Product Description

This book provides a vivid historical ethnography of the 1970s Northern Soul scene, drawing on the author's personal involvement in this as well extensive research. The book examines how cultural patterns and normative standards are established through individual practices and group interaction, and aims to show how participants in the scene became converted to actions that they once thought unacceptable - for a substantial majority this was amphetamine use, and for a minority, opiate use and burglary. The book shows how early social background experiences influenced how quickly participants started using amphetamines and whether they subsequently became involved in criminal activities such as the burglary of pharmacies, and suggests a link between burglary of chemist shops, opiate use and fatalities from drugs overdose. Such high-risk behaviour is associated with previous delinquency and early social background, rather than the nature of involvement in the subculture. The book shows how early life influences have a powerful impact on shaping social identity, attachment to the subculture, and involvement in crime. How and why individuals become involved in the subculture, and the impact it had on identity, are central themes to the study. The findings suggest that while involvement in the Northern Soul scene provided valued memories and friendships, it did not impede movement to the conventional roles and responsibilities of adulthood. The book concludes with a summary of its implications for the sociology of adolescence, subcultural theories and deviant careers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217340 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Sam Jenkins - back on the floor
Over the last few years a number of 'Northern' books have appeared, but this is the first one by an academic - albeit an academic who, in his days on the soul scene, appears to have engaged in much of the deviant activity he describes. Reading the book it is clear that he has an inside track on this side of the 1970s northern scene. By capturing the way people become became part of the subculture, the way some acted as if they were speeding to fit in with the acceptance of amphetamines, he sets out a group process that has far wider significance - whether we are talking about other subcultures, cults, terrorists or groups justifying genocide.
One aspect that I found most useful, something that is often missing from accounts of gangs etc, is the way it captures the dynamic of the subculture - something that is not static or homogenous. Moreover, it captures this dynamic as a group process - sociability is at the heart of the subculture. Clearly, being on the northern scene was about the music - the one criticism I have is that it could have had more about the music, though to be fair, Wilson states it was not his intention to write a book about the scene or the music. But it is more than just a book about a group of people who became involved in the northern soul scene, from their early life experiences to their disengagement from the scene, it does all that with Goffman like observations of individual and group action while keeping a close eye on the wider social context. This, I think, is a particular strength of the text. The amphetamine culture of the scene has seen within the context of heavy handed policing of drugs, the politicisation of hippies, to be fully appreciated.
I also liked the way the book shows how commercialisation of the northern scene impacted on the diverse group of people he studies.
My major criticism is the price! Why is this book - the first one I have come across that helps students to understand Matza - only published in hardback! For someone who lived out my teen years as a punk, but later turned to northern soul, this book captures the experience better than anything I have ever read. At last a British book to stand alongside Becker's Outsiders.

Gonna Be A Big Thing
Having never previously reviewed anything, I was motivated by fivestarfrankie's comment (above) that `It's not the most enjoyable to read by any means'. Yes, it is an academic work and in that respect it has to remain within certain parameters that other sub-cultural books do not have to observe. But by no means does this book pull its punches. Having read many of the `popular' sub-cultural books - mainly on Mods, Skinheads and Football Hooligans - this book is easily one of the best. It is not only as exciting and action packed as its closest peers, but it also has the unusual advantage of being written by an Academic who was actually involved in the scene that he is writing about, thus giving his text an extremely strong sense of authority.

I found the book as exciting and enthralling from the preface statement `I was a long haired skinhead' right through to `This exchange brought chemist burglars from the scene into contact with intravenous drug-user culture ...' quoted from the final page of the concluding chapter. If you are the least bit interested in the Northern Soul Scene or just youth sub-cultures in general, this hard-hitting educational journey is a must for anybody's collection. I could almost smell the sweat and feel the floor boards thumping.

But please Mr. Publisher, I agree with fivestarfrankie, lets have it in paperback at about a tenner and then we can watch it `stomp' off the shelves.

A fine piece of work
This is probably the best book on the subject of Northern Soul. It's not the most enjoyable to read by any means but it is a superb academic work which is written by someone who was very much there.As a result it tends to be brutally truthful about the drug use. It's a pity about the price as at about a tenner it would sell thousands.