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Tastemakers & Earthshakers

"Tastemakers & Earthshakers: Notes from Los Angeles Youth Culture, 1943 – 2016" is a multimedia exhibition that traverses eight decades of style, art, and music, and presents vignettes that consider youth culture as a social class, distinct issues associated with young people, principles of social organization, and the emergence of subcultural groups. Citing the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots as a seminal moment in the history of Los Angeles youth culture, the exhibition emphasizes a recirculation of shared experiences across time, reflecting recurrent and ongoing struggles and triumphs.

"Tastemakers & Earthshakers" series on KCET Artbound
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Janette Beckman, "Rivera Bad Girls" (featured)
Cruising Down SoCal's Boulevards: Streets as Spaces for Celebration and Cultural Resistance
Boulevards have the practical function of ordering commerce and traffic, but they are also displays of a city’s identity where culture, in its flow, is publicly shaped and performed.
1980s East L.A backyard parties. | Photo: Courtesy of Gerard Meraz
My SoCal Mixtape: Influential Chicanos Made Playlists Using the Songs That Shaped Their Youth
Which songs shaped your youth? Eight Southern California tastemakers share the sounds that have influenced them — the music that underscores the region's kaleidoscopic youth cultures.
1980s East L.A. Backyard parties | Photo: Courtesy of Gerard Meraz for Artbound (featured)
Memories of 1980s East L.A. Backyard Parties
The 1980s backyard party scene/experience seemed to have been for anyone who wanted to listen to music, dance, have a drink, meet people and have a good time.
Photo by Dino Dinco, from the series "Chico." (featured)
Loving and Partying at Chico: 'The Best Latino Gay Bar' in Montebello
LGBTQ bars and clubs will always be important and necessary. Chico, a working-class dive in Montebello, has been proudly flying its freak flag since 1999.
Zoot suited teenagers jitterbugging in Los Angeles (featured)
The Chicano/a Musicians That Defined the Southern California Music Scene
The early and deep presence of Chicano musicians and fans helped define the sound of the Southern California popular music scene.
Pachucas and African American teens in zoot suits, 1940s.
Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents
Participants of pachuco culture were not just male, youth or Mexican American. The history of the culture includes a number of complexities.
[Left] "Santa Barbara Brown Berets aka Moratorium in Maravilla" 1970. | Photo: Oscar Castillo || [Right] "Not One More (Girl with Beret)" 2016. | Photo: Rafael Cardenas
Photos of Latino Youth Resistance, From the 1960s to Today
Protest photographs bridge Latino youth cultures across space and time. They remind us that Chicano youth continue to not only speak out about injustice but thrive despite it.
Patrick Martinez, "vintage throwback po-lice" (featured)
Black and Blue and Brown: Artists Depict Police Brutality
From his use of Ice Cube’s lyrics to his references to the police beating of King and the subsequent civil unrest, Juan Capistran demonstrates their continued resonance within U.S. popular culture.
Parallels between the Pachuco and teddy boy subculture (featured)
Pachucos and Teddy Boys: How Generations of Youth in the U.S. and U.K. Borrowed From Each Other
The connection between Los Angeles and United Kingdom youth culture is something that crosses fashion, music and acts of resistance.
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