During the 1970s, the Dogtown and Z-Boys skaters of Southern California created an inspired rebellion through their appropriation of Southern California suburbia. Youth unemployment was rife during this period due to the oil crisis (Chlorine, 2003) and there were many youths with spare time on their hands. The drought of the 1970s had caused many of the pools to be emptied and this offered bored youths some fun as well as a way to pass time through the activity of pool skatin

This thesis aims to portray to the reader the complexities of authenticity within a music subculture and they way in which subculture is signified and represented to create meaning. The use of the music video as a form of mediation to society offers great insight into the understanding and comprehension of the subculture of skate punk, its ability to inform further ideological discourses within society, and it’s impact on sociological and cultural understanding.