Teen culture and the American culture industries in the 1990s

In the second half of the 1990s, the culture industries in the United States began to display a renewed, and almost obsessive, interest in the youth/teen market. This dissertation examines the ways in which the American film, television and music industries in particular attempted to cater to the interests and demands of the resurgent teen market in this period. I address the factors that turned the entertainment industries' attentions to the teen market, and more specifically, how the current economic and institutional changes—including increased media conglomeration, the growing interest in global markets and the rise of digital technologies—shaped the significant aesthetic traits of teen-oriented entertainment texts. Three case studies of notable teen media sites, specifically MTV, Dimension Films and the WB Television Network illustrate how the various culture industries' increasingly systematic attempts to exploit the teen market in the 1990s affected the development, production, marketing and, ultimately, the aesthetic form of the teen-oriented text. This study utilizes an in-depth investigation of trade and mainstream press reports on the entertainment industries' increasing focus on the teen market, and combines industry analysis with the textual/critical analysis of specific entertainment texts. The teen phenomenon and the nature of the culture industries in the late 1990s are two areas that require and deserve further research. To date, there has been little scholarly work done on contemporary, post-1980s teen culture, particularly any that acknowledges and specifically addresses teen culture's role within the multi-media industries, or the conditions of its creation, promotion and circulation. As such, this dissertation fills a significant gap in the existing scholarship.