A teenager is a period in life between childhood and adulthood which has been recognised and marked by societies in a majority period of history. During the course of the 20th century, this period has tended to increase social policies, practices and institutions that treat them as both distinct and separate from adults.
There are two key terms to mark it:
- Adolescence, a term first coined by Psychologist G.Stanley Hall in 1904.
- Teenager, a term used by popular press in the 1920's and fully established in the Second World War.
Forms of the teenage culture first emerged in America in the 1950's, however according to Maltby "Self-conscious Subculture" of the young developed throughout the 1920's and 1930's. The teen pic itself emerged, like the modern teenage culture, during the 1950's.
Teenage films about the young weren't really targeted at them, nor did they focus on them or even feature young characters. Hollywood began to be aware of the importance of the teenage audience, this was due to the fact that they found age was a crucial personal factor by which movie audiences were characterized by. Due to the fact that ticket sales began to decline, this helped to then reinforce and portray the importance of the teenage market for films. Hollywood began to target them by drawing aspects of the teenage culture and meeting their needs such as their interests, tastes and concerns.
Films like, The Wild One (1954), The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Rebel without a cause(1955), all about juvenile delinquency, Juvenile Wildness and juvenile crime that stretched back as far as the 1920's and 30's. Juvenile delinquent continued to colour films about teenagers in the 1950's and early 60's. Films such as, Teenage Crime Wave(1955), Girls in Prison(1956) and Juvenile Jungle(1958).
The above paragraph clearly shows and states how teenagers were portrayed and presented negatively and in an unconstructive manner in the film industry since the 1920's and 30's. These films showed the so called social-problem with the teenage generation. These films present the teens as rebellious and conniving, which then indicates the authenticity of teenagers. Despite their generic diversity, films and dramas like, A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984), Halloween(1978), and The Breakfast Club(1985), were teen concerned horror films and dramas which can be defined and seen as teen pics as they simply focus only on teenage characters.
Book used- The Cinema Book, 2nd Edition.
Authors- Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink.
Genre(Part 5)- Page 213.
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