Establishment of Youth Subcultures through Music Magazines

Music magazines have had a large role in the establishment of youth subcultures for many years. People’s personal tastes in music affect their ways of life, system of values and their morals, often changing many aspects in society, when many people have same opinion. These opinions are often dictated by music magazines, where a style of music can easily contribute to how someone dresses, acts and socialises.
In the 1960s, the youth movement of becoming a ‘hippie’ was spread around the world, and is often considered as having developed from the ‘psychedelic rock’ style of music. This had huge effects on society, where many of these people appealed for stopping war and believed in peace and respect for individual rights. Adolescents began the subculture, by trying to move away from stereotypes, inspiring new activities and past times, like psychedelic art, wearing unique, colourful clothing and protecting the environment.
More recently, music has continued to adapt opinions, often through the means of music magazines. Fans of particular bands often read a single issue of a magazine in order to find out about their lifestyle or current trends, however many people follow a music magazine more closely, where the producers have created a sense of community that the reader can be involved in, and can find out about latest releases or new bands in a similar music genre. All music magazines use tones that fit in with the music genre, and often the way that the bands of the particular genre act. For example, readers of ‘Kerrang!’ will conduct themselves in a similar manner to the ‘punk rock’ style bands, will wear matching clothing and will socialise with others with the same taste in music-creating a subculture.
Youth subcultures have been dictated largely by music magazines, due to the brand loyalty that is created for readers, and can have an impact on society and the reader’s ideology, persuading them to act in a certain way.