ANDY BENNETT is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey. He has published articles on aspects of youth culture and popular music in a number of books and journals and is author of Popular Music and Youth Culture (2000) and Cultures of Popular Music (2001), and co-editor of Guitar Cultures (2001). Andy is Chair of the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group. - MARK CIESLIK is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Teesside. Mark is presently conducting a project into the relationship between youth transitions and basic skills. He is also co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group. He is the co-editor of Young People in Risk Society: The Restructuring of Youth Identities and Transitions in Late Modernity (2002). - STEVEN MILES is Head of Research at the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Northumbria. He is author of Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World (2000), Social Theory in the Real World (2001) and Consumerism as a Way of Life (1998). He is also co-author with Malcolm Miles of a book on consuming cities shortly to be published by Palgrave. He retains a particular interest on the impact of consumption on young people's identities and their relationship to the city as a centre for consumption.