The academic study of youth culture has changed markedly in the past two decades. The early 1990s saw a "cultural turn" as the sociological focus moved from "institutional and structural features of society to the study of culture". Andy Bennett begins this article with a critical evaluation of the "cultural turn" and its impact on the field of youth cultural studies. Importantly for youth cultural studies, this approach signalled a challenge to notions of culture as a direct product of class relations. Bennett then looks at specific ways in which the cultural turn has influenced recent theoretical, empirical and methodological developments in the study of youth culture. (Contains 1 note.)