Drawing on forty-seven ethnographic interviews, this article explores how “straight-edgers” (sXers)—participants in the hardcore music scene who abstain from alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and promiscuous sex—construct and evaluate authenticity. While research on music subcultures documents how authenticity hinges on factors such as gender and race and how it may change over time, sXers place special importance on age, in particular, the legal drinking age of twenty-one. Interviews reveal that, depending on their distance from the legal drinking age, sXers differentially construct authenticity by relying on their selective use of the past, present, and future. Rather than simply serving as one more dimension of authenticity, however, the issue of age and the debates surrounding it serve as an entry point to understanding the temporality of authenticity.
AndesLinda. 1998. “Growing Up Punk: Meaning and Commitment Careers in a Contemporary Youth Subculture.” In Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World, edited by EpsteinJ. S., 212–31. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
2.
BaxterVern KennethPeterMarina. 2008. “Cultural Meaning and Hip-Hop Fashion in the African-American Male Youth Subculture of New Orleans.” Journal of Youth Studies11:93–113.
3.
BennettAndy. 2006. “Punk’s Not Dead: The Continuing Significance of Punk Rock for an Older Generation of Fans.” Sociology40:219–35.
4.
BennettAndy. 2007. “As Young as You Feel: Youth as a Discursive Construct.” In Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes, edited by Hodkinson andP.DeickeW., 23–36. New York: Routledge.
5.
BennettAndy. 2009. “Spectacular Soundtracks: Youth and Music.” In Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood: New Perspectives and Agendas, edited by FurlongA., 263–68. New York: Routledge.
6.
BrekhusWayne. 2003. Peacocks, Chameleons, and Centaurs: Gay Suburbia and the Grammar of Social Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
BrillDunja. 2008. Goth Culture: Gender, Sexuality and Style. New York: Berg.
8.
CampbellNeil. 2004. “Introduction: On Youth Cultural Studies.” In American Youth Cultures, edited by CampbellN., 1–30. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
9.
ClarkDylan. 2003. “The Death and Life of Punk, the Last Subculture.” In The Post-Subcultures Reader, edited by MuggletonD.WeinzierlR., 223–36. New York: BERG.
10.
ClawsonMary Ann. 1999. “When Women Play the Bass: Instrument Specialization and Gender Interpretation in Alternative Rock Music.” Gender & Society13:193–210.
11.
DavisJoanna R.2006. “Growing Up Punk: Negotiating Aging Identity in a Local Music Scene.” Symbolic Interaction29:63–69.
12.
FlahertyMichaelFineGary A.2001. “Present, Past, and Future: Conjugating George Herbert Mead’s Perspective on Time.” Time & Society10:147–61.
13.
FonarowWendy. 2006. Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
14.
FoxKathryn Joan. 1987. “Real Punks and Pretenders: The Social Organization of a Counterculture.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography16:344–70.
15.
GrazianDavid. 2003. Blue Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
HaenflerRoss. 2004. “Life after Subculture: How Older Members of the Straight Edge Movement Redefine Commitment.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA.
17.
HaenflerRoss. 2006. Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean-Living Youth, and Social Change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
18.
HaenflerRoss. 2010. Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls: Deviance and Youth Subcultures. New York: Oxford University Press.
19.
HeinzWalter R.2009. “Youth Transitions in an Age of Uncertainty.” In Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood: New Perspectives and Agendas, edited by FurlongA., 3–13. New York: Routledge.
20.
HodkinsonPaul. 2011. “Ageing in a Spectacular ‘Youth Culture’: Continuity, Change and Community amongst Older Goths.” British Journal of Sociology62:262–82.
21.
JonesGill. 2009. Youth. Malden, MA: Polity.
22.
LahickeyBeth. 1997. All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge. Huntington Beach, CA: Revelation Books.
23.
LeblancLauraine. 1999. Pretty in Punk: Girls’ Gender Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
24.
LeskoNancy. 2001. Act Your Age!: A Cultural Construction of Adolescence. New York: Routledge Falmer.
25.
MainesDavid R.SugrueNoreen M.KatovichMichael A.1983. “The Sociological Import of G. H. Mead’s Theory of the Past.” American Sociological Review48:161–73.
26.
MeadGeorge Herbert. 1956. On Social Psychology: Selected Papers, edited and with an introduction by StraussA.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
MilesSteven. 2000. Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
28.
MullaneyJamie L.2006. Everyone is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
29.
MullaneyJamie L.2007. “‘Unity Admirable But Not Necessarily Heeded’: Going Rates and Gender Boundaries in the Straight Edge Hardcore Music Scene.” Gender & Society21:384–408.
30.
NogicAmandaRileyAlexander2007. “‘So What Is the Normal Amount of Bumps Allowed in the Pit?’: Some Empirical Notes on the (Re)construction of a Youth Music Subculture/Scene.” Journal of Youth Studies10:317–29.
31.
PetersonRichard A.1997. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
ThompsonStacy. 2004. Punk Productions: Unfinished Business. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
33.
ThorntonSarah. 1995. Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
34.
TorkelsonJason. 2010. “Life after (straightedge) subculture.” Qualitative Sociology33:257–74.
35.
WilliamsJ. Patrick. 2006. “Authentic Identities: Straightedge Subculture, Music, and the Internet.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography35:173–200.
36.
WilliamsJ. PatrickCopesHeith2005. “‘How Edge Are You?’: Constructing Authentic Identities and Subcultural Boundaries in a Straightedge Internet Forum.” Symbolic Interaction28:67–89.
37.
WilliamsJ. SherwoodKnipeEdward E.MarollaJoseph A.2000. “Youth (Culture) Subculture: A Useful Concept?” The Discourse of Sociological Practice3:3–6.
38.
WoodRobert T.2006. Straightedge Youth: Complexity and Contradictions of a Subculture. New York: Syracuse University Press.
