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Today's teen consumer market is the most lucrative it has ever been. Marketers recognize this fact and often use elements of youth culture to promote their products. Perhaps one of the best examples of how marketers have capitalized on youth culture is their use of hiphop culture.
According to the Associated Press, hip-hop fashion alone generates $750 million to $1 billion annually. Sales of rap music and videos exceed that amount, and about two-thirds of all rap purchases are made by whites.
Rap's rise and sustained global popularity is a good illustration of how influential youth culture is on youth attitudes and behavior. Remember when Madonna hit the charts with her bra in full view while singing about "virginity"? She quickly became a favorite with many impressionable teens across the country to the dismay of many parents who saw her style as wild and promiscuous. Adolescent girls around the world began wearing their underwear outside their clothes.
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Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger recognized the power of youth culture when he gave free clothes away to youth trendsetters like urban rappers in the early 1990s. Hilfiger marketed his brand by giving clothes to MTV and VH-1 personalities and featuring the teen stars of the 1999 movie The Faculty in his print ads. Picking up on teens' interest in computer games, Hilfiger sponsored a Nintendo competition and installed Nintendo terminals in his stores. The payoff? Teens rated Hilfiger jeans as their number one brand in an American Express Company survey in 2000.
The fact is, even though 65 percent of teens claim that they rely on themselves for their fashion ideas, less than 20 percent of the teen population is innovative enough to drive fashion trends, according to research from Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), an Illinois-based marketing firm.
The intensification of media effects like virtual reality has been coupled with a thirst for heightened sensory experience and risk-taking in youth culture. Youth today enjoy the adrenaline rush of "extreme" sports like snowboarding and skateboarding. Young people slam their bodies into each other in "mosh pits" or dive off stages at rock concerts, resulting in injuries and even death. This thrill-seeking mentality provides the context for drug use either as a "high" beyond normal experience or an instant solution to discomfort within a "now" oriented society. The glamorization of drugs in "heroin chic" fashions promotes illegal drug use the same way youth-targeted packaging sells the idea of alcohol and cigarettes to children.
"Generations before had war stories. We have moshing stories." Teenage boy interviewed for the ABC Television show 20/20."
As adults, we often forget what it was like to be an impressionable teenager. We sigh about the excesses of today's young people and don't think about the oddities and influences in our own past. Remember "Beatlemania," pet rocks, psychedelic paintings, bellbottoms, Dr. Strangelove, and hit songs like Curtis Mayfield's I'm Your Pusher Man, or Eric Clapton's Cocaine? We need to recognize the power of youth culture to influence attitudes and behaviors.
If we're honest, we'd admit that our idols, youthful styles of dress, music, attitudes, and behavior often drove our parents crazy, too. It's called the "Generation Gap."
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