The Rise and Media Portrayal of the 1950s British Mod Subculture
1.
2.
The Mod is a British subculture formed around the 1950’s.
The defining characteristics of the Mod is their interest in
American Soul and traditional R’n’B, their vintage and
well- tailored clothing style usually associated with brands
such as Fred Perry and Ben Sherman, and lastly their
choice of transportation which is commonly the motor
scooter.
3.
It’s said that the first real evolution of the Mod originated in the 1950’s after
the second world war, with a group of working class London-based men
wanting to be different and avoid the mainstream views and perspectives in
terms of music, fashion etc. much like all subcultures do. A main starting
point for the creation of the Mod subculture was their interest in the
American modern jazz scene including artists such as Miles Davis and John
Coltrane. It’s also said that being a Mod didn’t depend on your skin colour
or gender, but just depended on your views and what you stood for, your
music taste and your fashion sense. Britain’s mod movement began to gain
momentum in the 60’s and by 1964 it had exploded, with Quadrophenia
which was made in 1979, being based in the year of 1964.
4.
Whilst people were convinced that the Mods and the Rockers were great enemies, the
real enemies in this clash of subcultures is the Media. Although both groups had their
differences, the Mods being neat, having a different music taste and generally taking
more care with how they presented themselves in comparison to the Rockers, the Media
made it into a much bigger situation which made people fear the Mods. This conflict
started in 1964 when both the Mods and the Rockers went down to Brighton purely for a
holiday and it was unintentional that they both went at the same time. It’s fair to say that
a personality clash may have triggered off this long battle, but the Media didn’t help the
situation but actually egged it on, by paying the Mods and the Rockers a fair amount of
money to fight each other, solely so that they could produce coverage in the news to
get publicity and get a main headline that they know people will be interested in and
fear, effectively fearing the subcultures by presenting them in a negative light.
5.
The Media had a big impact on how the Mods were portrayed, particularly in the whole Mods
and Rockers ordeal. The headline ‘Battle of Brighton’ was overly exaggerated, as the media
were very much encouraging the fights to happen, with members of the media ‘paying the
mods a fiver to throw a deck chair at the Rockers’ and then ‘paying the Rockers a tenner to
fight the Mods’. So although there was undoubtedly conflict between the two groups, the
Media definitely had a big part to play by speering it on. This is evident as once the violence
was dying down, the Media struggled to obtain and produce news stories relating to conflict
between the two so ended up displaying deceptive headlines, and subheadings such as
‘Violence’ when the article itself didn’t contain any violent-related acts. Newspaper writers also
started associating Mods and Rockers with typical social issues to make them public enemies,
such as teenage pregnancies, contraceptives, amphetamines, and violence.