ECU Libraries Catalog

The Abercrombie age : millennial aspiration and the promise of consumer culture / Myles Ethan Lascity.

Author/creator Lascity, Myles Ethan author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2024]
Descriptionxii, 202 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Subject(s)
Contents Abercrombie, aspiration, and consumer culture -- Back to school '97: understanding the Abercrombie teen -- Spring break '99: 'Cruel Intentions' and the millennium high school film -- Summer '99: "Summer Girls" and intertextual teen TV -- Spring break '00: 'The Skulls' and the millennial college experience -- Spring break '01: revisiting contemporaneous critiques -- Spring break '04: 'Mean Girls' and post-9/11 high school -- Summer '06: 'The Devil Wears Prada' and expectations of millennial adulthood -- Christmas '08: Goodbye to 'TRL', and the legacy of the Abercrombie teen.
Abstract "Be popular and good-looking-it's the key to a happy life. Luckily, with a bit of know-how and money, you, too, can have it all. At least, that's what teen pop culture was selling in surround sound at the turn of the millennium. From movies like Clueless to TV's Dawson's Creek to the music videos on MTV's Total Request Live and the catalogs of Abercrombie & Fitch, a consumer-minded ethos drove pop culture storytelling as millennials came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in the long shadow of the Great Recession, the upwardly mobile aspirations fostered by the era's popular culture and media seem to have been thwarted. Many millennials today lack the wealth their parents had at the same age, and the gaps between rich and poor rival those of the Gilded Age. The Abercrombie Age reconsiders teen popular culture from the turn of the twenty-first century, revealing how it told young people that life not only could but surely would get better. Far from frivolous or forgettable, the era's superficial, materialistic culture sold millennials unrealistic expectations of what life could offer, setting up a stark juxtaposition with the realities of today"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2024020859
ISBN9781469680903 hardcover ; alkaline paper
ISBN1469680904 hardcover ; alkaline paper
ISBN9781469680910 paper ; alkaline paper
ISBN1469680912 paper ; alkaline paper
ISBNelectronic book
ISBNelectronic book

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner New Books HQ799.2 .M352 L37 2024 ✔ Available Place Hold