Resumen: Este trabajo pretende situar históricamente el surgimiento del teenager o de la subcultura de lo juvenil como un proceso situado en un contexto determinado. La posición teórica que subyace a esta afirmación es la conceptualización de la edad como algo que se construye socialmente. El grupo social del teenager sería el resultado de la interacción de un sistema comunicativo (cine y música) y un sistema social (posguerra de la II Guerra Mundial en EEUU). Estos dos contextos tienen una relación dialéctica que influye tanto en los relatos comunicativos como en los valores y formas de vida de un determinado grupo social. Abstract: This work tries to locate historically the emergence of “teenager” or the subculture of the youth as a process located in a certain context. The theoretical position that underlies this affirmation is the conceptualization of the age as something socially constructed. The social group of teenager would be the result of the interaction between a communicative (cinema and music) and social (II World War's postwar period in the U.S.) systems. Those two contexts have a dialectic relation, which influences both in the communicative stories and in the values and forms of life of a particular social group.Abstract: This work tries to locate historically the emergence of “teenager” or the subculture of the youth as a process located in a certain context. The theoretical position that underlies this affirmation is the conceptualization of the age as something socially constructed. The social group of teenager would be the result of the interaction between a communicative (cinema and music) and social (II World War's postwar period in the U.S.) systems. Those two contexts have a dialectic relation, which influences both in the communicative stories and in the values and forms of life of a particular social group.