Teenage Wildlife By Elsie Thomson Summary

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In “Teenage Wildlife”, Graeme Thomson looks into teenage life through music. Thomson does so by first examining the relationship between love and teenagers. He then takes a look at the overall connection between death and music using evidence from his previous investigation on the correlation between love and teenagers. He looks at these relationships through the lens of music genres including rock and roll, emo, and alternative rock. Thomson begins by examining the average teenager and eventually concluding that teenagers are their own “race”. In examining teenage unity, he noticed the appeal of such music genres like emo and alternative rock. According to Thomson, these genres were able to reach teenagers because of their ability to relate to them by using themes of love, rebellion, and death. He claims that teenagers are easily influenced because of their innocence and lack of experience. Since this music appeals to teenagers, he claims that “this is how death sneaks onto the unsuspecting child’s radar” (Thomson 34). He…show more content…
He states, “Parents moved their kids out of the cities to these horrible suburbs to save them from the ‘reality’ of the cities and what they ended up with was this new breed of monster” (39). He later argues that these genres do just the opposite by promoting love and chastity by stating, “These songs aren’t about sex, they’re about two people who are very much in love… It ends badly for the lovers but it ends well for love” (34). He refers to the music simply as teen melodramas, and not promoters of suicide, sex, or rebellion. The reason he refers to them as teen melodramas is because most of the songs, if not all, merely tell a story that teens can relate to. Thomson ends the chapter stating, “Lest we forget, and we often do, teenagers tend not to be anywhere near as stupid as we think they might look”
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