The Mods
Following on from the rebellious yet fashionable working class Teds of post ww2, the Mods (Modernists) formed the new wave of youth in the early 1960s. Interested in aesthetics and fashion as a statement, Mods introduced wider interests of drugs, music and scooters. Fashion played a big part in this culture. Sharp suits were worn as a challenge to the upper classes and determined the hierarchy of the group while at the same time identifying its members. Considered a very feminine group, the Mods allowed both men and women to take part where previous groups were strictly men-only. With the availability of contraception at this time, women were less stigmatized and therefore could openly socialize with men more so. This made the Mods a more equal group than their rivaling Rockers. In terms of disturbing social order, the Mods were considered less deviant as they did not dress outrageously, were neat and tidy, but were still strange to those around them.
Dick Hebdige claims that the progenitors of the mod subculture "appear to have been a group of working-class dandies, possibly descended from the devotees of the Italianite [fashion] style." Mary Anne Long disagrees, stating that "first hand accounts and contemporary theorists point to the Jewish upper-working or middle-class of London’s East End and suburbs." Sociologist Simon Frith asserts that the mod subculture had its roots in the 1950s beatnik coffee bar culture, which catered to art school students in the radical bohemian scene in London. Steve Sparks, who claims to be one of the original mods, agrees that before mod became commercialised, it was essentially an extension of the beatnik culture: "It comes from ‘modernist’, it was to do with modern jazz and to do with Sartre" and existentialism. Sparks argues that "Mod has been much misunderstood... as this working-class, scooter-riding precursor of skinheads."(1)
Coffee bars became a popular place to hang out in early youth culture as these places were open til the early mornings, wheras the typical British pub was closed by 11pm. As such, these coffee bars accommodated their regular customers with the availability of jukeboxes, with space provided for students’ records. This openness allowed youths of all bachgrounds to share music and influence each others musical tastes. Mods began to focus on rhythm and blues or modern jazz as a result.
By summer 1966, the Mod scene had become too commercialized as result of fashion companies creating new Mod styles from above, rather than the original intentions of the working-class anti-establishment of the early Mods. To add to this, the psychedelic and hillie subculture was growing and many Mods and Mod-related bands left the scene. Those who remained were now in the child-rearing and marriage age and thus no longer had neither the time nor the money to continue the lifestyle. Those who continued the Mod vision but yet felt no connection with the new hippie subculture of the time, these hard-Mods, went on to transform into the Skinheads; itself a subculture heavily influenced by jamacian reggie and ska music and wrongly labled a racist, facist group by the media.
Later, in the late 1970s in the UK, a new Mod revival began following massive scooter rallies in Scarborough and Isle of Wight, the 1979 film Quadrophenia, and also mod-influenced bands such as The Jam, Secret Affair, Purple Hearts and The Chords. This went on to influence a Mod revival in North America and then later, to influence the Britpop scene of 1990s UK.
Rockers
Rockers, leather boys or ton-up boys, were a biker subculture which originated in 1950s UK. Wearing leather and riding motorcycles, rockers listened to fifties rock’n’roll and were a predominantly masculine group where women were excluded.
The stylistic descendants of the Teds. the Rockers often hung around late-night cafes and nightspots similar to the Mods and often clashed as a result. These clashes, a result of media focus and moral panic, were often small scuffles but with media attention and anticipation, these clashes became larger and more widespread.
“The rockers or ton-up boys took what was essentially a sport and turned it into a lifestyle, dropping out of mainstream society and "rebelling at the points where their will crossed society's". It had a damaging effect on the public image of motorcycling in the UK, and led to the politicisation of the motorcycling community.”(2)
“The public came to consider rockers as hopelessly naive, loutish, scruffy, motorized cowboys, loners or outsiders.”(3)
“Rockers immersed themselves in rock and roll music and fashions, and began to be known as much for their devotion to the music as they were for their motorcycles. Many rockers favored 1950s and early-1960s rock and roll by artists such as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Elvis Presley; music that George Melly called at the time, "screw and smash" music.”(4)
Eventually, two groups emerged from the rockers: Hells Angels, a group identifying itself with Marlon Brandos image in The Wild One, hanging around transport cafes, projecting nomadic romanticism, violence, anti-authoritarianism and anti-domesticity; and the remainder consisting of the non-rider community, similar but no longer involved in the cult of the motorbike.
