The Eight Teenage Tribes

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Sat, 2003-04-12 23:10

I picked up this information, which I thought was quite amusing, out of The Metro, and was wondering if any of our younger contributors (that's you out of it, George) could verify the accuracy.

The Metro has apparently discovered that most teenagers pledge allegiance to one of eight tribes - Sporty, Sk8er, Townie, Geek, Trendy, Goth, Mosher & Scally.

1) Sporties, whose philosophy is My Body is my Temple, wear any kind of leisurewear and listen to Virgin or Capital Radio. Their hero is Steve Redgrave and they will never be overheard saying, "I'll have a Big Mac & fries please."

2) Sk8ers, whose philosophy is to have as much fun as possible, wear baggy jeans and hooded tops and listen to Alanis Morisette, Limp Bizkit and Sum 41. Their hero is Tony Hawk and they will never be overheard saying, "That triple kickflip looks way to dangerous."

3) Townies, whose philosophy is I Want to be a Layer/Doctor/Teacher just Like my Parents, have a style that is conservative and clean-cut and they listen to Atomic Kitten and S-Club. Their heroes are their parents and they will never be overheard saying, "I think I'll give homework a miss tonight."

4) Geeks, whose philosophy is to download and burn as much as possible, wear Dunlop trainers and stonewashed jeans and listen to cult film soundtracks and Queen. Their hero is Lara Croft and they will never be overheard saying, "Let's go out and get extremely drunk."

5) Trendies, whose philosophy is Gimme Gimme Gimme, are always perfectly groomed and listen to Kylie, Robbie and whover else is fashionable. Their heroes are Posh & Becks and they will never be overheard saying, "I've seen some great bargains in mark One."

6) Goths, whose philosophy is to be as moody as possible, have long hair, heavy eye make-up and wear anything black. They listen to Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Their heroes are The Osbournes and Count Dracula and they will never be overheard saying, "That pink fluffy top would really suit me."

7) Moshers, whose philosophy is, "Life is so unfair," have unkempt hair, baggy jeans or combats and listen to anything Kerrang. Their hero is Kurt Cobain and they will never be overheard saying, "I'd like a shirt back and sides please."

8) Scallies, whose philosophy is to hot-wire as many cars as possible, wear designer sportswear with all the labels showing and listen to Eminem, Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes and The Streets. Their hero is Enimen and they will never be overheard saying, "I bought that new Westlife album yesterday."

So there we have our eight tribes and, as I said above, I'm wondering how accurate these descriptions are.

Already I've heard that Goths are actually Spookykids. Is this true?

And is it also true that Townies are not conservative, clean-cut, suit-wearing, mindless parent-idolising adolscents, but actually loud-mouthed and ill-mannered kids who never hand their homework in on time? I've heard their vocabulary consists of the words, "Innit," Bling-bling," and "Wicked."

Help me out here.

(And by the way, what does bling-bling mean?)

Sun, 2003-04-13 04:27

justyn_thyme

Civilization has progressed mightily since my day, when we had, for example, freaks: generally any counterculture element, anti-establishment goofy-dressing person heads: people who take LSD (or more generally any mind expanding drug) for the purpose of self-exploration or to make a political statement. jocks: beer drinkers who played football grinds: study study study all the time; white shirts and white socks hoods: the juvenile delinquent crowd, long sideburns and leather jacket, James Dean posture

Sun, 2003-04-13 09:03

mississippi

So what happened to the Mods and Rockers? I must have nodded off along the way.

Sun, 2003-04-13 14:53

cazsteed

Sometimes you get crossover groups, like Skater-Goths and Mosher-Goths and things. Where I live there's another group, collectively known as bams, who wear sports gear, burberry caps and gold jewellry. They exist solely to piss the hell out of me and my friends it seems.

Sun, 2003-04-13 17:38

donignacio

Hm! Very interesting categories! And very true. Though our high school was so small (about 500 or so students) and so there had to be some sort of cooperation between the groups. I always mingled back and forth into the geek-townie groups. I never touched the goth-skaters-scallies groups (they hung out together, anyway). There really was no "sporties" group because my high school didn't have a sports team. The trendies were in their own little planet. I did a little conversing with the mosher group -- not much. I want to put it to you that the geek group used to hang out in the computer lab during lunch writing peculiar programs that did nothing, and they don't particularly like Queen. I'm pretty sure that I was one of the few people in my high school that's heard of Queen. (A few closer friends and I used to discuss the band's finer points.) Though ... I guess Queen was never very impressive on the American market. And the geeks would rather be known as "nerds."

Sun, 2003-04-13 18:29

dino_j_rock

that's actually quite funny reading that... it is mostly true. especially the scallies bits. however, being of the age you are taking about i can tell you that not everyone fits in those groups. and as already mentioned there are cross-overs. hell knows what i am though...

Sun, 2003-04-20 18:10

penmagic

No idea what bling bling means, and I'm a teenager myself! I think it might mean chains and stuff like that Yeah the townies description is totally wrong. Generally it's usued to describe kids that dress in an urban-style way, I think… and often they smoke and are pretty rowdy… The definition's pretty vague, but I know when I wore a baseball cap backwards one of my friends accused me of being a townie. 'Geeks' do still exist, at least around these parts. And I hang around with a lot of them. Once when I was out with my friends this really snooty cool girl looked down her nose at us and said 'oh look, a herd of geeks'. Anybody with glasses who is vaguely untrendy or clever is often referred to as a geek. Personally I love being labelled geeky because it means you don't have to care about your reputation, you can make as much of an @!#$ of yourself as you like! As far as I'm concerned, geek is the new cool, black is the new white. Brainy people that always hand in their homework on time (like me!) are also referred to as 'boffins'. Boffins are the studious ones, can also be called geeks although there's a slight difference, but they're generally frowned upon because it's considered that they're niave and sheltered and don't know how to have a good time (ha! Wrong!) but that label isn't used everywhere, it tends to change depending on where you live. Goths definitely exist and fit the description. The ones described as 'Moshers' generally skate around here, and so are synonymous with Skaterkids, which are generally the ohsocool rebels. If you skate, you're usually pretty cool. Scallies are also pretty similar to what Skaterkids would be around here. So, hmm, fairly accurate but not very. I suppose you'd get more of a variety of 'tribes' in an urban environment but as it is I live in a rural area so it's not so diverse. Teenagers don't always describe themselves using labels really, but there are some definite groups. I'm in a group that would probably be labelled geeky/boffin but the truth is we just don't follow the crowd or really care what people think of us. Which is nice :) -Pen

Sat, 2003-04-12 23:24

Hen

Townies, to me, means the yobbish element who're out on the town every night throwing beer bottles and swearing loudly. They aren't just teenagers either. The goths I've known just like the fashion element, and are normally very well adjusted people. Geeks don't seem to exist anymore, because everyone plays computer games and copies CD's. Moshers could be anyone - it's just something people do at rock concerts, unless they feel particularly frail, like me.

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