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English: Scientific Research

HOW HAVE TEENAGERS INFLUENCED THE
TRANSFORMATION OF POP-CULTURE?

ALYSHA JAMAL
GIACINTA MIUCCIA WIROPRANOTO
GIANINA EMMANUELLA DEBORA
RETNO DEWI LESTARI

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English 11
Alysha Jamal, Giacinta Miuccia, Gianina Emmanuella, Retno Lestari
Mr. Robert Thomas LaBrie
16th May 2016
How has Teenagers Influenced the Transformation of Pop Culture?
Pop Culture is one way to describe the last few decades of everything, the world revolves
around Pop culture; without it, our art would just be dull. Pop culture is an entirety of ideas,
perspectives, attitudes, images, and an entirely new phenomenon; aimed to the general public,
making it acceptable to society. Each decade has different history and of course, every single one
of them made our society as of what it is, now. This mainstream idea had truly been some sort of
concept that is applied in our everyday lives, making it one of the most important descriptions of
our society today.
Popular Culture had always been associated with youth; movies, television show, and
throughout history, teenagers had been the one who made it a thing. Of course, there are some
unnecessary things followed by it, but there is something about being introduced into something
new and maybe something a little bit nostalgic caught the attention of millions of teenagers.
There are numerous things pop culture had invented and as todays society, we made the decision
to make it better and of course, something for everyone. Throughout our lesson in school, we are
told to understand these cultures that shaped us. We focus on the last five decades and find the
pattern of what teenagers were back then, whilst asking ourselves how did we influence the pop
culture.

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The 1950s
There is something about reshaping the future that the 1950s culture are very good at; the
country music that always have that touch of religious believe, that blues telling the story of the
black race, and everything else that made the songs today make sense. After the war, kids who
grew up in that rehabilitation process of the country had to really focus on that. From singers like
Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley; it personally had an effect on teenagers that
decade.
The 1960s
The roaring 1960s, thats what they call it. There are a few things that made this decade a
tad bit more interesting than the 1950s. Of course, the world itself changed. After almost two
decades dealing with the war, something needed to be done. Things like the racial freedom, the
fight for human rights, had already been introduced; and by this decade, things get a little
intense. Teenagers at this decade began to look for answers, something that will satisfy them.
Their questions on the civilization and apparently, the cause for their existence; really stood out
here. Baby boomers were what they are called, kids who were born in the war and grew up in the
1960s.
The 1970s
The 1970s are famous for bell-bottoms and the rise of disco, but it was also an era of
economic struggle, cultural change and technological innovation. The loud upbeat music, the
Dad dance (or so they are called); and of course the fight for freedom. Yes, everyone deserves a
freedom, but at this point in time women have been fighting for their rights even after the war.

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The whole war really took its toll on this decade, and with that; everyone promoted the anti-war
movement, and every teenager is for this campaign.
The 1980s
For many people in the United States, the late 1970s were a troubled and troubling time.
The radical and countercultural movements of the 1960s and early 1970s, the Watergate scandal,
the Vietnam War, uncertainty in the Middle East and economic crisis at home had undermined
Americans confidence in their fellow citizens and in their government. In some respects, the
popular culture of the 1980s reflected the eras political conservatism. For many people, the
symbol of the decade was the yuppie: a baby boomer with a college education, a well-paying
job and expensive taste.
The 1990s
THE INTERNET HAS A MEANING NOW! Weve been introduced to this concept of
Internet for while, but it was not until the 1990s it was used for commercial use. Life had become
a little more Futuristic, with the power of movie and the increasing number of technology;
things had become more interesting. Whatever we had in this decade, we really took the time to
improve it and its amazing what we have achieved from this decade to what we have now.
The 2000s
TWITTER, GOOGLE. Its a thing around this decade, we are now in the 2010s and
things from the 2000s had improved so much; we actually forgot what it was like. There are a
few things that made the 2000s really iconic; the beginning of Islamophobia from the attack of
9/11 and of course with the existing site called YOUTUBE, everything became a viral product of
the Internet.

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Our thoughts
Teenagers are the loudest and craziest about trends. A trend is mostly likely started by
adults but what cause it to become popular are teenagers. Ever since the media has targeted
teenagers, its somehow cool to be a teen. All around the world, innovations that had been
created by teenagers have helped us create the world we live in today. Start up companies,
scientific research, music, and so much more; people around our age (as teenagers) have taken a
huge part on improving and changing todays pop culture.
Pop influences teenagers the most ever since the 1950s, they surround us with these ever
changing culture and we cant predict the end of its reign. Its in our nature to drive a certain
product making it a trend; the fact that we have social media and other sites; it really helped the
value of something and it becoming a trend. Teens would do anything to be cool and sometimes,
breaking the law made the news. This is bad, we understand; but teenagers can actually do
anything and be put on the news. Our actions can really affect the media and this is why we take
such an important role for pop culture. We, as teenagers made the pop culture a little more
interesting; we listen to the music, tv shows, and movies constantly. Their ratings went up,
because we took the time to actually watch and enjoy something. he number of teenagers are also
drastically increasing each year, thus because of the large population, the culture spread more
rapidly.
Teenagers are now the ones that are responsible for creating some of the pop culture
sayings out there, like bae. This is because they have the power to spread something so quickly
(because of social media) and there are now teenagers are huge in population so they are capable
of making a lot of things part of the popular culture. Its very easy to swoon us teenagers, our

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mannerism and thought process really mattered throughout a promotional value of a certain
product. Some teenagers even go to the extent of spending a lot of their time admiring famous
artists (fangirls); these things take place in websites like Tumblr, etc. A lot of people especially in
teenage to young adult years are into fashion in social media like eyebrow on fleek, big lips,
curvy body, twerking, make funny video, and posting it into social media to get famous. Pop
culture also being use by the politics to promote in magazine, television, social media they do
this to get more supporters (voters). Something that we have today, kids younger are dressed and
all dolled up to look older than what they actually are, of course they look adorable; but it is no
surprise to see 2-5 year olds wearing suits and girls all pinned up.
Conclusion
In a way, teenagers always have a cause and effect on the ever growing society. Not all of
it has a positive cause, but it really shaped us and it is now what defines us. I believe we helped
the limitless society and by the looks of today, weve made great decisions towards the future.
There are now young inventors who were personally inspired by great artist of the past, their
creations that might not survive this decade; some took the time to improve it. Resulting in one
of the best values we have as teenagers of today. We not only re-lived the past, but we created
something new for others; Kpop is famous by hip-hop music that the member in the groups or
solo artist sing also rap and the group also dance while singing or rapping (like psy gangnam
style in 2012 with iconic dance move). No one thought of this, but a few of us did. With a great
amount of effort, things that are impossible IS possible; Our age does not matter. We shaped the
society and we can always improve it for the good of others.

Bibliography

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Opening Message
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Our Thought

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