My study seeks to fill a void in Cold War historiography by situating the emergence of 1950s youth culture in the context of containment culture, evaluating the form and extent of youth's cultural 'rebellion'. The pervasive cultural discourse of 'containment', which operated as both a foreign policy to restrict the Soviet Union's sphere of influence and a domestic policy to stifle political dissent, mandated that America propagate an image of social harmony and political plurality during the early years of the Cold War. Yet the emergence of a rebellious youth culture in the middle of the 1950s challenges the notion that America was a 'consensus society' and exposes the limitations and fissures of the white middle class hegemony that the containment narrative worked to legitimate. In examining the rise of rock n roll, the emergence of the drive-in theatre as a "teen space," and the significance of "style" to the galvanization of 1950s youth culture, this study examines the ways in which youth culture of the period variously negotiated, resisted, and accommodated containment culture.

Making the Scene: An Investigation of the Rock and Roll Scenes of Nashville, Tennessee, and Athens, Georgia, takes a look at the ways in which both the identities of a music scene and the individuals taking part in that scene are created and maintained. Issues of identity are addressed by examining the roles performed by various members of the scene (musicians, soundmen, club owners, etc . . .), by focusing on the influence of landscape, and looking at the ways a scene’s members identify with the cultural region that surrounds their particular scene (in this case both scenes are located in the American South). Data for this thesis was gathered in two ways: through traditional, ethnographic interview with musicians from Athens, and Nashville, and from the author’s personal experience as a member of the Nashville rock Scene from 1990 to 2001. Secondary sources were also consulted. Having analyzed the data, the author concludes that the scene is a function of culture; it is created and sustained through personal interaction and cultural imagination—individuals create and sustain it. Once it is created, once it is constructed, and named, the scene has an affect on the individuals that come to take part in it. It helps to shape their identities. Individuals, however, continue to exert influence over the scene, constantly altering its character.