One of the most interesting things about 'youth culture' is how rarely it is actually created by youth. In the mid 1950s when the 'teenager' is said to have been born the post-war Baby Boomers like me were still children - even those of us born in 1947 wouldn't hit 13 until 1960. And all that Rock 'n' Roll, films like The Wild One or Rebel Without a Cause featured musicians and actors well past their teenage years. Poor Bill Haley looked well past his sell-by date when he and his Comets finally had a hit with Rock Around the Clock. 

The teenagers were the audience - supporting musicians, writers, artists and film stars who, unlike the Baby Boomers, were born during or even before World War Two. But what an audience: an unprecedented teenage and then young adult demographic which shaped each and every decade right up to and including the present day. And shaped not only youth culture but every facet of the post-war world. 

To see how - for better and for worse - the Baby Boomers (even if only as a receptive audience) changed the world check out my book BOOM! - a Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022. >>>>>

Fire up your Kindle - the Kindle edition of my book BOOM! - a Baby Boomer Memoir 1947-2022 now contains 125+ recently updated links to film trailers, music tracks and historic film clips from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

An entirely new way of reading a book, the Kindle edition of BOOM! makes it possible to leap from, say, a discussion of Marlon Brando in The Wild One to the original 1953 trailer for that sensational film.

'What are you rebelling against?'
'Wha Ya got?'

Or, when considering the roots of Rock 'n' Roll you can be listening to Roy Brown's 'Good Rockin Tonight' or watch Little Eva doing 'The Loco-motion'. The Baby Boomers were the first generation to grow up with TV and, naturally, BOOM! provides clips from I Love Lucy or American Bandstand to Tony Soprano and Don Draper.

>>>>To have a look for yourself go to BOOM! [< click]

- or your local Amazon site and search for Ted Polhemus

Don't own a Kindle? Me neither. No problem. Download a free Kindle reader for PC, Mac, Android, iPad, etc. Works really well on my PC. When you download a Kindle book it flies straight into your Kindle Reader to form part of your library.

Yes we all love real paper books but where a printed book is hard to get, too pricy or you need to read something immediately, Kindle could be the answer. And everyday there are thousands of Kindle books given away free. For a free Kindle reader go to >>>

FREE KINDLE READER [< click]

And/or get BOOM! - a Baby Boomer Memoir 1947-2022 in print form from amazon.com [< click here] or from your local amazon [search BOOM! or Ted Polhemus]

 Sex, drugs & Rock 'n' Roll

66 years in the making, BOOM! – A Baby Boomer Memoir 1947-2022 weaves together social history, personal memoir, pop culture, youth culture, politics, design, TV, fiction, food, sex, drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll and a lot else besides to make sense of what has happened to our world from WWII to the present day – and beyond.

From Neptune, New Jersey to Swinging London, Rhythm & Blues to Punk, the rise of suburbia to the rebirth of the city, modernism to post-modernism, Playboy to ‘Make Love Not War’, I Love Lucy to Mad Men, boom to bust, LSD to ecstasy, Hipsters to, er, Hipsters. 

400-pages – including lists of all the most important music, films, TV and fiction for each decade, a Timeline to enable you to do the time warp and a comprehensive index.

Some more Sophisticated Boom Boom for your listening pleasure.

‘The media love publishing stories on different generations of humans. Every time a new set of teenagers comes of age, countless authors expound upon what makes this one different from the last. Gen X, the disenchanted, have been replaced by Gen Y, hard workers who don’t remember a world before the Internet. Yet the baby boomers are always discussed as a thing of the past, not a force that shapes the present, let alone the future. Why should we care about them?’

Youth Culture Vultures >>> Check out this review of my book BOOM! - A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 at 

http://popanth.com/review/boom-a-baby-boomer-memoir-1947-2022-by-ted-polhemus/

And for the best Culture Soup and Hot Buttered Humanity bookmark the excellent popanth.com for a truly global view of contemporary lifestyles.

 ‘Popular anthropology for everyone. Exploring the familiar and the strange, demystifying and myth busting human culture, biology and behaviour in all times and places. Myths, music, art, archaeology, language, food, festivals, fun.’

>>> http://popanth.com/

This is interesting. A crate label from 1940s America reminds us that the notion of 'teenagers' pre-dates the 'youth culture' revolution of the 50s and 60s. I'm guessing that 'Western Vegetables' were those grown in the sunny climes of California and that were new to old school, East Coast cooking. Interesting too that here we have evidence that there were Don Draper pioneers even in the 40s making a connection between adventurous teens and 'new' products - here even striving to make vegetables trendy.

I was born in the USA in 1947 so have no memories of advertising or youth culture in the 40s but my book BOOM! - A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 has much to report about the further development of youth culture in the 50s, 60s and 70s. As well as some ruminations on Gen X in the 90s and Gen Y today

News flash >>> The Amazon Kindle version of BOOM! will be free to download on Thursday Dec 6 and Friday Dec 7, 2012

>>>For the free download go to the url below and check that the Kindle price is marked as $0.00

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BBYM08

This new Kindle version of BOOM! - as well as the timewarping 1947-2013 Timeline - has 125+ links to the best films, music, TV and documentaries explored in this social history of popular culture + 10 iconic images not available in the print version.

*Don't have a Kindle? Me too. No problemo: get a free Kindle For PC/Mac reader download at Kindle For PC or Kindle For Mac. Works great and as well as books like BOOM! there are lots of free books available at Amazon every day.

More info about BOOM! >

Sex, drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll 
. . . and vanilla cream pie served by that waitress in The Neptune Diner who lives on in so many Tom Waits songs. 

Straight from the fridge – I Love Lucy meets The Sopranos in The Twilight Zone. 

From Elvis to Johnny Rotten, Neptune, New Jersey (with Greetings from Asbury Park) to Swinging London, Hipsters to . . . today’s, er, Hipsters. 

Some say ‘it all happened in the 60s’ but in BOOM! anthropologist and social historian Ted Polhemus shows how the roots of our (post) modern age penetrate back to the heady years just after WWII.

If you like Mad Men, Blade Runner, American Graffiti, Blow-up, The Wild One . . . wish you’d caught Monk at Minton’s Playhouse in 1947, Springsteen at The Stone Pony in 1975 or The Pistols in London 1976 (or not) . . .

Includes 
- Sources & Inspiration: Music, Film, TV, Fiction, Non-fiction
- Do the timewarp with the 1947-2012 Timeline
- Fire up your Kindle: 125+ music/film/TV/doc video links throughout

. 

 

??? TO PUT THE HIP CAT AMONGST THE HIPSTER PIGEONS 

. . . A QUOTE FROM MY NEW BOOK BOOM! >>>

‘I suspect that those who would scoff the loudest at such a questioning of the intrinsic and eternal value of ‘youth culture’, are not themselves young. From what I see and hear there is nothing which puts off and irritates today’s adolescents more than when they are specifically targeted as ‘youth’ – when products and advertisements are all too cack-handedly directed at some magic kingdom/ghetto fenced in by age. No, here again what seems to be the case is that presumptions written in conceptual concrete during the Golden Age of Youth in the ‘50s and ‘60s, have been placed beyond doubt by Oldies who themselves cannot conceive of life defined by any parameters other than age.

The evidence of this inability to move beyond the presumed glories of youth and to grow-up litters the landscape of life at the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st. Media pundits and market researchers have identified the ‘Kidult’ as a (if not the) decade defining figure of the Noughties: middle-aged-plus grown men and women who pounce on any and all innovations favored by the young and, like those who would steal candy from babies, make them their own. Oldies who ought to know better on skateboards, wearing back to front baseball caps, wolfing down tabs of Ecstasy, their iPods blaring the latest Grime or Lady Gaga. And it’s hard to find an ad for pensions or life assurance which doesn’t feature leather-clad Boomers roaring past on Harley Davidsons or bungee jumping grannies wearing Hip Hop approved upmarket label tracksuits. In the 21st century youth culture is everywhere – except perhaps amongst those who are actually not yet old enough to be Kidults (but then, as they always used to say, youth is too good to be wasted on the young).’

More BOOM! for your bucks > My new book BOOM! - A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 is now available in an Amazon Kindle version >Buy it  at BOOM!

or check your local Amazon site.

Only $6.00 this new Kindle version of BOOM! - as well as the timewarping 1947-2013 Timeline as previously - has 125+ links to the best films, music, TV and documentaries explored in this social history of popular culture.

Don't have a Kindle? Me too. No problemo: get a free Kindle For PC/Mac reader download at Kindle For PC or Kindle For Mac. Works great and as well as books like BOOM! which you can buy cheaply and instantly and then keep and read as you want there are lots of free books available at Amazon. 

Worn through: My jeans from 1969 + wanted to let you know that there is a really interesting review of my new book BOOM! - a baby boomer memoir, 1947-2022 on the always-worth-a-look website wornthrough.com >>>  Check it out at >>>

Always worth a look, www.wornthrough.com has served as a hub for ideas from those who, like me, look at dress, style and appearance from a social and cultural perspective. Monica Sklar founded wornthrough.com way back in 2007. Now there's an interview with me which touches on youth culture, streetstyle and much else besides. Have a look at http://www.wornthrough.com/2012/04/30/editors-interview-ted-polhemus/

'Street style anthropology' is what it says on the tin and that's what you get at http://urbanfieldnotes.blogspot.com - Philadelphia style. As told in the 'Sex', 'Drugs' and 'Rock 'N' Roll' chapters of my book BOOM! I spent the last of my teenage years in Philly while studying anthropology at Temple University. As well as documenting street style in Philly, Brent Luvaas' site also provides a fantastic listing of and links to street style blogs from around the world . . . and an interview with me, Ted Polhemus. What more could you want?