Download and Listen to More Music Than Any Other Age Group in Society

o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

How to cite this thesis

Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za (Accessed: Date).

YOUTH IDENTITY AND POPULAR CULTURE AT THE ZONE, ROSEBANK (JOHANNESBURG), c. 2004

Lucert Nkuna

909906728

MINI-DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

MAGISTER ARTIUM in Industrial Sociology

in the

FACULTY OF ARTS

at the

UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Marcelle Dawson

CO-SUPERVISOR: Prof. Peter Alexander

December 2013

Contents Acknowledgement ...... iv Abstract ...... v CHAPTER ONE ...... 1 YOUTH IDENTITY AT THE ZONE: AN INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Overview of the Study ...... 1 1.2 Problem Statement and Research Question ...... 2 1.3 Rationale and Significance of the Study ...... 3 1.4 Outline of Chapters ...... 4 CHAPTER TWO...... 6 THEORETICAL DEPICTION OF POPULAR CULTURE AND YOUTH IDENTITY .. 6 2.1 Introduction ...... 6 2.2 Identity Construction amongst the Youth ...... 7 2.3 Popular Culture Explored ...... 9 2.3.1 What is Popular Culture? ...... 9 2.3.2 Youth and Popular Culture ...... 10 2.3.3 Elements of Popular Culture ...... 11 a. Popular Music ...... 11 b. Fashion ...... 15 c. Technology ...... 17 2.4 Nuttall’s view on The Zone Culture ...... 18 2.5 Conclusion ...... 19 CHAPTER THREE ...... 21 RESEARCH DESIGN: AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE ZONE YOUTH ...... 21 3.1 Introduction ...... 21 3.2 Choice and description of site: The Zone ...... 21 3.3 Research design ...... 22 3.4 Sampling ...... 24 3.4.1 Target population ...... 24 3.4.2 Sampling Methods ...... 25 3.5 Data Collection ...... 26 3.5.1 Observations ...... 27 3.5.2 Semi-structured face-to-face interviews ...... 27 3.5.3 Questionnaires ...... 30 3.5.4 Focus Groups ...... 31 3.5.5 Observation – Revisiting the site ...... 32 3.6 Data analysis ...... 33 3.6.1 Qualitative data ...... 33 3.6.2 Quantitative data ...... 34 3.7 Limitations ...... 34 3.8 Conclusion ...... 35 CHAPTER FOUR ...... 36 FINDINGS: WHO ARE THE ZONE YOUTH? ...... 36 4.1 Introduction ...... 36 4.2 The Zone ...... 36

4.2.1 The Zone Youth: Demography ...... 36 4.2.2 Why The Zone? ...... 39 4.2.3 Socialising and fitting in ...... 42 a. What your outfit says about you ...... 42 b. Friendship ...... 43 4.3 Elements of Popular Culture as experienced at The Zone...... 46 4.3.1 Music...... 46 4.3.2 Fashion ...... 50 4.3.3 Other ways of expressing youth culture ...... 54 4.3.4 Technology ...... 54 4.4 Costs of being at The Zone ...... 55 CHAPTER FIVE ...... 58 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION: POPULAR CULTURE A WAY OF LIFE ...... 58 5.1 Introduction ...... 58 5.2 The Zone – An Identity ...... 58 5.3 Elements of Popular Culture ...... 60 5.3.1 Music ...... 60 5.3.2 Fashion ...... 61 5.3.3 Technology ...... 62 5.4 Summary of the Study ...... 62 5.5 Concluding Remarks: My view versus Nuttall’s ...... 63 5.6 Limitations of the Study ...... 64 5.7 Recommendations for Further Research ...... 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 66 APPENDIX A ...... 76 Globalisation and New Social Identities (GANSI) - ‘Fitting in’ to a Classy Place: The Zone and Youth Identity ...... 76 APPENDIX B ...... 90 QUESTIONNAIRE ...... 90 APPENDIX C ...... 96 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE ...... 96 APPENDIX D: Interview Schedule March 2010...... 98

List of Tables Table 1: Phases of the Research ...... 25 Table 2: Profile of respondents: semi-structured face-to-face interviews ...... 29 Table 3: Profile of Focus Group Participants: ...... 32 Table 4: Schools Attended ...... 39 Table 5: Companionship at The Zone ...... 44 Table 6: Chi-Square Tests – Relationship between music preference and school attended ...... 50

List of Figures Figure 1: Components of data analysis: Interactive model ...... 34 Figure 2: Age of respondents in years (2004) ...... 37 Figure 3: Age of Respondents in years (2010) ...... 37 Figure 4: Race of respondents (2004) ...... 38 Figure 5: Music Preference ...... 49

iii

Acknowledgement Firstly I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Marcelle Dawson and Prof Peter Alexander, for the continuous support throughout my thesis. Their patience, knowledge and academic experience have helped me produce this mini dissertation. Dr Dawson’s patience and guidance have been invaluable to me and I will forever be grateful. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor for my Master’s study.

My sincere thanks goes to my former boss, my mentor, Mr John Samuel. How do I even begin to measure the amount of support he provided? He gently pushed when I was close to throwing in a towel. He always ‘painted’ a picture showing where I have been and looking ahead when I came to the office not knowing where I was going. I attribute the level of my Masters degree to his encouragement and effort and without him this thesis, too, would not have been completed. One simply could not wish for a better mentor. I am also indebted to the class of 2004 (Sociology first year students) who participated in the focus groups and those who came with me to The Zone for data collection. Your contribution has helped produce both my results and this thesis. Thank you guys!

I would also like to thank my parents, Flora and Public, though separated, for giving birth to me and for being a constant source of emotional support.

To Otto Mhlongo, his support throughout this dissertation has been remarkable and I thank him.

Last but not least, my daughter Nhlalala. Although too young to understand what her mother was doing, she has always been a calm child. Looking at her everyday made me want to be a better mother and a good example that you do not give up. It took years to complete this dissertation but it is finally complete. I therefore dedicate this piece of work to my daughter, Nhlalala Tia Mhlongo.

Abstract

Identity construction amongst the youth is a vital process as it shapes who they are and what they want to be. Rapid social change contributes a great deal to the ways people create and shape their identities. This study focuses on youth identity construction in South Africa, specifically among young people at The Zone, a shopping mall in Rosebank, Johannesburg. In South Africa much research has been done on youths mainly focusing on delinquency. There is thus a knowledge gap with regard to youth identity and the positive aspects of life. This study, therefore, aims to shed light on the positive aspects of identity construction among the youth. Previous studies on youth identity construction have shown that youth identities are constructed in a world where popular culture dominates people’s existence. The construction of youth identity at The Zone is examined by focusing on music, fashion and technology as the main elements of popular culture. The theoretical framework of this study is derived mainly from scholarly work on identity formation, popular culture and youth culture at The Zone.

For this study, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in which the following data gathering processes were applied: focus groups, semi-structured face-to- face interviews, and questionnaires. The findings of the study show that identity construction amongst the youth is done through their interaction with one another as well as the images, styles and entertainment that form part of popular culture. Democratic South Africa has opened doors of choices for young people. Within certain constraints, they are able to do what they like, become who they like and explore their identities. The findings show that even though they come from different backgrounds, their aspirations to be hip and sophisticated, as dictated by popular culture, are similar.

CHAPTER ONE YOUTH IDENTITY AT THE ZONE: AN INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview of the Study

Identity construction is a process every human being goes through, be it for social, political, or personal reasons. This process starts at a very young age and continues throughout one’s life. In many instances, when a person is born, his or her identity is shaped by caregivers and by the society they are born into. It is only later in life, during adolescence and early adulthood that a person has a say in the construction of their own identity or to change the one initially articulated by caregivers. An identity constructed during adolescence can either be motivated by a mere desire to be something or somebody or could have been forced by peer pressure. The bottom line is that this is a stage where youngsters are able to make a choice about their identities and about how they want to be seen. Adolescence and early adulthood are also stages of development where many life opportunities are available and young people are much more aware of these opportunities. It is a stage ‘during which elements of an adult’s future self are explored and decided upon’ (Hall, Coffey & Williamson 1999: 502). It is also a stage where one’s personal identity is just as important as a group identity in terms of status and friendship. Different identities emerge at this particular stage and the reconstruction thereof becomes extremely important.

An identity defines who one is and allows one to differentiate who they are from others and to give meaning to one’s own unique life. In contemporary society, people are surrounded by popular images and many make use of these to construct and re-articulate their own identities. Young people, being in the phase of self-discovery, are the most receptive to the influence of identity cues. They are at a stage of their lives where everything is scrutinised to fit well with an image that is considered youthful and popular. They tend to go to great lengths to create what is considered an acceptable image; an acceptable identity to their peers in line with what is considered popular culture.

This study explores the construction of youth identity by looking at some elements of popular culture that play a role in the expression of youth identity. These elements of popular culture are music, fashion and technology. The study is approached by investigating the key aspects of identity construction amongst the youth. A focus on Jenkins’s (2008: 28) concept of knowing and understanding who we are and identifying ourselves and other people paves a way of understanding the construction of youth identity in terms of the above mentioned elements of popular culture, where music and fashion are associated and seen as playing important roles in identity construction amongst the youths, defining who they are in terms of age and self-expression (McCarthy et al 1999: 2; Christenson and Roberts 1998: 84; Kratz and Reimer 1998: 193; Rosenberg 2002: 162;) with technology aiding as a means of sharing of popular music and fashion.

The focus of the study was mainly on the leisure lifestyle of young people who socialise at The Zone, a shopping mall in Rosebank, north of Johannesburg. The study makes reference to Sarah Nuttall’s work which was also done at The Zone, focusing on youth identity development. The study by Nuttall (2004: 449) highlights the post-apartheid youths at The Zone who focus less on their racial identities and more on their ‘stylizations of the self’.

1.2 Problem Statement and Research Question

Previous research on youth identities indicates that popular culture plays an important role in youth identity construction. This study contributes to this area of scholarly enquiry within the South African context. The driver behind this study was my curiosity regarding the way of life of the youths who socialise in upmarket shopping malls dominated by popular cultural signs. It is therefore significant to investigate the impact that these signs or elements of popular culture have on young people’s lives as they construct their identities. This study has endeavoured to answer the following question:

To what extent and in what ways are the identities of youths at The Zone influenced by popular culture?

1.3 Rationale and Significance of the Study

A lot of research has been done on South African youths focusing on their undesirable or violent behaviour (Best & Kellner 1998; Marks 2001; Dlamini 2005). However, very little research is available on youths’ positive lifestyle or identities, hence the need for a study of this nature. ‘Positive’ in this context refers to anything that is perceived as enjoyable, entertaining, and, most importantly, acceptable in a society. As Buckingham (1993: 12) argued, it is a better idea to study youth culture in positive ways rather than regarding it merely in pathological terms, as a matter of ‘deviance’ or ‘delinquency’. This way, not only will there be a sufficient amount of reading material about the positive aspects of youth development, but it might also motivate and promote good behaviour among youths in society. This study helps to reduce this knowledge gap by looking at the relationship between popular culture and youth identity in public spaces within a South African context. It focuses on popular cultural signs that create an exciting and entertaining environment for the youths. The study addresses young people’s patterns of leisure, consumerism and choices of entertainment, and assesses how these aspects of their lifestyle influence their identities.

The Zone, a shopping mall and entertainment space in Rosebank, north of Johannesburg, was chosen as the site for study. Generally speaking, The Zone is a place that appeals mostly to young people. It is one of the malls that have been created with the youths as the target market. This could be seen through the types of shops and entertainment facilities it features. The fieldwork for this study was conducted at The Zone over a period of four months in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, some of the results of the study were published in a chapter included in an edited collection on globalisation and identity (Alexander et al. 2006), which I have included here as Appendix A. Due to personal reasons, I took a four year study break between 2006 and 2010. Initially I registered as a full-time student, but due to a range of family responsibilities, I needed to earn more money and when an opportunity for a full-time job arose I took it, hoping I would be able to continue with my Master’s on a part-time basis. I had already completed my fieldwork and was busy with the analysis, but my new job was demanding and required me to

travel. The money was not enough to assist my family and I therefore took up an additional part-time job which I did four times a week (two week days and weekends). In 2007 I became a mother and I realised by this time that I was not going to be able to continue with my studies. I tried to complete my Masters in 2008 but it was still too difficult to manage as, at this time, I was a parent not only to my child, but also to my four siblings who were trying to deal with the separation of my parents. This was a stressful time for me and my family and studying was impossible. Nonetheless, I as determined to complete my Masters degree and therefore went back to The Zone in March 2010 to do some follow up research and to see if there had been any changes between 2004 and 2010. This was by no means to do a comparison, but rather to bring the research up to date.

1.4 Outline of Chapters

This dissertation is organised into five chapters. Chapter one has introduced the study, providing an overview and detailing the rationale for conducting the study. It also includes the purpose of the study, the problem statement and the research question. Overall, the chapter provides an outline of the entire dissertation.

Chapter two provides the theoretical background to the study. It focuses mostly on social identity theories and engages with previous studies on youth identity and popular culture. Moreover, the chapter engages with the work of Sarah Nuttall, whose research on South African youths at The Zone proved invaluable as an entry point for my own study on young people who hang out at The Zone. However, Nuttall looked at The Zone from an outsider’s point of view while, due to my age, I was more of an insider.

In chapter three the research methods used in this study are explained. This study applies both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach was used to get statistical results in terms of, amongst other things, participants’ profiles, while a qualitative approach was used to capture much more detailed information pertaining to

the research question. In this chapter, the research design, sampling technique and methods of data gathering and analysis are discussed.

Chapter four presents the findings of the study collected using quantitative and qualitative research methods. The findings are presented in tables, figures and some in descriptive summaries. The chapter provides a description of the sample – age, race, gender, occupation and so forth. It presents information regarding the elements of popular culture that play an important role in identity development such as music and fashion. The chapter paints a picture of how young people construct their identities in post-apartheid South Africa and how they socialise at The Zone while constructing these new identities. It is also in this chapter where the work of Nuttall (2004) is applied to analyse the identity construction amongst the youths at The Zone. Nuttall showed in her study that youth culture at The Zone is no longer about race differences but about the way they dress and act. She argues that skin colour is the only significant difference. This study came to a similar conclusion but also highlighted the differences amongst young people of the same racial background, indicating for example the ways in which their socio-economic background has an influence in how they behave or who to socialise with and the language they use while communicating with their peers.

Chapter five concludes the study, arguing that The Zone is considered to be a place where young people have much at their disposal to construct and reconstruct certain aspects of their identities. Young people use popular cultural signs to define who they are in a society and their statuses are determined through these signs. It was interesting to learn that most of The Zone youths come from better off backgrounds. However, there were those who could not afford the lifestyle, but because they wanted to fit in they pushed themselves to be part of The Zone youths. Many young people who desire the lifestyle brought about by popular culture will try all they can to be just like the ones who can afford this lifestyle. I also draw on Nuttall’s (2004) argument that The Zone youths are multiracial differentiated only by the way they dress. The dissertation ends by providing recommendations for future study on youth identities.

CHAPTER TWO THEORETICAL DEPICTION OF POPULAR CULTURE AND YOUTH IDENTITY

2.1 Introduction

Identity and cultural studies have received a great deal of attention in academic research and the media (Kellner 1995; Thornton 1995; Kidd 2002; Times 2003 and 2004) including studies that have focused on youth identities in particular (see for example Epstein 1998; Marks 2001; Rosenberg 2002; Soudien 2007). However, as briefly mentioned in Chapter One, when it comes to research on the youth, a great deal of interest is directed towards politics, delinquency, violence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and/or involvement in gangs (Best & Kellner 1998; Marks 2001; Dlamini 2005). In addition, much of the research on youths and popular culture focuses on the contexts of schools and/or family structures (Campbell 1994; Dolby 2001; Soudien 2007; Gustafsson and Rix 2007) as opposed to spaces of entertainment or leisure activities. In a sense, arenas of socialisation have taken precedence over contexts for socialising. With very little research done on what I consider the positive face of youth identity and popular culture in South Africa, this study aims to contribute towards filling this gap by expanding on research on identity construction among youths beyond the contexts of the schoolyard and family structures.

This chapter provides a theoretical overview of youth identity construction and popular culture. It starts off by defining what an identity is and exploring key aspects of identity construction amongst the youth. It is in this chapter that I introduce Jenkins’ notion of identity and identification which is about knowing who we are and being able to identify ourselves and others. The chapter also covers the elements of popular culture, such as music and fashion, which are important in understanding the construction of youth identity. Since my focus was on the youth who hung out at The Zone, the study makes use of Sarah Nuttall’s research – also done at The Zone – which focused on youth

identity development. Postmodern approaches are also used to a very limited extent in understanding the basis of popular culture.

2.2 Identity Construction amongst the Youth

We can’t live routine lives as humans without identification, without knowing – and sometimes puzzling about – who we are and who others are. This is true no matter where we are, or what our way of life or language. Without repertoires of identification we would not be able to relate to each other meaningfully or consistently. We would lack that vital sense of who’s who and what’s what. Without identity there could simply be no human world, as we know it (Jenkins 2008: 27).

An identity tells other people who a person is and in turn gives a sense of belonging within a society or a particular group in a society. It gives answers to questions such as who and what a person is. In addition, having an identity means that one is able to ‘fix’ or ‘figure’ out who he or she is as a person, knowing others and them knowing him or her (Kidd 2002: 7; Jenkins 2008: 5). An identity refers to the understanding somebody has of his or her life and to the meaning that one gives to one’s life (Wagner 1994: 56). An identity can also be a collective and social phenomenon, ‘never exclusively individual’ (McGuigan 1992: 228).

Identity formation is also about the expectations the society has of an individual. According to Thom and Coetzee (2004: 183), the formation of an identity relies ‘on society’s expectations and recognition of the individual [as well as] on the individual’s expectations and recognition of society.’ For example, if society has an expectation that a a young woman in her twenties should have a job or be independent of her family’s financial or material support, the young woman will strive for that status as it is expected of her. That way, she creates an identity of herself, working independent woman, by taking into consideration what is expected of her. Similarly, Gazzah (2008: 54) believed that the outside world plays an important role in identity construction as it has to firstly accept and then validate a person’s identity before that identity can be established. This means that ‘besides what we think of ourselves, what others think of us is equally important in the construction of an identity’ (Gazzah 2008: 54). An identity, particularly

youth identity, is therefore ‘partly self-achieved and partly ascribed from social background [and] peer groups have a significant role in the formation of individual identity and separation from social background since they allow young people to explore through a collective identity’ (Jones 2009: 61). In addition, whatever young people are ‘exposed to during their youth, what skills they learn and what skills they develop are very important in shaping their identities’ (Aakhus and Katz 2002: xx). ‘The creation of identity is also due to the social context in which youths live, for example, for many [of the youths] currently living in first and second world countries the technology they use is considered just as important as what they wear in communicating an identity’ (Aakhus and Katz 2002: xx).

The youths, like any other group in society, have the power to construct and/or change their identities. ‘The modern self is aware of the constructed nature of identity and one can always change and modify one’s identity at will’ (Kellner 1995: 232). The changing of identities happens for many different reasons such as trying to fit in with a certain group, to be accepted by a particular culture, to be different from others or, conversely, to be part of the popular culture.. Popular culture plays a central role in youth identity construction and changing of these identities. Through popular culture, the youths develop ways in which they make sense of the world and locate themselves within it (Grossberg cited in Dolby 2001:14). Popular culture offers many cues that young people can use to construct their personal and cultural identities and their knowledge about the world (Kamberelis and Dimitriadis 1999: 141). Young people use popular cultural elements such as music and fashion for self expression, to define who they are and what their identities are. Popular cultural signs and media images dominate people’s sense of reality as well as the way they define themselves, their identity and the world around them (Strinati 1995: 224).

2.3 Popular Culture Explored

2.3.1 What is Popular Culture?

To define what popular culture is, I used Storey’s approach (2001) in which he separated the term ‘culture’ from ‘popular.’ Culture is generally believed to be a way of life in which people are able to express themselves socially, with values, meanings and ideas (Epstein 1998: 8-9). Culture produces meaning in life; meaning that in turn produces an identity (Fiske 1989:1). Culture can be collective if a group of people share the same values, beliefs and/or ethnic background however, as Epstein (1998: 9) argued, every individual has their own unique ways of expressing their collective culture. As a result, we have different elements of cultures emerging regularly.

On the other hand, the term ‘popular’ refers to something that most people desire (Gustafsson and Rix 2007: 12). This view of the term popular fits well with the first of Storey’s definitions of popular culture, which takes into account the quantitative aspect of popularity, as expressed by the word ‘most’. Storey (2001: 5-13) presented six definitions of popular culture, but for the purposes of this study, only two of these definitions are used. The first definition of popular culture is a quantitative definition which states that it is a culture that is well-liked or favoured by many people; an approval of or by many people. It is the high culture. Storey’s second definition is said to be the culture that is ‘left over after we have decided what high culture is.’ He says it is the inferior culture. Thirdly, popular culture is defined as ‘mass culture.’ It is commercial – ‘mass produced for mass consumption.’ It refers to the ‘popular press, popular cinema and popular entertainment’. In other words, popular culture is mostly about what is portrayed and promoted by the media and what is considered entertaining. Storey’s fourth definition derives from Fiske (1989: 25) who argued that it is culture made or originated by people. However, Fiske’s statement has been criticised as his definition ‘does not consider the fact that people are exposed to mass culture that they did not make’ (Gustafsson and Rix 2007: 12). Storey stated that the fifth definition draws on the political analysis of Antonio Gramsci, whose concept of hegemony refers to the way the dominant groups seek to win

consent of the subordinate groups in society; a struggle between the two groups. The sixth and final definition is informed by the thinking around the debate on postmodernism. Storey (2001: 13 - 14) argued that all these definitions show that popular culture only emerged following industrialisation (which changed the relations between employees and employers, a shift from a relationship based on mutual obligation to one based on demands) and urbanisation (which produced a residential separation of classes).

The definitions provided above are an attempt to distinguish what is generally considered culture and what this study is focusing on, which is popular culture. The first (quantitative) and third (mass) definitions are applicable or relevant to this study given that it focuses on the culture liked by many young people and consumed by them (mass consumption).

2.3.2 Youth and Popular Culture

The United Nations General Assembly officially defined youth as ‘all persons falling between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four inclusive’ (United Nations, 1999). Eisenstadt (1963: 26), whose explanation of ‘youth’ is still relevant today, suggested that youth can be seen as a stage where an identity becomes ‘crystallised’; where there is self-regulation and self-control, and where a framework is needed to develop a full identity. The ‘youth’ tends to be constructed across two separate yet sometimes intermingling discourses of ‘trouble’ and ‘fun’ (Hebdige, quoted in McGuigan 1992: 90). It is the term ‘fun’ that influenced Bark (1999) to suggest that youths comprise a generation that is meant to enjoy their lives more than any other group in the society. As McCarthy (2000: 35) stated,

Youth is about renewal, fresh ideas challenging old traditions and yearning for the untried. Youth finds change inebriating, not intimidating. Youth is also impetuous, unpredictable; with the promise of a better future comes a veiled threat to tear down the past. Youth breaks all the rules. Youth is colourful, irreverent, entertaining, sometimes shocking, almost always rebellious. Youth is on the vanguard of fashion, music, literature and popular culture. But the

young are also the first to burl stones, to lob bombs, to rush to the barricades. Youth is, in a word, ‘energy’.

This is a generation that is attracted to, and influenced by, popular culture (Christenson and Roberts 1998; Best and Kellner 2001; Rosenberg 2002; Kidd 2002). The modern youths are a ‘free generation’ that ‘enjoy a much broader range of lifestyle and career choices than any generation preceded’ due to the ‘breakdown of many gender-based traditions and racial stereotypes (Holtz 1995: 3), and they are one of the groups in society inspired by popular culture, especially when it comes to fashion and music (Kidd 2002: 112) and technology.

2.3.3 Elements of Popular Culture

The two main elements of popular culture that dominate academic and media research are popular music and fashion. Technology also plays an important role in youth identity construction as a source of accessing and sharing information. It aids in promoting a wide range of music and fashion genres, which are seen as ‘forms of cultural expression’ (Buckingham 1993: 12).

a. Popular Music

Popular music has always been associated with relaxing and socialising and it plays a significant role in identity construction, particularly amongst the youths (McCarthy et al. 1999: 2). For Christenson and Roberts (1998: 42) popular music is for pleasure and fun; it helps in acquiring status amongst peers; it helps people stay current with popular culture; it is for relaxation; it improves or intensifies a certain mood; it may sometimes offend or irritate others; people can relate to the meaning of lyrics; people learn about the world, other cultures, and alternative points of view through music; it helps in claiming a public space for one’s group; and many people can identify with their favourite artists.

Subjects such as sociology, anthropology and cultural studies have placed a great deal of emphasis on the relationship between youth culture and popular music (Bennet 2000: 1).

Young people use music to define who they are as a group and as individuals. Music is used as an expression of ideas and fantasies and is seen as a site for ‘youthful imagination’ (McCarthy et al 1999: 6). It is a shared culture with a unifying effect, bringing people together regardless of class, gender and ethnic background (McCarthy et al. 1999: 7). Through music young people share and learn about each other’s cultural backgrounds and through these cultural exchanges and shared musical tastes, they follow on or emulate each other’s ways of living. Even though the importance of the music varies, there is still a sense of connectedness (Bennet 2000: 27):

[F]or example, hip hop enthusiasts possess essentially the same sensibilities of commercially communicated style, musical taste and ‘street-talk’ irrespective of their location on the globe – at the same time they become infused with distinctive knowledge and sensibilities which originate from the particular region in which they are lived out. Bennet (2000: 27)

The diversity of music also tends to separate the younger generation from the older generation. Generally, young people’s musical tastes are different from that of the older generation. Christenson and Roberts (1998: 84) claimed that age is probably the main or essential ‘predictor of music taste because it is primarily age that separates those who listen to pop or rock from those who do not. Older age groups also express less centrist or mainstream preferences than younger age groups.’ Cocks (cited in Christenson and Roberts 1998: 31) argued that young people desire ‘music to call their own; they need music that speaks to them while it cruises over the heads of their elders, or even better, turns them right off.’ Moreover, young people buy more CDs, download and listen to more music than any other age group in society. Their leisure and identity often revolve around music. Market research constantly reveals that there is so much peer pressure on young people to follow trends in modern music. Music ‘forms an important part of their active socialising with people of the same age group attending concerts, dance, pubs, clubs and raves’ (Mintel cited in Thornton 1995: 19). The most popular music listened to by many young people around the world includes hip-hop, rhythm and blues (R&B) and, in South Africa, kwaito and house music. This study focuses mainly on hip-hop, kwaito

and R&B, with Hip-hop and R&B music originating in America and kwaito in South Africa.

i Hip-hop and R&B

Hip-hop is one of the music genres that not only attracts most young people across the globe but has also developed into the biggest influence on youth culture (Pilhar 2004: 58). Rosenberg (2002: 157) argued that hip-hop culture does not replace other aspects of culture and identity and that, in the South African context, youths are using this music culture ‘to achieve their aspirations and dreams as well as a sense of self’. Similarly, more than just being for entertainment, hip-hop music has always played a vital role in African-American youth culture, where it originated (Rosenberg 2002: 162). African- American youths have had their share of racial oppression and have always used music to express themselves or how they feel. Hip-hop culture is also said to

inform and provide an expression of political, economic, and social identity for black youth living in the United States [and] South Africa…. Just as black South Africans who were faced with increasing hardship in the 1930s through the 1950s turned to African- American culture, they have turned to rap and hip-hop over the last decade as an expression of cultural identity. For most of the twentieth century, African-American culture has continued to appeal to Africans as an expression of overcoming inequality and hardships (Rosenberg 2002: 172).

The lyrics that are used in hip-hop have unique meanings generally liked by young people as they can relate to most of these lyrics. For example, one of the most popular hip-hop artists, the late Tupac Shakur, used one of his songs to tell the world about life on the streets – the ghetto lifestyle – and about poverty amongst African-American people:

‘I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself, "Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?" I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black. My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch. Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.

Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces. Misplaced hate makes disgrace for races we under. I wonder what it takes to make this one better place... let's erase the wasted. Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right. 'Cause mo' black than white is smokin' crack tonight. And only time we chill is when we kill each other. It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other. And although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to see a black President, uhh. It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact... the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks’ (Tupac Shakur, Song titled ‘Changes’)1.

The lyrics above tell a story of a young man who grew up in a society where a black man was seen as a gangster intent on breaking the law. At the time, black males on the streets felt compelled to run for cover when they saw the police because they suspected they were going to be interrogated – guilty or not. Tupac Shakur used his music to express his view about this kind of discriminatory treatment of black people. As a result, he was popular amongst the black youths even in South Africa as many young Africans could relate to his stories told through his music. Many young people use music as an expression or to tell how they feel about a particular situation within their communities or to tell the world about their own personal experiences and the challenges they face. This kind of music in turn defines who they are, giving them an identity only understood by those who can relate to them.

Another music genre that captivates young people is R&B (Rhythm and Blues), which in most cases can be classified under pop music. R&B tends to be enjoyed by many young people and those who enjoy hip-hop. However, unlike hip-hop, as Berger (2003: 25) argued, R&B does not give the youths a ‘critical voice’ to express their views and concerns the same way hip-hop does. For that reason, even though there are still many musicians dedicated to singing R&B only, many artists have opted for the remixing of R&B and hip-hop.

1 Extracted from the Tupac Shakur album titled ‘Greatest Hits’ 1999.

ii Kwaito

Kwaito is a South African music genre that plays a big role in the lives of young South Africans. The term Kwaito comes from ‘kwaai’, the Afrikaans word for ‘angry’ and it is also used as township slang for ‘hot and happening’ (Time 2004: 52). One of the informants in Rosenberg’s study said that kwaito is South Africa’s version of rap: ‘the lyrics describe township life, as rap would describe urban life in America. It is rap genre in what it describes, the style of the music, and what the performers wear’ (Rosenberg 2002: 168). Thandiswa Mazwai, one of South Africa’s popular kwaito, jazz and ethnic- sounds musicians, says that kwaito is ‘an expression of the freedom’ for young South Africans (Time 2004: 52). This type of music is enjoyed by young black South Africans as it is sung in African languages to accommodate those who cannot speak or understand English. As Stephens (2000: 272) argued, ‘urban black culture now has the channels in which to express an aspect of patriarchal society that Caucasian culture has been expressing for quite a while.’ He said that kwaito is creating new South African identities which include the confidence to incorporate ‘the most recent of international music and fashion while retaining identifiable South African musical elements’ (Stephens 2000: 272). South Africa is therefore incorporating other traditions into its own while placing itself upon the world map (Stephens 2000: 273).

b. Fashion

Fashion is part of popular culture and a ‘form of collective behaviour which people use to show and to construct an identity’ (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 193). The construction of an identity ‘is a social process in which we show the world, by what we wear, what groups we belong to or desire to belong to, and what groups we don’t belong to’ (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 193). Fashion is about clothes and more. It is about culture. As Silverman (1986: 145) stated, ‘clothing draws the body so that it can be culturally seen, and articulates it in a meaningful form.’ Fashion is also about hairstyles and accessories, for example, necklaces and earrings and so forth (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 194).

In most cases, fashion is related to music. An example here would fashion under the influence of either kwaito, hip-hop or R&B. Hip-hop artists have specific gear to go with their music preferences, including baggy pants, oversized t-shirts, caps worn to the side and sneakers that look oversized, while kwaito artists and enthusiasts will be dressed in a ‘tsotsi’2-like outfit reflecting what is considered to be the township style. The hats, shirts and shoes worn by kwaito artists would in most cases be the Converse brand.

Fashion is heavily promoted through music and movies by ‘fashion designers who try to make sure that their products are used on highly visible occasions, such as the Academy Awards presentations, for which the stars get clothes to choose from sent to them’ (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 204). Television makes it easy for young people to see what their favourite singers or actors are wearing and what the latest brands are as young music and movie lovers tend to dress like their favourite music artists and actors. As Kitwana (cited in Rosenberg 2002: 162) argued, the increasing popularity of music artists has started to influence the language and clothing styles of their young, adoring fans.

Fashion generally is associated with consumerism. However, not all people can afford that sort of lifestyle. As a result, young people find themselves operating within certain structural constraints. There are those who can afford and those who cannot, which determines whether an individual is ‘in’ or ‘out’ within a particular group (Maniscalo cited in Locher 1998: 100). As Best (2005: 67) argued, people are all cast into the role of consumers but some of them do not have the resources to be effective consumers. Even so, many young people will find ways to purchase the most expensive gear in order for them to be considered fashionable and to fit in. Mlangeni (2003: 5) argued that the youths are ‘the most brand-conscious generation, spending … over R4-billion3 a year on their favourite labels.’ Young people spend money on popular brands largely to be deemed acceptable by their peers. One of the things that many young people envy is to be famous, to be visible, to have fun and to look hip (Mlangeni 2003: 5). They therefore place a lot of emphasis upon material possessions, dress code and, in some cases, luxury cars

2 A South African street ‘thug’. However, these days, if a person dresses like this, it does not necessarily mean he or she is a thug. 3 The annual spending on fashion is no doubt much higher now than it was in 2003.

(Selikow, Zulu and Cedras 2002: 24). While consumerism plays a big role in youth identity construction, it must also be noted that ‘young people do not construct their identities directly through what they consume, but consumption plays an important role as a vehicle for the construction of young people’s lifestyles and it is largely within this context that their identities are constructed’ (Miles 2000: 128). However, it is important to understand that

the construction of identity through the acquisition of consumer goods is a voluntary one [and] that people who participate are not just fashion victims, they actively wish to join in and actively desire the opportunities for self-expression and display which are provided by the choices of the shopping malls (Sim 2004: 37).

Generally speaking, ‘fashion is about identity and about the self’ (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 194 -195). Jenkins (2008: 28) argued that when it comes to an identity, ‘we have no monopoly on the notion. The advertising industry, for example, has long understood how to sell people more expensive, stuff by selling them an identity: a “new look”, a “make over”, a “new me”’. Many young people have strong desires for looks or identities that are considered good and fashionable. However, as Nuttall (2004: 451) argued, in many cases, young people buy into these identities or lifestyles as a way of moving away or ‘refusing’ to face the real social issues in their communities; issues such as ‘poverty and HIV/AIDS’. Nuttall (2004: 451) therefore argued that amongst the youth, there is a ‘gap’ between aspirational culture and real social conditions. I return to Nuttall’s work later in this chapter.

c. Technology

As argued earlier in the chapter, technology has made it easier for young people to access and share popular culture. Despite living on different continents, young people are able to share experiences and lifestyles – and thus identities - by means of technological devices such as computers, cell phones and iPads amongst others. In a way, the world has become ‘smaller.’ The postmodern thinkers argue that the compression of time and space define features of the late twentieth century and that the Internet enables people to view from

their comfort spaces or homes and, in real time, events on the other side of the world (Sim 2004: 40). Young people make use of the technological devices to access whatever information they require anywhere in the world and in this way they are able to learn about the latest fashion or music release in a matter of seconds. Music can be downloaded; fashion can bought online and so forth. Modern technology is also used to instantaneously contact and stay in touch with people across the globe. Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, Skype and Facebook are examples of the technology used mostly by today’s youngsters to stay ‘connected’ and share information. Miller and Real (1998: 30) argued that ‘saturation by communication technologies is a central feature of postmodern landscape’ and that people create technology and in turn technology creates people. In addition, Best and Kellner (2001: 1-3) believed that ‘the Internet and multimedia computer technologies and cultural forms are dramatically transforming the circulation of information, images, and various modes of culture, and the younger generation thus needs to gain multifaceted skills to survive in the high-tech information society.’ Best and Kellner (2001: 1-3) further argued that the ‘Internet is a virtual treasury of alternative information and cultural forms.’

The youths are strongly influenced by technology and as a result ‘are constantly confronted with the problem of self-definition’ (Kroger 1989: 1). According Aakhus and Katz (2002: 138) technologies such as mobile phones not only make a statement about a youths’ identities in terms of class but also about how the youths want to be viewed by other people. ‘Technology is used increasingly within youth culture to project a desirable image to others; to express social status; and to make visible personal characteristics to create an identity’ (Aakhus & Katz 2002: 256). In addition, as argued by Cerulo (1997: 397) ‘one cannot consider identity without reference to new communication technologies.’

2.4 Nuttall’s view on The Zone Culture

In a study on The Zone culture, Nuttall (2004: 432) investigated a group of young people she referred to as the Y-generation or loxion kulcha, which included young people who

had attended racially mixed schools and those who had attended black township schools. Her focus was primarily on the ‘emergence of the new city youth culture’ at The Zone. This, she argued, is a culture that acknowledges apartheid South Africa but also seeks to transform (Nuttall 2004: 434). In other words, the young people Nuttall studied acknowledged the time when young black people could not socialise with young white people. However, the young people studied here expressd an ability and eagerness to mix with other races.

In her observations at The Zone, Nuttall (2004: 435) noticed that the only difference was in the way young people dressed. She found that township girls dressed differently from Model Cs4 who dressed in a more sophisticated way than their counterparts. The difference had less to do with race or skin colour than with class backgrounds. One of Nuttall’s interviewees said that whether one is black or white, they all dress the same, which meant that they did not perceive any meaningful differences between black and white youths other than just being a skin colour. These findings, according to Nuttall (2004: 436) ‘clearly show that the racial identities that emerge from Y or loxion kulcha are new in relation to the apartheid legal classification of people as white, black, Indian or Coloured’. Nuttall (2004: 449) concludes her study by arguing that ‘the emergence of new stylizations of the self, embedded in cultures of the body, represent one of the most decisive shifts of the post-apartheid era.’

2.5 Conclusion

In conclusion, it is worth noting that the construction of identity amongst youths is not only a process that they go through as they get older, but also as a way to re-emerge in contemporary society where they are bombarded by many changes. The issues explored in this chapter help in understanding the role played by popular culture in youth identity construction by exploring the elements of popular culture such as music, fashion and technology. Through music such as hip hop and Kwaito, young people are able to express

4 These are young people who go to schools that were previously for white people. They have ‘posh’ and polished accents and their dress code is different from those who go to township or rural schools.

themselves and define who they are. Fashion is also an important aspect in young people’s lives. It acts as a symbol of identity that tells the world how young people want to be seen by others. The literature revealed that music and fashion dominate the lives of the youngsters in the twenty-first century and with the use of the information technology, it becomes easier for the youths to access and download music produced globally as well as emulating the fashion styles of popular musicians or movie actors. This study aims to explore the extent to which these elements of popular culture affect identity construction amongst South African youths. The following chapter presents the research methodology applied to gather information relating to these issues.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN: AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE ZONE YOUTH

3.1 Introduction

To answer the research question posed for this study, a variety of research methods were followed. These methods were used to gather information that not only assisted in answering the research question but also filling the knowledge gap, that is, studying youths by focusing on their positive lifestyle rather than their delinquent behaviour. As mentioned previously, the purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which and the ways in which youth identity construction is affected by popular culture. In this chapter, the descriptions of the chosen site, The Zone, the sampling design, data collection methods, and limitations of the study are discussed.

3.2 Choice and description of site: The Zone

The Zone, a hi-tech urban entertainment and shopping centre in Rosebank, north of Johannesburg, was chosen as the research site. The choice was based on the general observation that The Zone is a place always crowded with young people, but it was also selected because there is very little in-depth social research about The Zone and youth identity construction. Nuttall’s work about The Zone also left some unanswered questions as her research was done from an outsider’s point of view while this study takes a view of an insider at The Zone. Moreover, The Zone is also one of the shopping complexes in South Africa that places a great deal of emphasis on popular culture. It is a mall that epitomises what fashion is. It has shops that stock top local and international clothing lines. As Shota (2004: 12) described, ‘Rosebank [The Zone], Johannesburg, is an autograph hunter’s nirvana. Somewhere between the KTV generation playing car-racing games in the Galaxy arcade and the 20-something professionals networking over cocktails at pavement cafés, there are enough celebrities, fashionistas, musicians,

wannabes and have-beens to fill up an autograph book’. It is situated on Oxford Road, in the heart of Mutual Square and Gardens. When one enters The Zone, where all the shops and restaurants are situated, you are welcomed by bright, flashy light-bulbs and colours, yellow, pink, lime-green, red, orange, purple and blue. There are televisions in the passages and colourful, modern décor that adorns the walls and floors of The Zone. As Nuttall (2004: 434) put it: ‘The Zone’s indoor roads sometimes feel like catwalks, the television screens that hang over the walkways are reminiscent of modern gyms, and its surfaces (reflective, shiny) and their colours (an energetic metallic gray flecked with primary colours) differentiate it from the neutral beige of other shopping centres.’

3.3 Research design

For the purposes of this study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. As presented by Shreve and Angelone (2010: 196), qualitative and quantitative research methods have their own advantages and limitations, however, they both offer some sort of contribution in increasing the knowledge of the researcher. Qualitative research information is gathered through a variety of empirical material, such as observations, field notes, interviews, questionnaires, and so forth (Shreve & Angelone 2010: 197) and, according to De Vaus (2002: 5), they tend to involve more participant observation, unstructured interviews and focus groups amongst others, while quantitative methods are more focused on factual information. For this study, I opted to use both methods because it is advantageous for a researcher to combine two research methods in order to have a better understanding of a concept being explored (Creswell 1994: 177), Creswell (1994: 177), proposed three models that can thus be applied: the two-phase design approach, the dominant-less dominant design and the mixed-methodology design.

The first of these approaches (two-phase) involves conducting both qualitative and quantitative enquiries. This approach is advantageous in the sense that the two methods are clearly separated – you use one first and then the other. The qualitative method plays a huge role in explaining the quantitative results, that is, there is more descriptions provided rather than just showing the numbers. The second approach (dominant-less

dominant) occurs when the researcher gathers most of the data using of one approach and the rest of the data is drawn from the alternative method. Creswell (1994: 177) argues that this approach is useful because it ‘presents a consistent paradigm picture in the study and still gathers limited information to probe in detail one aspect of the study.’ For this study, most of the data was gathered through a quantitative method and the rest through qualitative method (alternative). The third model (mixed-methodology) takes place when the researcher mixes both qualitative and quantitative methods at all or many methodological design steps (Creswell 1994: 177). The advantage of this approach is that one is able to gather information from both perspectives and be able to compare the two methods using the findings. Creswell (1994: 178) further advises that in order to apply this approach, a researcher must have good knowledge of both research methods.

For this study, two of Creswell’s (1994) models were applied: two-phase and dominant- less dominant methods. In the two-phase approach, I started by conducting qualitative research where focus groups and individual face-to-face interviews were used to gather data. At a later stage, I used the quantitative method to give a broader, more general picture to the detailed data. Each method was used separately, but the quantitative method featured more dominantly in putting together the findings.

Additional data was gathered by means of observation. The reason for applying this range of techniques was to gather as much information as possible without being restricted by the limitations of each method. For example, had the study used one method, say quantitative only, it would not have allowed the respondents to expand on aspects of their lifestyle. They would have been restricted to questions asked in the questionnaire and it would have been difficult to probe their responses. These different data collection techniques are discussed in detail later in the chapter.

3.4 Sampling

3.4.1 Target population

In this study, I was particularly interested in studying the lives of young black South Africans at The Zone, to see how they construct their identities in a democratic South Africa. Initially the target was young black youths who were between the ages of 12 and 25 years old. These age categories were based on observations done prior to the actual survey, which revealed that The Zone’s clientele mostly fell into this age category. However, it was discovered after the survey that some of the young people interviewed did not fall within the targeted age group. The information was nonetheless included in the study as they looked young and, based on observation, fitted well with the research purpose. It was later decided to include young people of all races found at The Zone in order to do a comparison to see if there are any differences in terms of identity construction. However, the decision to do this was taken after the first phase, which included the black youths only. It was not possible to go back to the field and include young people of all races in face-to-face interviews due to centre management restriction in interviewing The Zone clientele. At the end of the research, three phases could be identified. Each phase indicates what type of data collection was used as well as the period during which this data was gathered. The first phase comprised ten people who were interviewed on a face-to-face basis. The second phase included focus groups with two groups of between five and seven people. The third and final phase involved the completion of structured questionnaires by 283 people (see Table 1).

Table 1: Phases of the Research Type Period Number of respondents Semi-structured, face-to-face Between November 10 respondents interviews 2003 and July 2004 Focus Groups 14 September 2004 2 groups of 5 to 7 respondents Questionnaires 25 September 2004 283 respondents

3.4.2 Sampling Methods

Walliman (2011: 93) believed that if one wants to gather information about a large group of people, it is better to examine some of them as it would take long and be expensive to interview all. The information gathered from these people would then be used as a representative of typical of the rest. This method is called sampling. A purposive sample was used in this study. May (2001: 95) stated that in purposive sampling, ‘a selection of those to be surveyed is made according to a known characteristic.’ For this study, the target was South African youths. In the first phase, I targeted young black people at The Zone.

In some cases, a snowball sampling method was employed. In other words some of the respondents recommended that I interview other people, such as their friends whom they knew fell into same category. I then took their friends’ contact details, phoned them and asked if they would be interested in participating. In the end, only two people agreed to meet the following weekend, but never showed up.

For the second phase – focus groups – first year Sociology students at the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg) volunteered to participate in the study. Only female students were eager to take part in the survey. However, this was not exactly the best approach to drawing a sample since many of the first year students came from

outside Gauteng. They did not know Johannesburg very well and were not familiar with places such as The Zone. So this particular sample does not represent the population. Nonetheless, their comments provided some valuable insights.

During the third phase, convenience sampling method was used. According to Babbie (2010: 192), a convenience or haphazard sampling occurs when a researcher relies on available subjects. Although risky, as Babbie (2010: 192) put it, this method proved useful in this study. With the assistance of nine RAU Sociology third year students, a survey was done at The Zone. The assistants were directed to interview every fourth person coming in to The Zone. The majority of those who were interviewed were black as there were many more black people going into The Zone. There were fewer white people than usual at The Zone possibly due to a Jewish holiday on that day. There were also other events in the afternoon, for example a Gay and Lesbian parade which passed just outside on Oxford Road, reducing the number of people entering to a trickle for a couple of hours. As a result, fewer people than usual were at The Zone. However, this had a negligible impact on the overall composition of the respondents. By the end of the day, that is, after 11 hours from 10am to 9pm, 283 questionnaires were completed.

3.5 Data Collection

The initial plan was to start with observations and then do face-to-face interviews. However, due to The Zone’s restrictions and management rules regarding its patrons, the plan changed. I discuss this obstacle later in the chapter. I stopped doing face-to-face interviews and continued with the observations and later compiled a structured questionnaire to gather data (see Appendix B). The structured questionnaires were acceptable to The Zone management as they were straightforward and did not take much of the patrons’ time. The management gave us a specific date on which to conduct the survey. In addition focus groups were conducted at the University of Johannesburg (Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) at the time of the investigation).

3.5.1 Observations

One way of collecting data was through observations. This strategy was used in order to see and differentiate types of people going to The Zone. The following indicators were used to distinguish between these people: dress code, companionship (that is, to see if they go to The Zone by themselves or with other people), race and gender. Even though the target population was young people, it was fascinating to see a wide variety of people walking in and out of The Zone.

The observation included going around the shops and restaurants, looking at customers and workers. At times I would just sit in one of the restaurants and observe from a distance. Clothing sold in The Zone shops was also observed. The idea was to specifically look at types and sizes of the clothing to see who The Zone’s target market is. From these observations, it was quite clear that The Zone’s target market is young, trendy, fashion-conscious people. They also had to fit the category of an average age and size, that is, not too old or too big.

3.5.2 Semi-structured face-to-face interviews5

To gather the information on the opinions and attitudes about youth identity and popular culture, semi-structured interviews were used. Semi-structured interviews enable the researcher to ask participants to clarify and elaborate on their answers and they ‘allow people to answer more on their own terms than the standardized interview permits’ (May 2001: 123). Using a tape recorder, ten people’s views regarding The Zone and popular culture were captured. Star is a 28-year old Zulu speaking young woman who, at the time of the interview, lived in Rosebank with two of her friends. She was a television personality and a popular hair stylist who owned her own hair salon in Rosebank. I met Star with her friends, Thandi and Phumzile (not their real names), who assisted her at the salon. Thandi was 24 years old and she also spoke Zulu, and Phumzile was 26 years old and spoke Xhosa. I met them at the Y-FM shop, next to the escalators going to the second

5 See appendix C for a copy of the interview schedule

floor of The Zone where a Ster Kinekor cinema is located. We firstly talked about the way they were dressed and then an interview about youth identity and popular culture followed. The interview took about 10 to 15 minutes.

Bridgette was another one of the girls who was approached at The Zone. She was a 19- year-old Sotho speaking student who lived in Jeppestown and studied at Rosebank College. Bridgette was with her 18-year-old cousin, Sharlene, who was also a student at Rosebank College and lived with Bridgette in Jeppestown. Two other girls that participated in the study were Jacqui and Tshidi, both of whom were students at Technikon of the Witwatersrand. Jacqui was in her early twenties resided in Berea. Tshidi was 18 years old and lived in Westdene.

A few young men were interviewed as well. The first was Extro-Ice, who was in his early twenties. Extro-Ice’s home language and place where he lived were not discussed due to a lack of time and also because he dominated the conversation. Extro-Ice was a student and a part-time DJ at a nightclub in Melrose Arch. Two other young men that were interviewed were ‘Bongani’ and Bafana. ‘Bongani’ was a young Zulu man also in his early twenties. I could not get enough information from ‘Bongani’ because he was with his friends and they seemed hasty and less interested, despite the fact that he looked keen to participate in the study. Bafana was a 23-year-old Zulu speaking student at the University of the Witwatersrand. I met Bafana at the Compact Disc Warehouse, a music shop at The Zone where he was busy playing table-soccer on his own.

All respondents were black. Most of the people interviewed were tertiary students and were in Johannesburg for study purposes. Seven of the respondents were females and three were males. The oldest respondent was 28 years of age and the youngest was 18. A profile of the respondents is presented in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Profile of respondents: semi-structured face-to-face interviews Name Gender Age Home Place of Occupation language Residence Star Female 28 Zulu Rosebank Hairstylist Thandi* Female 24 Zulu Rosebank ** Phumzile* Female 26 Xhosa Rosebank ** Bridgette Female 19 Sotho Jeppestown Student Sharlene Female 18 Sotho Jeppestown Student Jacqui Female ? Tswana Berea Student Tshidi Female 18 Sotho Westdene Student Extro-Ice Male Early 20s ? ? DJ Bongani* Male Early 20s Zulu ? ? Bafana Male 23 Zulu Wits campus Student * Not their real names ** They help Star Nkosi at her salon. ? The question was not asked.

The one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted over a period of eight months, between November 2003 and July 2004, taking place at different times over weekends. The interviews generally took between 15 and 25 minutes. All interviews were conducted in English. An interview schedule (see Appendix C) was used to guide the interviews but was not always strictly followed. Respondents were given time and opportunity to speak about things they thought were important. The interviews were conducted on the first floor of The Zone. There is an ice-cream shop on the first level where most of the interviews took place. Three of the interviews were conducted while we were standing. This was problematic because the respondents seemed a bit agitated – moving from one place to another. Nonetheless, I found the interviews stimulating because the respondents were very interested in the research.

For these interviews I worked mostly with Eazy, a friend and student at AAA College (School of Advertising). He assisted me in interviewing some of the people at The Zone.

In instances where it was intimidating for me to approach male potential participants, Eazy stepped in and convinced them to participate.

3.5.3 Questionnaires6

A structured questionnaire, consisting of twenty closed questions, was designed for use at The Zone. The survey was conducted on Saturday 25 September 2004. This was undertaken with the approval of The Zone’s managers and with the assistance of nine RAU students. The assistants were positioned close to the two main entrances of The Zone to ensure that they randomly selected as many people as possible. They were told that, having completed one interview, they should approach the fourth next person to enter. It probably says quite a lot about the character of The Zone that we experienced only a small number of refusals (though the younger, township groups tended to be the most helpful and polite and a few people, mostly whites refused to assist because they thought the fieldworkers were collecting money). When it was busier and large groups were arriving, the assistants sometimes had to ‘grab’ the fifth or sixth person, but this did not appear to affect the social composition of the sample. We conducted the survey between 10am and 9pm, knowing from mall management statistics that it was very quiet before and after these hours. In the morning people tended to rush around, but from about 3pm they were generally more relaxed, and there was some shift in motivation from shopping to watching movies. During these eleven hours 283 questionnaires were completed.

The use of questionnaires was advantageous because respondents did not have to give us their names and it was quick. The structure was easy to follow. Given that the chosen sample was limited to young people at The Zone, age, gender and race categories were important for inclusion in the questionnaire to see the variety of ‘young’ people frequently The Zone. For demographic questions, home language and education level were necessary. Since the main focus of the study was about youth culture and The Zone

6 See Appendix B for a copy of the questionnaire

many questions revolved around clothing/dressing style, music and other ways of expressing youth culture.

To get an idea of the class identity of young people at The Zone, a question about the type of school that they had attended was asked. Options given for this question were private school, public suburban, public, township or other. Before the survey was conducted, the questionnaire was tested with two of the assistants in the Department of Sociology at RAU. The idea was to see how much time would be spent on answering the questionnaire and to check that there were no glaring errors or omissions in the questionnaire. It was important that the questionnaire was able to be completed in a short space of time because the target population was people who go to The Zone with other plans in mind. It was found that the minimum time to complete the questionnaire was six minutes.

3.5.4 Focus Groups

Having learned that a high proportion of people at The Zone were students, I also conducted two small focus groups at RAU 7 to gain further insights into student lifestyles. Focus group participants included first-year sociology students who had responded positively to a request from their lecturer. Five of these were 19-year old black South African women (Dineo, Thapelo, Tebogo, Prudence and Patricia), and one was a Zambian woman in her late-20s (Linda) (refer to table 3).

7 Now the Kingsway Campus of the University of Johannesburg.

Table 3: Profile of Focus Group Participants: Name Gender Age Home Occupation language Dineo Female 19 Tswana Student Thapelo Female 19 Tswana Student Linda Female Late 20s "Zambia"8 Student Prudence Female 19 Zulu Student Patricia Female 19 Zulu Student Tebogo Female 19 Sotho Student

One main advantage of using the focus group method was that participants were able to express their feelings about the topic and respond to each other’s comments. Unlike answering closed questions in a survey, they were not restricted to a few pre-determined responses.

3.5.5 Observation – Revisiting the site

In March and April 2010, I went back to The Zone to gather more data. The purpose of visiting the site again was to see if The Zone still attracts the same group of people it attracted back in 2004. It should be noted that this is not a comparative study of change over time. Instead, the follow-up visit was done to get a sense of The Zone today, since I had a lengthy study break during the course of my degree, which lasted from 2004 to 2009. The 2010 visit to The Zone was different from the 2004 study, in that there was no comprehensive questionnaire. The simple questionnaire used this time around had only three categories – age, race and gender – and only 50 respondents were targeted. Additional information came from observations and informal discussions with store sales personnel. The interviews took place on 20 and 21 March 2010. On 20 March, between 11:30am and 7:30pm, I used both the questionnaire and observation techniques. On 21

8 I did not get Linda’s home language but rather her country of origin.

March, between 12 noon and 5pm, I continued with the observation and talking to the staff at The Zone.

3.6 Data analysis

3.6.1 Qualitative data

In order to analyse the qualitative data from interviews, Huberman and Miles’ (1994) model (see Figure 1) was followed. The model comprises three stages that explain how qualitative data can be simply analysed. The first stage was collecting data in the field. Data was collected by means of written notes and tape recorder. In the second stage of analysis this data was reduced into a limited number of categories or themes (Creswell 1994: 153). In order to do this a coding procedure was used to group together related responses under a particular theme. Most of the themes emerged from questions that appeared in the interview schedule or questionnaire, but in cases where new issues were raised by respondents, a new theme was created. For example, body piercing as another way of expressing youth culture was not in the original set of questions. It came up during the observations at The Zone and was then included as an analytical theme. As a preliminary step in the process of data analysis, some of the information was displayed in the form of tables, for example respondents’ demographic information. As Huberman and Miles (1994: 429) argued, data display is an inevitable part of analysis and is defined as ‘an organised, compressed assembly of information that permits conclusion drawing and/or action taking.’ The final stage entailed verifying information and drawing conclusions. This involves a researcher interpreting or drawing meaning from the displayed data (Huberman and Miles 1994: 429). In simple terms, the figure below shows the process I took in data collection. Data was collected and reduced by selecting the most relevant findings. Some of the quantitative data is displayed in graphs or charts, while qualitative data is presented in this dissertation according to themes. The process moved from data reduction to drawing conclusions. More data was then collected in 2010 to fill the gap.

Data collection

Data display

Data reduction

Conclusion: Drawing/verifying

Figure 1: Components of data analysis: Interactive model Source: Huberman & Miles (1994: 429)

3.6.2 Quantitative data

To facilitate quantitative analysis, the data was collected and entered into an SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science) database file. Missing data was coded appropriately. The SPSS programme helped in counting the number of respondents (n), in cross tabulations, and showing the missing values. Cross tabulations were mostly used in analysing data because there was a need to see the correlations between some variables. For example, the researcher wanted to see if there is a relationship between ‘race’ and the type of ‘music’ that young people listen to. Question twenty-one, which aimed to classify The Zone according to which activities attract people the most, was left out because after collecting data it was realised that it did not provide the information required; it could not be statistically tested.

3.7 Limitations

The study was successful but it had some limitations. One of these limitations had to do with the research site. It was discovered through an interaction with one of the security

guards at The Zone that researchers, or any other person conducting interviews, needed permission from the centre management before interviewing the patrons. The management was concerned that I was harassing their customers and that my actions would have a negative effect on their turnover. With the help of my supervisors, a formal letter was submitted to the centre’s manager to ask permission to continue with the interviews. Permission was then granted.

It was also established that most of the young people socialising at The Zone on weekends were from Wits University. One of the respondents informed me that there is a bus that transported Wits students to Rosebank every weekend. It was therefore likely that they went there every weekend because there was a regular bus service between Wits and The Zone. This study focussed mainly on people who went there by choice; to understand why they preferred The Zone to other malls in Gauteng, but it is also possible that some of the Wits students frequented the mall out of convenience rather than choice as the bus only took them to The Zone.

3.8 Conclusion

The information gathered for this study was done using multiple research methods. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. This comprised focus groups, semi- structured face-to-face interviews, and questionnaires. Huberman and Miles’s interactive method was used as a guide. Using more than one research method was advantageous as it enabled me to gather a wide range of information, which helped in answering the research question. The research findings are presented in chapter four.

CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS: WHO ARE THE ZONE YOUTH?

4.1 Introduction

As already stated, this study seeks to establish the ways in which and the extent to which South African youth identity construction is influenced by popular culture. This chapter presents the research findings gathered at The Zone. The study focussed on young people’s identities with specific interest in music and fashion as aspects of popular culture. The chapter starts off by describing The Zone youths in terms of age, race and gender. It should be noted that two surveys were done, one in 2004 and the other in 2010, in order to see if The Zone clientele had changed over time. The 2010 survey was not as comprehensive as the 2004 one as it only had three categories, age, gender and race. The reasons why young people chose to hang out at The Zone and why it was an important space for socialising are also discussed in this chapter. Finally, the chapter addresses the elements of popular culture as expressed at The Zone by South African youths. The purpose is to understand how these young people turn to popular culture to define who and what they are.

4.2 The Zone

4.2.1 The Zone Youth: Demography

The findings from 2004 showed that The Zone is mainly dominated by females, especially black females and most of them are between the ages of 14 and 21. The mean age of the respondents was 19 years old. Of all the questionnaire survey respondents, 73 percent were aged between 14 and 21 and only 17 percent between 22 and 25. As can be seen in Figure 2, beyond the age of 22 years there is dramatic decline in the numbers of people frequenting the mall. The most striking thing about The Zone is that it is a ‘temple’ for youth culture. Its unofficial motto might be: for the youth, of the youth, buy

the youth and in practice The Zone seems to define ‘youth’ as existing between 14 and 25 years. As Dineo opined: ‘Adulthood, I think, is 21, but 22 to 24, ja!’

The 2010 survey results also showed that many 19 year olds frequent The Zone (see Figure 3). However, there were quite a number of people between the ages of 25 and 28 going in and out of The Zone shops. This did not come as a surprise to me as these people might be part of the same group I interviewed back in 2004.

12 0

10 0

8 0

6 0

No. Of No. Respondents 4 0

2 0

0 > 1 3 1 4-17 18 -21 2 2 -2 5 2 6-29 30 < Age of Respondents in years

Figure 2: Age of respondents in years (2004)

Age of Respondents (March 2010)

No. of Respondents 3 age 2

0 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Age of Respondents

Figure 3: Age of Respondents in years (2010)

In terms of ‘race’, using the customary categories, the 2004 study revealed that 59.0 percent (n= 167) of respondents were black, 18.7 percent (n= 53) were white, 17.7 percent (n= 50) Indian/Asian and 4.6 percent (n= 13) coloured (see figure 4). This might be compared with the population for Johannesburg, of which, at the time of the 2001 Census, 75.8 percent was black, 14.9 percent white, 5.9 percent Asian and 3.4 percent coloured (Statistics South Africa 2003a). F

w hite 18.7%

indian/asian black 18.7% 58.0%

coloured 4.6%

Figure 4: Race of respondents (2004)

From the 2010 observations, it was clear that The Zone clientele has not changed much in terms of race and gender. There were still quite a number of young black people as compared to other races. However, The Zone is a multiracial mall and caters for all races. A mixture of black, white and Indian groups were visible. In terms of gender, I could see that many people lingering around The Zone were female. This could be because many shops at The Zone cater for female clients more than the male group.

Significantly, only 14.1 percent (n= 40) of respondents in 2004 attended publicly-funded township schools (either in the past or at the time of the interviews). A total of 41.7% (n= 118) indicated that they attended public suburban schools and 41.7% (n= 118) attended

private schools (refer to table 4). These results show that The Zone attracts the middle class. Many of the public suburban schools charge fees that are as high as, or higher, than those for universities, and, culturally, their alumni have much in common with those of private schools. In popular discourse, these youths are often referred to collectively as Model Cs (though only the public suburban schools were officially designated as Model C, a category that technically belongs to the last years of apartheid). It should be noted in passing that a significant minority of young people who live in Soweto, or one of the city’s other townships, now attend a former Model C school. In addition, the dominant language in Johannesburg’s suburban schools, even for informal conversations, is English, and this is the main language heard at The Zone.

Table 4: Schools Attended

Valid Cumulative Schools Frequency Percent Percent Percent Valid Private 118 41.7 42.1 42.1 Public 118 41.7 42.1 84.3 Suburban Public 40 14.1 14.3 98.6 Township Other 4 1.4 1.4 100.0 Total 280 98.9 100.0 Missing System 3 1.1 TOTAL 283 100.0

4.2.2 Why The Zone?

Being an up-market shopping mall, The Zone itself is a symbol of popular culture. It has a ‘vibey’ feel and generally attracts people who are looking for a hangout zone that is more entertaining and considered cool. One of the reasons why some of the youths visit The Zone was that local celebrities (musicians, actors, radio DJ’s, and fashionistas) mingle there on a regular basis. Many of the celebrities represent what The Zone is about – fashion, fun and class. Some of the celebrities are employees of the Y-FM radio station,

which was located at The Zone and its target group is the youths. These are celebrities seen by most young South Africans as role models. Many young people would grab any opportunity to meet them.

Some chose to hang out at The Zone because it is both stimulating and relaxing, they said. It is a place where fun is a priority, a place of creation, a place that attracts a multi- racial crowd, and a place where identity is freely expressed. The Zone is also loved for its calm and hip atmosphere. As Dineo put it, ‘When [I’m] there, I’m myself. Everything’s just so relaxed. And I’m here by myself to have fun. It’s cool and the atmosphere is so very relaxed. You might see one or two people you know’. Jacqui insisted, ‘It’s a hip place. It’s lovely, fun. You meet different people, young I mean. Things are happening here.’ Sharlene added that ‘The Zone is calm and collected.’

Linda said that, as a person who does not have many friends in Johannesburg and South Africa in general, it could get really lonely for her, so The Zone is one of the places where she felt she could go to relax and see many different faces. She said The Zone is a place where one can enjoy walking around and going to watch movies. These were her words:

I walk around from one place to another, watch a movie. If I go to the Zone, I sit in one of the cafés, look around sort of. You know, it just [has] that appeal, you know? You bump into people and it feels like you know these people. You see people from TV. So it really does not feel lonely.

Thapelo thought The Zone was different from other malls because it was not always packed with people. She mentioned that at other malls one cannot really walk without ‘bumping’ into someone they know. In other words, The Zone offers anonymity but also the opportunity to meet new people. She said that The Zone has an ‘in-factor’. It is a place where fashion ‘rests’. Moreover, Tebogo believed that The Zone took away boredom. She said:

It’s small and full of nice shops. Lots of things that one can do to get rid of boredom. You can walk around and [not] get tired and still enjoy being there. Shops are unique. They are not shops you can obviously find in every mall in Jo’burg.

Interestingly, some of the young people go to The Zone specifically because they wanted to bump into these celebrities. For example, Dineo said:

The main thing it’s the celebrities and sophisticated people coz when you go there you will see somebody you know from television. And you wanna scream at them and say ‘Hi!’ So if you look good, you feel confident about yourself and they might give you that, you know [laughs]. They’d say ‘Hello!’

The Lingo used at The Zone For the purpose of understanding the class identities of young people at The Zone, the language that they use was also scrutinised as an indicator. Interestingly enough, 63.8% of black respondents use English to converse with their fellow black friends. Only 0.6% indicated the use of Afrikaans; 1.2% Ndebele; 1.8% Pedi; 1.8% Sotho; 9.2% Tswana; 1.2% Venda; 4.9% Xhosa; 12.3% Zulu; and 3.1% other languages. This, more than anything, highlights the middle-class character of The Zone culture. However, black youth frequently add vocabulary from their home language to conversations, giving it a subtlety and ‘hipness’ that is lacking in the English of most white youth. For instance, Dineo said: ‘I mix everything together. For example, when you wanna say “I’ll go with you home”, I go like “I’ll khapa [escort] you home” you know what I’m saying? So, that’s the kind of language that we use.’

Young people use this kind of code-switching in their everyday conversations. It is a language that goes hand-in-hand with being young and hip.

4.2.3 Socialising and fitting in

For young people, having a handful of friends and being able to fit in are important aspects of identity construction. The type of friends you have describes who and what you are. Moreover what you wear is also important when it comes to fitting in.

a. What your outfit says about you

During the interviews, I asked a question relating to the way one dressed. The question sought to find out how a young person hanging out at The Zone should look and what a person’s clothes say about them. Dineo said:

When you go to the Zone, you wear your best outfit because you are gonna see the finest people. You make [a] special effort; I make sure I have to look good coz sometimes when you go there you meet celebrities and you wanna say ‘Hi!’

Dineo added that when she goes to The Zone she wants people to recognise her; she wants to attract people’s attention. She also thought that The Zone is one of the places where people from the ‘high class’ can notice you and maybe consider you one of their own. For Linda, looking good entailed being confident while walking around at The Zone:

I think, you know, most importantly for me it’s not the way I dress, it’s the confidence that I have. You know, if you are gonna walk somewhere and look all shy…you don’t have any confidence in yourself. So it’s not necessarily what I’m wearing, but how I feel about myself and how I’m looking at that very moment, you know? So it’s not always about clothes. It’s all about your self-confidence and how you are able to interact with people in a situation.

Stylish clothing is a passport to being considered hip and cool and also fitting in. However, trying to fit in can turn a person into someone they are not, a process Nuttall (2004: 451) calls aspirational culture. Dineo said:

But because you wanna give this impression…you go there and you become somebody that you are not. You try to fit in [because] you wanna fit in so badly. So you wanna have more money, you wanna look good, you wanna flow good, you wanna have that persona that tells them, ‘Listen, I can fit in with you guys, you know? I’m part of this thing, I come here all the time, you know? This is my hang out and I can be like you guys. I can hang out with you guys, can I please hang out with you guys’, you know what I mean? It’s different when you go to other malls. Like in my area, I just go there and I can wear flip-flops, doesn’t really matter. It does not mean much coz I go there all the time. So when you go to the Zone, you think to yourself, you know this is a hang out where sophisticated people hang out… You wanna play in with everybody else.

b. Friendship

Friendship at The Zone seems to be one of the important aspects in youth identity construction. During the survey, I observed how many people came to The Zone alone or with a companion. The fact that most of the young people I saw during my observations had someone with them suggests that youth identity construction is not just about an being an individual but also about fitting in with a groups of friends. However, as mentioned earlier, it is very important to choose friends that one can identify with. They must be friends that understand your views and lifestyle and most importantly, they must share this lifestyle and share the same sentiments about The Zone or just enjoy the same entertainment and fashion. These friends must at least be The Zone type. Dineo said that since she hates shopping by herself, she picks friends who are sophisticated and not ‘loud’. Over and above that, going to The Zone required some pre-planning. This is what she said:

If I went to Westgate [one of the biggest shopping malls in Johannesburg on the West Rand] it doesn’t really matter. I’d pick any friend and I’d pay for them. But if I go to The Zone, eish! 9I choose someone nice I can have a good conversation [with]. Then I choose

9 An expression to show excitement and disbelief.

my friends that way. And then when we get there, then you know that fine, she’s not too loud, she’s sophisticated, you know she wouldn’t embarrass me in public.

The responses from the questionnaires also confirmed that it is important to have some kind of a companion, it could be a friend, sibling or partner, while hanging out at The Zone. The survey results showed that 59.4% (n=168) respondents were at The Zone with their friends on the day of interview, 21.6% (n=61) were with family members, 16.6% (n=47) were there by themselves, and 2.5% (n=7) were with other people (for example, colleagues) (see Table 5).

Table 5: Companionship at The Zone Valid Cumulative Companionship Frequency Percent Percent Percent Valid Alone 47 16.6 16.6 16.6 Friends 168 59.4 59.4 76.0 Family 61 21.6 21.6 97.5 Other 7 2.5 2.5 100.0 Total 283 100.0 100.0

Gender, race and school were cross-tabulated with the number of companions that respondents had. For gender, the aim was to assess whether there were any significant differences between males and females in terms of the number of people they had. It was found that as many female respondents as males had at least one companion, that is 30.6% for females and 30.9% for males. It can thus be seen that there was no statistically significant difference between the number of companions that male and female respondents had. As for people who were there in groups, it was also found that 30.7% female respondents had more than two companions with them and that 35% of male respondents were accompanied by more than two people. Again there was no significant difference between males and females where numbers of companions are concerned.

Regarding race, it was found that 50% (n=82) of black respondents had at least one black companion with them and 21.3% (n=35) of black respondents were in groups at The Zone. On the other hand, only 30.8% (n=4) of coloured respondents had at least one companion with them while 15.4% (n=2) of coloured respondents were in groups. For Indians, 45.3% (n=24) respondents had one companion each while 39.6% (n=21) were in groups. For white respondents, 35.8% (n=19) had at least one companion each while 32.1% (n=17) were in groups. There were very few multi-racial groups at The Zone. Only 38.5% (n=5) of black respondents were in multi-racial groups; 15.4% (n=2) coloured respondents were in multi-racial groups; 23.1% (n=3) Indian respondents were also in multi-racial groups; and another 23.1% (n=3) of white respondents were in multi-racial groups. So, in this survey, there were only 13 multi-racial groups. Most groups comprised youths of the same race (37 black, 21 Indian, 18 white, and 2 coloured groups).

The study also attempted to examine whether the schools that respondents attended had an influence on the number of companions or friends that respondents had. The idea here was to see whether coming from a certain school had an impact on one’s social attributes or skills. It was found that for those who attended private schools, 32.2% of respondents had at least one companion each, 39.9% were in groups and 16.9% were at The Zone by themselves. For public suburban schools, 50.4% were at The Zone with at least one companion each, 28.5% were in groups and 21% were there by themselves. On the other hand, for those who attended public, township schools, 61.5% were at The Zone with at least one companion each, 20.6% were in groups and 17.9% were by themselves. What I also found interesting is that not all respondents saw the company of a friend as important while hanging at The Zone. Some felt it was not such a bad idea to be on their own. Rather they saw being alone as an opportunity to meet people and maybe make new friends. As Thapelo, from a public suburban school, said:

I do go on my own sometimes. You just sit there and somebody would just come and join you. I mean that’s the Zone, the friendliest place ever! So people come and hang out with you, so you don’t even feel you are on your own.

In addition, The Zone is a place where girls can meet good looking and rich men. Dineo agreed without doubt:

Definitely rich guys [laughing]! If you go to Westgate you get these local [guys] and they ask YOU for money. But when you go to the Zone, you know you are getting out of there [by] car – at least that’s transport…they even offer you lunch. So it’s a nice place to pick up guys.

4.3 Elements of Popular Culture as experienced at The Zone

As stated earlier, The Zone is an upmarket and popular shopping mall and that makes it a symbol of popular culture. Be that as it may, it was still critical to investigate to extent to which the young people at this mall are affected by the popular cultural signals. The focus was mainly on music and fashion because as Buckingham (1993: 12) suggested, these are the some of the ‘forms of cultural expression’ for young people. I have, however, included in this section other ways that young people express their identities.

4.3.1 Music As far as music preferences were concerned, a choice between R&B, hip-hop, pop kwaito and others was listed in the questionnaire. I also asked the question while conducting the face-to-face interviews to figure out the type of music preferred by the South African youths who hang out at The Zone. Based on face-to-face interviews, seven out of the ten interviewees indicated a preference for R&B (Rhythm and Blues) and hip-hop music. When asked why they preferred it to kwaito, which is local, their response was that most kwaito artists/musicians do not have genuine ‘meanings’ that one can identify with in their songs. In other words, kwaito songs do not have messages that one can learn from or relate to. When asked why she preferred R&B and hip-hop to kwaito, Jacqui, a student at Wits Technikon (now part of the University of Johannesburg) in her early 20s, said:

I identify with it [R&B and hip-hop]. Kwaito and classic is just not me. R&B and hip-hop are what up-to-date youths listen to. They define us as young people. … The Western is always better. It is quality and long-lasting. For example, if you [buy] Arthur’s ‘mnike’ album, you will [only] listen to it for one year. The next year you

don’t want it. You find it boring. But if you buy Mariah Carey’s, I mean you can listen to it for a long time – ten years and [it] will still entertain you and you’ll love it. So, Western music is quality.10

However, some of the respondents felt that even though South African music seemed boring and perhaps meaningless, there were artists who compiled good music. For example, Thapelo said that Kabelo, a South African kwaito musician, is her favourite because ‘he’s the only guy who’s making sense’ when he sings. The most favoured artists that respondents mentioned were: R. Kelly, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, J-Lo, Usher, Jay-Z, Eminem, Missy Elliot, Outkast (all of these being American musicians). Some respondents also spoke about local artists such as Squatter Camp, Kabelo, Revolution, and Trompies. Traditional (African) music does not seem to appeal to many young people. As Dineo put it:

I like a little bit of everything that has good lyrics…so it can be anything. But I don’t like the Zulu traditional…. no, e-e!11 Yes, it’s African but it’s not something I would…I wouldn’t buy the CD. It’s nice when you listen to it when it’s tuned on the radio, but it’s not my type of thing to listen to. So anything with an American beat.

Another respondent, Linda, who was in her late twenties at the time of the interview, said, ‘I’m into R&B, but I do listen to a bit of kwaito, except that I do get lost.’ She is Zambian and did not exactly understand the South African words used in kwaito music. She claimed that with some of the lyrics, she needed someone else to tell her ‘this is what they talk about’. However, she did express a liking for Mandoza [South African kwaito musician], saying that his music has ‘a good beat.’ She continued, ‘I’m a bit of everything. Once in a while I listen to Jazz. But then again, music changes all the time. I’m heading towards my 30s and everything just takes the different perspective.’

In addition, most of the respondents declared that they enjoyed listening to hip-hop and house music when they are ‘hanging out’ with their friends. R&B is a music-genre that

10 It should be noted that most South African music artists are adopting the Western style, which might have a big impact on the way young South Africans view local music. 11 An expression showing her strong disagreement.

they mostly listen to when they are relaxed or ‘chilling’ with their partners. As Star Nkosi put it: ‘It really depends on the mood one is in, you know! Sometimes it’s about how you feel. Other people are addicted to rock ’n roll because there’s something about it that gets them entertained.’ Twenty-three year old Bafana, who was a student at the University of Witwatersrand, expressed the same feeling: ‘I listen to any kind of music, it depends on the situation. I listen to R&B, hip-hop, African jazz; you know Joyous Celebration12 and the like. I do listen to kwaito from time to time. I just love music.’

Respondents were also asked about the latest CD that they had bought and most of them mentioned American musicians. For example, Dineo mentioned that she had just bought Jaheim’s CD and the moment she mentioned that, Thapelo excitedly expressed her love for Jaheim. Linda also mentioned the American star, Usher. For Dineo, Usher’s CD was, at the time, ‘the nicest thing you can have. It’s very relaxing.’

Looking at the results from the survey, it was confirmed that indeed young South Africans prefer R&B and hip-hop to local kwaito, especially music with an American sound (see Figure 4 below). As shown in this Figure, only 7.4% (n=21) of the respondents preferred kwaito music, 39.2% (n=111) preferred R&B, 27.9% (n=79) preferred hip-hop, 4.6% (n=13) preferred jazz and 20.8% (n=59) preferred other music. It should be noted even though jazz music was not part of the initial study, as seen in the literature review, it was decided to include it after some older participants showed their interest in this genre. When it came to their preferred music artist, many survey respondents between the age 12 and 23 also indicated that Beyonce, Usher and R.Kelly, (American R&B singers), and 50 Cent (an American hip-hop artist) were their favourites. What is also interesting is that hip-hop is being featured in most of the R&B songs. Many R&B artists use hip-hop artists to remix their songs as generally hip-hop is starting to gain a bigger audience than R&B and this is seen all over the world. It therefore becomes quite tricky to distinguish between R&B and hip-hop music. Even though R&B is the most popular in young people’s lives, it is quite often enjoyed if there is a bit a dance

12 South African gospel group

coming from hip-hop sounds. This can also be seen on television, music channels where DJs mix R&B and hip-hop to create rhythmic dance sounds.

120

111 100

80 79

60 59

Frequency 21 13 0 kwaito R& Hip-hop jazz other

Music

Figure 5: Music Preference

The study also endeavoured to see if there was any relationship between age and music that people listen to. It was found that while younger respondents (aged between 12 and 25) preferred R&B and hip-hop, most of the older respondents who completed the questionnaire indicated a preference for jazz. Class – indicated in this study by the schools that respondents had attended – seemed to have some kind of influence on the type of music they listen to. By comparing the four types of music (kwaito, R&B, hip- hop and jazz) and simultaneously looking at the types of schools (private, public suburban and public township), it was found that those who attended private and public suburban schools had less interest in kwaito. They indicated a preference for R&B and hip-hop. On the other hand, those who attended public township schools preferred kwaito, suggesting that the kind of music that young people at The Zone preferred was possibly related to their class background. Interestingly race did not seem to be related to music preference in a significant manner. This was also deduced from the radio stations that respondents listened to. The younger group preferred stations such as YFM and Metro-FM, while the older group preferred stations such as Kaya-FM and SAFM which are considered to be aimed at a more mature audience.

Table 6: Chi-Square Tests – Relationship between music preference and school attended Value df Asymp. Sig (2- sided) Pearson Chi-Square 23.076ª 12 .027 Likelihood Ratio 21.453 12 .044 Linear-by-Linear .223 1 .637 Association No. of Valid Cases 280 ª. 7 Cells (35.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .19

4.3.2 Fashion

Despite the six year gap between 2004 and 2010, when it came to fashion, not much had changed. Commenting on students and fashion, Ngudle (2009), a local newspaper journalist, argued that young varsity students will not compromise when it comes to fashion and they dress to look like stars. One of the people Ngudle talked to was a third year student at the University of Johannesburg who confessed that she loved fashion but that having good taste was also very important. She felt that it was inappropriate at the age of 22 to wear colours that were too bright if you want to be considered fashionable (Ngudle 2009).

This is not different from the young people I interviewed back in 2004 who saw ‘sophistication’ as the key word in terms of what you wear. One must look sophisticated with a recognised brand to be considered cool and hip. What you wear says a lot about you as a human being and as a young person at The Zone. Fashion plays an important role in youth identity construction. For the youngsters, the right gear amounted to proof of a cool lifestyle. At the time of conducting the research, Stoned Cherrie and Sun Goddess were two of the top local designer shops in the country. If one purchased a

garment from either of the upmarket clothing stores, they would have been classified as sophisticated and classy. It should be noted that these two stores sold very expensive clothes. On special occasions such as music events, formal government events, or sporting awards, these two outlets used to dress most of the South African celebrities. Their dresses had a Western design but the print on the fabric is mostly a mixture of African ethnic designs. These ranged from Xhosa, Sotho, Xitsonga, and even Nigerian prints. Their clothing was also showcased at high fashion runway events. Stoned Cherrie and Sun Goddess inspired and paved way for many young local designers in South Africa. Some of the more dominant brands observed at The Zone included Levi’s, Puma, Diesel, Sissy Boy, Nike, Adidas, Guess, Lacoste, All Star and Billabong. One very cold night back in 2004, I noticed that most young people were dressed in designer boots and jeans, with a chain going from one loop hole to a front pocket of the jeans; a style similar to that of international stars like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Kelly Rowland. These celebrities were fashion icons back in 2003 and 2004.

When it comes to race I noticed that young white girls dressed differently from young black and Indian girls. White girls tend to wear printed t-shirts and jeans while the Black and Indian girls often preferred elegant tops and trousers. Among the boys, there were fewer ethnic differences; branded t-shirts coupled with ‘worn-out’ jeans were very fashionable.

When asked why they prefer these brands, respondents said that it makes one feel popular or ‘cool’. As Jacqui put it:

This [Diesel] is youth brand. It is part of my identity. I mean, to be considered a hip young somebody these days, you have to wear recognised clothes. Levi’s, Sketchers, Nike, Puma – youth stuff, you know. These are youth things.

Bongani, responded in the following manner when asked about clothing style: ‘Labelled clothes are just “cool”. There’s no doubt about that. They make one feel expensive and

“cool”.’ Dineo stressed that expensive clothes attract people’s attention. She said that if one is wearing branded jeans, the label must at least be visible. She explained:

But when you go there [The Zone], you have to show the label, like ‘I’m wearing a Levi’s jean’, you know? It’s just that when you are wearing a label, they look at you, you get attention. … I mean the way you dress; you just have to make sure you at least put a label. I mean at least a Diesel something in one of your clothes. You know I used to put on miniskirts but I’d make sure that I put on my nicest sneakers … and you do get recognition and people would go like, ‘Wow, nice takkies!13’ and I’m like ‘yeah!’

For some, branded clothes do not mean anything: ‘It is just a label’ suggested 24-year old, Thandi. She said:

I don’t like to follow trends type fashions [sic]. Labels are cool, but not that important to me. I can even go to cheap shops, as long as they’ve got nice things I like. It’s about the look. It’s not what you wear but how you wear it. I love to be an African girl.

Brigitte, a 19-year-old student at Rosebank College, felt the same way. She said she buys wherever she sees anything that appeals to her. It does not have to be a brand. At The Zone, she prefers EQ and Y-shop. ‘I love Y-shop14!’ she said. But Y-shop also sells brands!

It was discovered that people tend to judge a person because of the way they are dressed. Certain other attributes are read off the clothing one wears. For example, Thapelo was glorified because of the way she looked. She said to me: ‘Sometimes I’d dress elegantly and people would ask, “What car are you driving?” And I’m like, “Shit! I don’t drive,” you know?’

As suggested in the literature, some of the respondents felt that music and clothes (the way one chooses to dress) have some kind of a link. Dineo said:

13 Sneakers. 14 A clothing shop sponsored by the popular youth radio station, Y-FM. It sells clothing for young people with a South African township theme.

Sometimes it does have a link coz you get these guys who have baggy jeans and hanging shirts, and then you know that fine, that one is hip- hop. And then you get those who wear tight jeans and you know that’ll be Usher or a Jaheim, you know. But with girls, you don’t get it often. You get it mostly about guys. It’s like he dresses like this because he likes this kind of music. Then you associate it. What you wear does tell a lot about who you are.

During this study, young South Africans had developed two terms to categorise the way they dress, namely ‘amabourgeois’ and ‘amatsatsatsa’. The amatsatsatsa were considered the keen companions of fashion but not ‘high class’ people, or did not wish to appear so, avoiding expensive brands. For the amabourgeois, luxury and ‘high class’ places were important. During one of the group interviews, Thapelo commented on a young man who walked past, saying that he dressed very nicely; a ‘bourgeois’. He was wearing Levi’s jeans with a short-sleeved, striped shirt and Diesel sneakers. Kenny Latimore, the R&B singer, was also said to be an example of ‘bourgeois’, and Dineo kept talking about his bootleg jeans, ‘nice’ shirts and jackets, and, most importantly, the way he matches everything with his stylish caps. His physical movements were also described as ‘bourgeois’. Today, this look would be referred to as B.E.E.15, which refers to a black person who was previously disadvantaged but now has a good job usually in the corporate sector, and who is able to dress in a sophisticated, fashionable manner.

The findings also suggested that most young people dress in trendy clothes because they want to fit in, and be able to socialise at The Zone. Trendy clothing is a perfect way to be considered hip and cool and can also assist those who are just trying to fit in. Young people create their identities keeping in their mind who is watching them. As some of the respondents stated, friends are chosen according to their status, that is, the way they look, where they hang out, and how ‘sophisticated’ they are. This issue relates to Thom and Coetzee’s (2004: 183) argument that ‘identity formation relies not only on society’s expectations and recognition of the individual: it also depends on the individual’s expectations and recognition of society’ and that identity is said to ‘relate to how we

15 The letters B.E. E. stand for Black Economic Empowerment, but is also used in the figurative sense as suggested above..

think about ourselves as people, how we think about other people around us, and what we think others think of us.’ Thapelo also believes that nowadays, young people will do anything to wear recognised brands in order to fit in. She gave an example of a girl who has everything from Diesel, Levi’s, Adidas, Nike and more. You would think that she is from a very rich family when you meet her. But the truth is that she stays in one of the shacks in Soweto and her family is very poor.

4.3.3 Other ways of expressing youth culture

Another way of expressing individuality is through hair-styles and body piercing. ‘Your hair says a lot for starters,’ commented Dineo. Most of the black youth, males and females, have dreadlocks, or they put on hair extensions or braids. Long, luxurious hair is still popular among Indian girls. Body piercing is popular with black and white youth, though rare with Indians. Whereas, nose rings and eyebrow rings are common among the whites, boys and girls, black boys seem to like rings in their tongues and lower lips, and belly button rings have recently become popular with black girls (as part of the short t- shirt ‘stomach out’ style).

4.3.4 Technology

Technology is making it easier for young people to access and share information and to learn about the latest fashion or music. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Mix-it are some of the social networking sites that are used by many young people to communicate, share information, pictures and learn about each other’s cultures. To some extent, the ordinary youths are able to intimately communicate with their idols or celebrities. In addition, today’s cell phones are even Internet friendly. Young people do not need to purchase an expensive computer then pay for Internet in order for them to access these social networks. They can easily access them through their smartphones. During the observations in 2010 I noticed a lot of people using cell phones not only at The Zone, but everywhere. A cell phone seems to be an accessory that every person requires. As argued

by the senior vice president of the comScore, Donovan, ‘Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web.’ Through the social media, with the use of mobile devices ‘people [are able to] communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser’ Donovan continued (Walters 2010: 12).

4.4 Costs of being at The Zone

Being able to hang out at The Zone comes with a price. The Zone is a place for people who have deep pockets, people who can afford it as it is very up-market place as compared to other shopping malls. It comprises very expensive shops and not just anybody can afford to buy there. As Nuttall (2004: 434) argued, ‘[t]he Zone is a privatised and upmarket urban space which excludes those who are poor.’ At the time of conducting the research, a pair of ladies trousers at regular clothing stores cost about R80. At The Zone, a similar pair of trousers cost about R300. This finding resulted in an interest or rather curiosity in finding out how much young people spend at The Zone. Of all the respondents, only 8.8% (n=25) indicated that they spent less than R100 per month at The Zone, 50.9% (n=144) spend R100 to R500 per month, 21.9% (n=62) respondents spend R600 to R1000 per month, and 18.4% (n=52) use more than R1000 per month at The Zone. As can be seen from these figures, the highest percentage was for those who spent R100 to R500 per month. For teenagers, this kind of spending is generally only possible with parental support, and most respondents, 65.7 percent (186), reported that their parents provided their spending money, compared to 32.2 percent (91) using their own money. The bottom line is that one needs to have enough money to enjoy a visit to The Zone. As Dineo said, ‘I need to have about R500 spending money, just for a day… you know, for just maybe like eating or movie.’

In order to test the universal generalisation that women love shopping more than men, an effort was made to test the relationship between gender and the amount of money spent at The Zone per month. Since the p-value was 0.950, the null-hypothesis accepted. In other

words, all youths in the study, regardless of gender spent more or less the same amount of money per month at The Zone. The results indicated that 51.9% of female respondents spent between R100 and R500 per month, as did 51.5% of the male respondents. This was followed by 23.2% of females and 21.6% of males who spent between R600 and R1000 per month. Finally, it was found that 18.4% of females and 18.6% of males spent R1000 and more per month at The Zone (See Table 7).

Table 7: Chi-Square Tests – Relationship between gender and amount of money spent at The Zone Value df Asymp. Sig (2- sided) Pearson Chi-Square .352ª 3 .950 Likelihood Ratio .346 3 .951 Linear-by-Linear .075 1 .784 Association No. of Valid Cases 282 ª. 0 cell (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 6.88

Moreover, all youngsters, regardless of race, appeared to spend more or less the same amount of money at the Zone.

4.5 Conclusion

This chapter highlighted the findings as studied at The Zone in Rosebank as well as from the focus groups done with the students who use The Zone itself as a site of hangout. The findings show the relationship between youth identity construction and popular culture and how the elements of popular culture play a role. It is also evident in the findings that The Zone itself is a lifestyle dominated by popular culture. The study also shows that many of the young people observed move with the times, that is, they buy the latest brands to buy and listen to the latest music. They make use of the new technology to access information about current trends. They also use this technology to communicate and share information with friends and also to tell the world who they are by means of

profile and status updates using the social networks. The Zone also seemed to be a place where race is not an issue when it comes to friendship. Young people at The Zone socialise with anyone despite their racial background. The youth of The Zone are the youth of self-confidence, the youths of fashion, the youth of technology and the youth of class.

CHAPTER FIVE

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION: POPULAR CULTURE A WAY OF LIFE

5.1 Introduction

The purpose of this study was to explore the South African youth identity construction and how popular culture plays a role in this process. The study focused on the young people who hang out at The Zone, a shopping mall in Rosebank, Johannesburg. The study was of interest, because as a young person myself, who enjoyed spending time at The Zone, I became curious in understanding what makes The Zone a popular hangout for young people and what role it plays in their identities. The focus was primarily on the construction of youth identity at The Zone by looking at the main elements of popular culture being music and fashion. In the preceding chapters, I provided the literature related to this research study, the research methodologies as well as the data collated at The Zone in 2004 and 2010. This chapter analyses the research findings as discussed in chapter four in an attempt to answer the research question posed at the beginning of the study which asked “to what extent and in what ways are the identities of youths at The Zone influenced by popular culture?” The chapter finally provides concluding remarks and discusses the need for further research.

5.2 The Zone – An Identity

As stated earlier, The Zone is one of the upmarket and popular shopping malls in Johannesburg, and has the characteristics of popular culture: it is ‘well-liked among a majority of people’ and features ‘popular entertainment’ (Storey 2001). The findings of this study provide a picture and an understanding of what type of mall The Zone is and the kind of identity or culture that is represented by or at The Zone. It is quite clear from this investigation and Nuttall’s study that The Zone is a hub for trendy and brand- conscious young people. With its sought after fashion, it is no wonder it is always crowded, especially on weekends. The mall has a youthful atmosphere and is also

considered to be one of the malls in Johannesburg loved by many South African celebrities. During the 2010 observations, I learnt that The Zone was expanding and would, by the year 2011, have more shops that will sell international brands much desired by fashionable young South Africans. This will not only boost what it already has in terms of clientele, but will also mean more opportunities for those who are already hooked to The Zone to ‘reinvent’ themselves and mould or shift their identities. With its new restaurants, more young people who prefer to just relax in a classy environment rather than shopping will find it ideal.

One could argue that The Zone is a mall for the young at heart. Even though a change was visible during the 2010 research observation, I am convinced that the same youths who used to hang out at The Zone back in 2003/2004 while they were still students are the same people I saw in 2010. It can be assumed that their preference for The Zone had not changed even as they grew older. It is likely that those who were students in 2004 are now earning a salary and have more income at their disposal to spend at The Zone which, by 2012 had shops that catered for corporate employees and young executives. In addition to trendy, casual clothes, several shops sell clothes that are more sophisticated and appropriate for the corporate environment. This shows that some shops at The Zone have adapted in line with the lifestyle changes of the people they used to cater to.

An interesting aspect about The Zone is the mixture of races in friendship. Young South Africans have come a long way as far as racial discrimination is concerned. The youths at The Zone are a good example of what it means to live in a democratic South Africa. It was quite interesting to discover that the skin colour difference is not even an issue to them. Increasing numbers of racially diverse friendships can be seen at The Zone. Perhaps the biggest commonality between the youths at The Zone is that they all have disposable income to spend. I believe it would be difficult to form a friendship with someone who does not have money to spend at a place like The Zone as it is not a cheap place to hang out. This was the same issue that Nuttall’s (2004) discovered during her study on the Y generation. This is the generation that focuses on having fun, having a career and moving away from the apartheid times. It is a generation that is separated by status, not skin colour. It is also a generation that is creating a new vision of what it

means to be a young person in South Africa who is free to explore who he or she is and what he or she likes in life.

5.3 Elements of Popular Culture

The study has established that young people use music and fashion to define who they are and to identify with each other. Music and fashion, as Buckingham (1993: 12) suggested, are some of the ‘forms of cultural expression’ for young people. Today, it cannot be ignored that technology goes hand in hand with music and even fashion.

5.3.1 Music

It has been shown in the study that music is an important aspect of young people’s lives. They use music to entertain themselves and to relax. Music is therefore perceived as one of the ways of expressing people’s feelings and identity and, according to Rosenberg (2002: 164), it has its own values and style. Technology has made it easy for Africans to be exposed to music such as hip-hop and R&B, mostly from the United States, and also to the kinds of identities it brings. Music is easily downloaded using mobile phones and computers and one does not have to wait for the latest songs to be played on the radio. They can listen anytime, anywhere as long as they have a mobile phone. The findings thus confirm the assertion that music ‘has claimed a significant space in current urban culture in South Africa’ (Clark 2003: 8).

Most of the young South Africans seem to prefer R&B and hip-hop to other local music genres. However, South Africa is developing in terms of hip-hop and R&B music with South African artists adopting styles that have originated mostly in the Unites States of America. This supports the suggestion by Loots (2003: 68) that the South is ‘consuming American mainstream hip-hop culture as if it were its own.’ This is very important in terms of music because popular music will now be produced locally and may increase identification with local artists as opposed to American singers.

The study has established that music preference is related to one’s class background. It seems those who attended public township schools preferred kwaito, which is popular in the townships where it originated. The fact that it is sung in local languages means that it can be understood by those who were fortunate enough to be sent to the former model C schools. This becomes an interesting issue in terms of those who hang out at The Zone. I mentioned in the study that The Zone is a classy mall and quite expensive in terms of shops and restaurants. Therefore, the fact that the number of young people at The Zone who preferred hip-hop and R&B was higher than the rest of those who preferred the other music genres means that the people at The Zone are from better off families that have access to economic resources and good education, and can even afford sending their children to private schools. Interestingly race did not seem to play much of a role in terms of music preference.

5.3.2 Fashion

Fashion is one of the means that young people use to express themselves. Since most of the people at The Zone are generally well-off, they can afford to incorporate new fashion trends into their lives and their identities. In many cases, young people use their dress sense to blend in with a certain group of individuals. Even if they cannot afford it, they still want it and they will go out of their way to have a taste of it. It was established that most young people dress in trendy clothes because they want to fit in and be able to socialise at The Zone. The right gear is, in most cases, a ticket to a ‘cool’ group of youths at The Zone. Most respondents suggested that one must make a special effort when getting dressed to visit The Zone. One must look sophisticated with a recognised brand to be considered cool and hip. What you wear says a lot about you as a human being and as a young person at The Zone. Fashion, therefore, is one of the building blocks in youth identity construction. As shown in chapter two, people use fashion to ‘show and to construct an identity’ and what one wears is some form a way of showing the world who a person is (Kratz and Reimer 1998: 193).

5.3.3 Technology

In this century, it is difficult to separate technology from youth identity. There is a lot of evidence to show that they go hand in hand. Globally, technology has become an important tool in households. On average, each household will have a television set, a computer and a mobile phone. For young people, these are the most things to have. Technology makes it easier for young people to access any kind of information they need. For example, one does not have to wait for a CD to be available at the music stores, they can just download the music they want to listen using their computers or mobile phones. This research study did not go into detail in terms of technology as another aspect of popular culture which plays a role in identity construction, largely because smart phones and social networking were not a social reality when the bulk of this research was conducted. Nonetheless, even during the 2004 survey, it was quite clear that having a mobile phone was a critical thing for young people. Besides the fact that it is used for communication, it was a fashion statement. By 2010, mobile phones had become even more important in young people’s lives due to their enhanced capabilities and functions. By then the social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, My Space had become popular. People were sharing information about themselves and making more friends through these networks. Today’s youths are part of the Facebook and Twitter generation.

5.4 Summary of the Study

With the aim of answering the question “to what extent and in what ways are the identities of youths at The Zone influenced by popular culture?”, the study relied on previous research on this topic. One specific study that was quite relevant was the study done by Nuttall (2004) who investigated youth identity at The Zone. Unlike Nuttall’s work, my own study focused more on music and fashion as the most important aspects of youth identity construction.

Data was collected from young people who frequented The Zone and from university students at the University of Johannesburg (then Rand Afrikaans University). The main

purpose was to understand why The Zone is of such interest to many young people and how elements of popular culture shape these particular people’s lives. The findings showed that music and fashion in particular are very important in defining who a person is. The right outfit and the right type of popular music help in identifying with other like- minded youths, allowing one to form friendships which act as a reference point for the shaping of one’s own identity. Although this study did not go into detail on the role of technology it is clear that without it there would not be the sharing of information in terms of music and fashion which would limit exposure to new trends.

5.5 Concluding Remarks: My view versus Nuttall’s

Using Nuttall’s study was quite useful for background purposes as she, like me, also focused on the youth at The Zone. Her study explored what she called the ‘emergence of the new city youth culture’ focusing mainly on the transformation from the apartheid times to the post-apartheid times where young people socialise together despite their skin colour differences (Nuttall 2004). Nuttall also looked at the way the young people at The Zone dressed but my study was less ‘political’ compared to Nuttall’s. She argued that there is a shift away from Generation X as the youth ‘remake the past’ (2004: 432) and she concentrates on how this new Generation Y has transformed itself. I have also focused on Generation Y, looking mainly at the role of music and fashion in the shaping of youth identity.

With that said, I am of the view that young South Africans have found ways that enable then to define who they are in the global society. They are part of the bigger society, that is, living life in much the same way as Western youths are living theirs. The Western world shares the same music and fashion sense, which is easily exchanged through technology. The Zone youths are in many ways a replica of the global youth culture.

5.6 Limitations of the Study

The challenge I faced in this study was in terms of access to The Zone. As mentioned in Chapter Three, initially the study focused on the lives of young black South Africans at The Zone, to see how they construct their identities in a democratic South Africa and the target was young black youths who were between the ages of 12 and 25 years old. These age categories were based on observations done prior to the actual survey, which revealed that The Zone’s clientele mostly fell into this age category. However, it was discovered after the survey that some of the young people interviewed did not fall within the targeted age group. It was later decided to include young people of all races found at The Zone. However, the decision to do this was taken after I had done the survey at The Zone, which included the black youths only. It was not possible to go back to the field and include young people of all races in face-to-face interviews due to centre management restriction in interviewing The Zone clientele. For this reason, the study could not follow the same method used to gather information about the youths at The Zone.

Another limitation comes as a personal matter. As already mentioned in Chapter One, due to personal reasons, I took a four year study break and only went back to The Zone in March 2010 to do some follow up research and to see if there had been any changes between 2004 and 2010. As a result, this study contains information that reflects an earlier time period and there have been a lot of changes in terms of music, fashion and technology.

5.7 Recommendations for Further Research

As mentioned earlier, when I conducted the bulk of the fieldwork for this study, social networks were not part of the everyday realities of young people. It is important that future research focus more on the role played specifically by technology in youth identity and culture. There is a need to engage with current activities as far as social networks are concerned. The fact that one person can now have hundreds of friends even if they had

never met is very interesting indeed and maybe investigating it in more detail could reveal new insights about how the youths of Generation Z shape their identities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aakhus, M & Katz, J.E. 2002. Perpetual Contact, Mobile Communicating: Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge University Press:

Alexander, P., Dawson, M. C., & Ichharam, M. 2006. (ed). Globalisation and New Identities: A View From the Middle. Johannesburg: Jacana.

Babbie, E. 2010. (ed). The Practise of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Back, L. 1996. New Ethnicities and Urban Culture: Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives. London: UCL Press.

Bark, B. 1999. “Them” vs. “Us” – Music, Youth and the Struggle for Identity. Accessed from www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/contributions/bethann1.html on 04 November 2009..

Bennet, A. 2000. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Berger, A.A. 2003. The Portable Postmodernist. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

Best, S. 2005. Understanding Social Divisions. London: Sage.

Best, S. & Kellner, D. 1998. ‘Beavis and Butt-Head: No Future for Postmodern Youth.’ In Epstein, J.S. (ed). Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World. Maden: Blackwell.

Bothamley, J. 1993. Dictionary of Theories. London: Gale Research International.

Brake, M. 1980. The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures: Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll? London, Boston & Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Brake, M. (1985) Comparative Youth Culture: The Sociology of Youth Cultures and Youth Subcultures in America, Britain, and Canada. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Buckingham, D. 1993. ‘Introduction: Young People and the Media.’ In Buckingham, D. (ed). Reading Audiences: Young People and the Media. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.

Campbell, C. 1994. Township Families and Youth Identity: The Family’s Influence on the Social Identity of Township Youth in a Rapidly Changing South Africa. Pretoria: HSRC.

Cassidy, W & Jackson, M. 2005. ‘The Need for Equality in Education: An Intersectionality Examination of Labelling and Zero Tolerance Practices.’ McGill Journal of Education, 40(3): 445 - 466.

Castells, M. 2001. ‘Growing Identity Organically.’ In Muller, J., Cloetet, N. & Badat, S. (eds). Challenges of Globalisation: South African Debate with Manuel Castells. Cape Town: Maskew & Longman.

Castells, M. 2002. The Power of Identity, second Edition. Malden: Balckwell.

Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. 2005. Building Partnerships: Exploring Intersectionality. www.CRVAWC.ca

Cerulo, K.A. 1997. Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 1997. 23:385 – 409. Annual reviews Inc.

Chambers, I. 1986. Popular Culture: The Metropolitan Experience. London: Routledge.

Christenson, P.G. & Roberts, O.F. 1998. It’s not only Rock & Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press.

Clark, J. 2003. ‘Urban Culture: Representations and Experiences in/of Urban Space and Culture.’ Urban Culture. Agenda, 57: 3-10.

Creswell, J. 1994. Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approach. London: Sage.

De Vaus, D.A. 2002 (ed). Survey in Social Research. Oxon: Routledge.

Devine, F. et al. 2005. Rethinking Class: Culture, Identities and Lifestyle. Palgrave: Macmillan.

Dlamini, S.N. 2005. Youth and Identity Politics in South Africa. New York: University of Toronto.

Docker, J. 1994. Postmodernism and Popular Culture: A Cultural History. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Dolby, N.E. 2001. Constructing Race: Youth, Identity, and Popular Culture in South Africa. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Easthope, A. 1991. Literary into Cultural Studies. London & New York: Routledge.

Eisenstadt, S.N. 1963. ‘Archetypal Patterns of Youth.’ In Erikson, E. (ed). Youth: Change and Challenge. New York & London: Basic Books.

Ellemer, N., R. Spears, & B. Doosje. 1999. (eds.). Social Identity Context, Commitment, Content. Malden: Blackwell.

Epstein, J.S. 1988. (ed). Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World. Malden: Blackwell.

Erikson, E.H. 1968. Identity, Youth and Crisis. London: Faber & Faber.

Fay, B. 1996. Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.

Featherstone, M. 1995. Undoing Culture: Globalisation, Postmodernism and Identity. London: Sage.

Fiske, J. 1989. Reading Popular. London & Boston: Unwin Hyman.

Gidley, J. & Inayatullah, S. 2002. ‘Global Youth Culture: A Transdisciplinary Perspective.’ In Gidley, J. & Inayatullah, S. Youth Futures: Comparative Research & Transformative Visions. Westport: Greenwood.

Gustafsson, M & Rix, L. 2007. Contemporary Popular Culture for Educational Purposes – Teaching English. Dissertation. Malmö University.

Hall, T., Coffey, A. & Williamson, H. 1999. Self, Space, and Place: Youth Identities and Citizenship. British Jounal of Sociology of Education, 20(4): 501 – 514.

Hannerz, U. 1991. ‘Scenarios for Peripheral Cultures.’ In King, AD. (ed). Culture, Globalisation and the World-system: Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity. Binghampton: Macmillan.

Harrington, C.L. & Bielby, D.D. 2001. ‘Constructing the Popular: Cultural Production & Consumption.’ In Harrington, C.L. & Bielby, D.D. (eds). Popular Culture: Production & Consumption. Malden: Blackwell.

Haupt, A. 2003. ‘Hip-hop, Gender and Agency in the Age of Empire.’ Urban Culture. Agenda, 57: 21-28.

Holtz, Geoffrey T. (1995) Welcome to the Jungle: The Why Behind `Generation X'. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Huberman, A.M. & Miles, M.B. 1994. ‘Data Management and Analysis Methods.’ In Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

Jenkins, R. 2008. Social Identity. Routledge: London and New York.

Johnson et al. 2000. The Sociology Student Writer’s Manual, second edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall & Upper Saddle River.

Jones G. 2009. Youth: Key Concepts. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Kamberelis, G. & Dimitriadis, G. 1999. ‘Talkin’ Tupac.’ In McCarthy, C., Hudak, G., Miklaucic,S. & Saukko, P. (eds.). Sound Identities: Popular Music and the Cultural Politics of Education. New York: Peter Lang.

Kellner, D. 1995. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and Postmodern. London: Routledge

Keniston, K. 1963. ‘Social Change and Youth in America.’ In Erikson, E. (ed). Youth: Change and Challenge. New York & London: Basic Books.

Kidd, W. 2002. Culture and Identity. Palgrave: Mcmillan.

King, AD. 1991. (ed). Culture, Globalisation and the World-system: Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity. Binghampton: Macmillan.

Kratz, C. & Reimer, B. 1998. ‘Fashion in the Face of Postmodernity.’ In Berger, A.A. The Postmodern Presence: Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society. London: Altamira Press.

Locher, D. 1998. ‘The Industrial Identity Crisis: The Failure of a Newly Forming Subculture to Identify Itself.’ In Epstein, J. (ed). Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World. Malden & Oxford: Blackwell.

Loots, L. 2003. ‘Being a “bitch”: Some Questions on the Gendered Globalisation and Consumption of American Hip-hop Urban Culture in Post-Apartheid South Africa.’ Urban Culture. Agenda, 57: 65-73.

Marks, M. 2001. Youth Warriors: Youth Politics, Identity and Violence in South Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand Press.

May, T. 2001. Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. Buckingham: Open University Press.

McCarthy, T. 2000. “Lost Generation.” Time, October 23: 35.

McCarthy, C., Hudak, G., Allegretto, S. A., Miklaucic,S. & Saukko, P. 1999. ‘Anxiety and Celebration: Popular Music and Youth Identities at the end of the Century.’ In

McCarthy, C., Hudak, G., Miklaucic,S. & Saukko, P. (eds.). Sound Identities: Popular Music and the Cultural Politics of Education. New York: Peter Lang.

McGuigan, J. 1992. Cultural Populism. London & New York: Routledge.

Miles, S. 2000. Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Miller, G. & Real, M. 1998. ‘Postmodernity and Popular Culture: Understanding our National Patime.’ In Berger, A.A. The Postmodern Presence: Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society. London: Altamira Press.

Mlangeni, B. 2003. ‘South African Kids “Want it All – and They Want it Now”.’ Sunday Times, October 5:5.

Morris, M. 2007. Using Intersectional Feminist Frameworks in Research.: A Resource for Embracing the Complexities of Women’s Lives. Paper in progress. CRIAW: Canada.

Mouton, J. 2001. How to Succeed in your Master’s and Doctoral Studies: A South African Guide and Resource Book. Pretoria: Van Schaik.

Neuman, W.L. 2003. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, fifth edition. New York: Allyn& Bacon.

Ngundle, A. 2009. ‘Students are so into Style’. Sowetan Online. June 3.

Nuttall, S. & Michael, C. (eds). 2000. Senses of Culture: South African Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nuttall, S. 2004. ‘Stylizing the Self: The Y Generation in Rosebank, Johannesburg.’ Public Culture 16(3): 430-452.

Ogaz, C. 2006. ‘Learning from B-Girls.’ In Hollows, J. & Moseley, R. Feminism in Popular Culture . Oxford, New York: Berg Publisher.

Pilhar, J. 2004. ‘H2O: A Sundance for Hip Hop.’ Hype. Issue 4. December/January. p58.

Redhead, S. 1993. (ed). Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture. Aldershot: Avebury.

Rosenberg, S. 2002. ‘Youth, Popular Culture, and Identity: American Influences on South Africa and Lesotho.’ In Offenbburger, A., Rosenberg, S. & Saunders,C. (eds.). ‘A South African and American Comparative Reader: The Best of Safundi and Other Selected Articles.’ The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies.

Selikow, T.A., Zulu, B. & Cedras, E. 2002. ‘The Ingagara, The Regte and The Cherry: HIV/AIDS and Youth Culture in Contemporary Urban Townships.’ What Kind of Future Can We Make? Education, Youth and HIV/AIDS. Agenda 53: 22-32.

Shota, B. 2004. ‘AB FAB.’ Sunday Times Magazine. May 30: 12.

Shreve, G.M. & Angelone, E. 2010. (eds). Translation and Cognition. Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Silverman, K. 1986. ‘Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse’, in Modeleski, T. (ed). Studies in Entertainment: Critical approaches to mass culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Sim, S. 2004. (ed). The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. Routledge: New York

Soudien, C. 2007. Youth Identity in Contemporary South Africa: Race, Culture and Schooling. Cape Town: (paperback)

Special Report 2004. ‘South Africa: Pop Culture. That’s Kwaito Style.’ Time, April 19: 52.

Statistics South Africa. 2003a. Census 2001. www.statssa.gov.za

Statistics South Africa. 2003b. Census 2001: Census in Brief. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.

Stephens, S. 2000. ‘Kwaito.’ In Nuttall, S. & Michael, C. (eds). Senses of Culture: South African Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Strelitz, L. 2008. Biography, Media Consumption, and Identity Formation. Qualitative Sociology Review. Vol IV, Issue 2 – August 2008.

Stevens, G. & Lockhat, R. 2003. ‘Black Adloscent Identity During and After Apartheid.’ In Ratele, K. & Duncan, N. (eds.). Social Psychology: Identities and Relationships. Landsdowne: UCT Press.

Storey, J. 2001. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Pearson, Essex: England.

Strinati, D. 1995. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, first edition. London: Routledge.

Strinati, D. 2004. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, second edition. London & New York: Routledge.

Thom, D.P. & Coetzee, C.H. 2004. ‘Identity Development of South African Adolescents in a Democratic Society.’ Society in Transition, 35(1): 183-193.

Thornton, S. 1995. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Thornton, R. 2000. ‘Finding Culture.’ In Nuttall, S. & Michael, C. (eds). Senses of Culture: South African Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

United Nations. 1999. “The Global Village”. Division for Social Policy & Development. www.un.org.esa/socdev/unyin/a-and-/village.htm on 28 August 2011.

Wagner, P. 1994. A Sociology of Modernity: Liberty and Discipline. London: Routledge.

Walliman, N. 2011. Research Methods: The Basics. New York: Routeledge.

Waters, J.K. 2010. The Everything Guide to Social Media. Avon: Adams Media

Weldon, S.L. 2005. Rethinking Intersectionality: Some Conceptual Problems and Solutions for the Comparative Study of Welfare States. Purdue University: Paper ‘Prepared for delivery at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1 – September 4, 2005.

Williams, Raymond (1985). Keywords: a Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Oxford University Press.

APPENDIX A

Globalisation and New Social Identities (GANSI) - ‘Fitting in’ to a Classy Place: The Zone and Youth Identity

APPENDIX B

QUESTIONNAIRE

A. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

1. How many of the companions was the respondent with? (To be completed by an interviewer) Black 1 Coloured 2 Indian or Asian 3 White 4

2. What is your age? For example; 1 7 1

3. What is your gender? Female 1 Male 2

4. How would government classify you? Black 1 Coloured 2 Indian or Asian 3 White 4

5. What is your home language?

Afrikaans 1 Tsonga/Shangaan 7 English 2 Tswana 8 Ndebele 3 Venda 9 Pedi/Northern Sotho 4 Xhosa 10 Southern Sotho 5 Zulu 11 Swati 6 Other, please specify 12

6. What kind of school did you attend/are attending? Private 1 Public suburban 2 Public township 3 Other, please specify 4

7. If you are in higher education, which institution do you belong to? RAU 1 Wits University 2 TWR 3 UNISA 4 Damelin 5 Birnam 6 Rosebank College 7 Other, please specify 8

B. THE ZONE AND LIFESTYLE

8. Why have you come to the Zone? Shopping 1 Movies 2 For games 3

Meeting friends 4 Working 5 Other, please specify 6

9. With whom have you come to the Zone? Alone 1 With friends 2 With family 3 Other, please indicate 4

10. When you are at The Zone with friends, what language do you use most often while talking with your friends? Afrikaans 1 Tsonga/Shangaan 7 English 2 Tswana 8 Ndebele 3 Venda 9 Pedi/Northern Sotho 4 Xhosa 10 Southern Sotho 5 Zulu 11 Swati 6 Other, please specify 12

11. What shops will you go to or have been to on your visit to the Zone? (Only ask this question if the respondent came for shopping). Aca Joe 1 Urban 8 CD Warehouse 2 Vertigo 9 EQ 3 Vibes 10 Fashion Square 4 Y-DE 11 Leather Zone 5 Y-shop 12 Polo 6 Zoom 13 Stoned Cherrie 7 Other, please specify 14

12. How much do you spend per month on clothing and accessories?

Less than R100 1 R100 – R500 2 R600 – R1000 3 R1000 and more 4

13. Please indicate where you get most of your money to spend at the Zone. Parents/Guardian 1 Wages/salary 2 Other, please specify 3

14. What kind of music do you prefer? Kwaito 1 R&B 2 Hip-hop 3 Jazz 4 Other, please specify 5

15. Who is your favourite musical artist or band? 1

16. Which radio station do you listen to most frequently? Y-FM 1 Jacaranda FM 9 Metro Fm 2 Lotus FM 10 Kaya Fm 3 Phalaphala FM 11 Highveld Stereo 4 Lesedi FM 12 5-Fm 5 SA-FM 13 Ikwekwezi FM 6 Ukhozi-FM 14 ML-FM 7 Gwalagwala FM 15 Thobela FM 8 Other, please specify 16

17. Do you know the brand of footwear you are wearing?

Yes 1 No 2

18. If yes for question 17, what brand are you wearing? Diesel 1 Soviet 2 Adidas 3 Nike 4 All Star 5 Puma 6 Reebok 7 Other, please specify 8

19. Do you know the brand of body-wear you are wearing? Yes 1 No 2

20. If yes for question 19, what brand are you wearing? Levi’s 1 Guess 2 Diesel 3 Billabong 4 Soviet 5 Vertigo 6 Urban 7 Sissy Boy 8 Other, please specify 9

21. The Zone is good for: Strongly Agree Not Disagree Strongly agree sure disagree Clothing shops 1 2 3 4 5 Movies 1 2 3 4 5 Seeing celebrities 1 2 3 4 5 Hanging out with friends 1 2 3 4 5 Relaxing 1 2 3 4 5

Time that the interview ended. E.g., 12: 15

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!!!

APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

1. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION - Name - Gender - Age - Place - Home language

2. THEME 1: ENTERTAINMENT - What does ‘entertainment’ mean to you? - How do you entertain yourself? - With whom do you entertain yourself? - Do you ever go to the movies? If yes, how often? - Other than the Zone, where else do you go to ‘hang out’?

3. THEME 2: POPULAR CULTURE - How would you define popular culture? - What do you think are the influences of popular culture on young black South Africans? - How would you differentiate between American/Western culture and African culture? - Which one do you prefer and why?

4. THEME 3: MUSIC -What kind of music do you listen to and why? - Who is your favourite artist or group? - Which radio station do you mostly listen to and why? - If you were to compare American and South African music, which one would you chose and why? - Give me examples of the type of music you listen to, that is, artists’ names.

5. THEME 4: STYLE - What kind of clothes do you prefer and why? - At the Zone, which shops do you prefer to purchase in? - How much do you spend on clothes per month (estimate)? - What type of shoes do you prefer and why? - Do your friends dress the same way you do? - Why do you prefer labelled or designer clothes? - Is there a link between the way you dress and the kind of music you listen to? - What do you clothes say about you? - What do you think people say about your style?

6. THEME 5: IDENTITY -What do you understand by the term ‘identity’? - What is youth identity to you? - What does it mean to be a young person in the 21st century? - How do you create your identity as a young black South African? - It is claimed that role models help us create our identities. Who is your role model?

APPENDIX D: Interview Schedule March 2010

Youth Identity Construction and Popular Culture at The Zone

Respondent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Age

Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F

Race B W C I B W C I B W C I B W C I B W C I B W C I B W C I B W C I