Making Sense of Youth Subculture and Counterculture in Twenty-First Century Nigeria
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Date
2019
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Kaduna Journal of Humanities
Abstract
This study interrogates Youth subculture and counterculture in Nigeria particularly in cities of southwestern Nigeria in the age of globalization. This research aims to critically analyse the factors responsible for the development of Youth subcultures and countercultures and the effects of these on them. The paper argues that Nigerian youths have increasingly developed and exhibited peculiar reactions to their perceived socio-economic and political exclusion. The subcultures generated from these in the global age have surprisingly become widespread and widely adopted by all strata of society. It has thus moved from being a culture of protest to that of popular culture. These subcultures are no longer gendered, classed, and location bound. Youth subcultures in Nigeria, characteristically exhibit the four criteria of subcultures as indicated by Thornton, namely; identity, commitment, consistent distinctiveness, and autonomy. This research concludes that youth subcultures and countercultures in the twenty-first century are highly influenced by the media of globalization and these have in turn influenced globalization itself. There is an urgent need to engage these cultures in the engagement of the youths as progressive agents of development. This will no doubt reverse the negative tendencies in youth subcultures in Nigeria as they portend great dangers to the future of the globe.