Timothy London

…by Sarah Thornton.  An examination specifically about the late 80s/early 90s electronic dance scene.  Thornton conceptualises several aspects of late 80s UK youth culture which may have seemed obvious to those ‘in’ the culture at the time but which now seem a little quaint, particularly the idea of Subcultural Capital, which was probably understood perfectly by industries who catered to young people for decades but the exploitation of which now reeks of sledgehammer desperation when executed by the puzzled souls of the advertising industry trying to come to terms with the net’s consequences on a generation or two of young and youngish people.

Another immediate criticism would be her failure to take into account the consequences of the 60s generation gaining middle age and what it means for their children when it comes to establishing a distinctive identity of their own.

Thornton does, eventually, touch on the direct political aspects of club culture, but dismisses the anti-Criminal Justice Bill movement as ‘poorly attended peripheral activities’, when, the Hyde Park demo, for instance was huge and national demonstrations and activities amounted to the strongest political movement since the actions against the Poll Tax.  By failing to mention the Exodus Movement in Luton, for instance, she misses a chance to bring together and examine several other strands very apparent in ‘club culture: the legacy of a decade of political activity; the collision of different generations and skin colours; the lifestyle mash-ups of anarchist minded punks and hedonistic ravers.

Which brings me to travelers, although that description doesn’t do justice to the activities of the hugely influential groups of multi-generational people still (just about)on the road at the turn of the decade.  Their influence on raves helped turn a moment in a field on an E into a genuine life-changing experience for some, particularly the marginalised.

Overall, the book has a metropolitan bias, tending to ignore the rest of the UK and concentrate on London when talking about the rave scene, doesn’t follow up with what the experience really meant for a large group of people (for some it was a true epiphany, a religious experience) and tends to emphasise club culture’s essential hedonism over any real political meaning.

The explanation of ‘enculturation’ though, is excellent and her critiques of past sociological tomes are sharp and well researched.  If Sarah Thornton has bent a situation to her argument (against the idea of youth cultures as ‘resistant’ to a ‘mainstream’) then she won’t have been the first.  The result is a great book only a nitpicker like me would nitpick.