Teen scenes

As a huge fan of what both British Culture Archive and Craig Atkinson's Cafe Royal Books do, I was delighted to learn of the existence of the Museum of Youth Culture, and the fact that it'll be opening its doors in Camden (probably its natural habitat) next month.

The museum has similarly sprung out of a sizeable photography collection - one amassed by Jon Swinstead, founder of the magazine Sleazenation, in his garden shed - and this gallery gives a flavour or what will be on display. It will be more than merely an exhibition of images, though.

Reporting on the opening, the Guardian's Lanre Bakare presents a very interesting hypothesis: that "subcultures are on the wane when compared to the myriad tribes that emerged in the 1970s and 80s". Swinstead and his colleagues are reluctant to agree - but I would venture that distinct tribes are indeed much less visible or rigidly defined now, with the internet arguably breaking down tribalist attitudes in the realm of music and culture even though it is having the opposite effect politically. The implication (which Bakare doesn't spell out) is that the Museum of Youth Culture may soon seem somewhat quaint, a monument to a time when tribal identity and allegiance mattered.