Music Has Shaped Youth Culture

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How Modern Music Has Shaped Youth Culture
Introduction
Culture has been defined as the acquisition of certain practices, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values etc. which are adopted for use by people and become the normal way of life. Plato posited Culture comprises of symbolic systems which are adopted by a certain group and used to define existence. These symbolic systems are shared across the group and define the way by which that particular group understands the world around them using certain cognitive processes, past experiences and common behaviors which dictate their way of doing things.
Culture is however not static, and is influenced by every element of society. It has been noted to transform over time and in different societal groups, hence showing stability over a given period of time and uncertainty. Culture cannot be pinned down to a concrete culture for as much as it is societal; it is fragmented into different adoptions with regard to the particular group in focus. It can be used to generalize a certain population due to shared commonness. Similarly, it can be used to differentiate between groups of the same society. Culture is multifaceted and can only be understood when in focus of a substantially acute population group due to its diversity (Bennett 15). Culture is hereditary and contagious, meaning it can permeate and take shape just like water. But its likening to water would be degrading as culture is a more superior aspect in itself, working towards an influential role of its potential owners and at the same time being influenced by its actors. One of the subgroups of society is the youth, and cultural studies have greatly endeared to this group as it is the group which is mostly influenced by culture as they try and forge their own ways in an ever changing world. This paper focuses on how modern music has shaped youth culture. The paper will indulge itself in definitions of the elements of the research i.e. youth, youth culture and modern music before expounding on how modern music has shaped or influenced youth culture.
Youth
The youth can be categorized into six influential stages. These are adolescence, maturity, puberty, pubescence, teenager and juvenile. For purposes of this paper, the term youth will be confined to these six stages of growth.
Adolescence has been defined as a period of maturity, a linkage between childhood and adulthood. Although this period ahs no defined period, it is a period that is very important for the individual for it greatly influences the meaning of the world and how the child will perceive it. Maturity is an ever continuing process which a person goes through as they grow. This stage marks the development of social, cognitive, physical and emotional growth. Puberty is that stage of growth where a person becomes sexually mature and is able to reproduce. This stage is marked by a realization of sexual meaning and outco...