Mod (lifestyle)

Mod (or, to use its full name, Modernism or sometimes Modism) was a youth lifestyle based around fashion and music that developed in London, England in the late 1950s and reached its peak in the early to mid 1960s. People who followed this lifestyle were known as Mods, and were mainly found in Southern England.

Beginnings

Mod began with a few cliques of teenage, predominately Jewish, men with family connections to the garment trade in London in 1958-59. These early Mods were securely middle class. The early Mods were obsessed with the perfection of their personal styles with their primary influence being the slim-cut Italian suits of the time. Their musical tastes were focused on modern jazz and rhythm and blues. The demands of their all-night urban social life were met, in part, by a well-attested taste for amphetamines.

Mods found their unique identity in different types of music, including modern jazz, black American R&B and Soul, Jamaican Ska and Bluebeat, and a select few British beat music and R&B groups such as The Rolling Stones, the Small Faces, the Kinks, The Spencer Davis Group and The Who.

Mods would gather at all-night clubs such as the Twisted Wheel to show off their clothes and dance moves. They would typically choose scooters as their mode of transportation, typically either Lambretta or Vespa. These were sometimes adorned with several lights and mirrors.

Conflict with Rockers

An alternative youth movement known as Rockers sometimes clashed with the Mods, leading to street battles in seaside resorts such as Brighton, Margate, and Hastings in 1964. These events led to anguished discussion about 'modern youth' in Britain during the early 1960s.

The conflicts inspired Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange in which the anti-hero is arguably a futuristic Mod. The film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, is visually influenced by, and arguably both celebrates and mocks, the Mod scene. The Who's album Quadrophenia and subsequent film depict the mod culture and clashes with rockers.

The End?

The Mods were the products of a culture of constant change, and it was inevitable that the scene would devour itself. By the time Bobby Moore held the World Cup aloft in the Summer of 1966, the Mod scene was in sharp decline. As Psychedelic music and the Hippy culture rose, many people drifted away. Hippy culture presented a passive outlook on life that was the total opposite of the Mod standpoint. The frenetic energy that had underpinned the Mod ethos had vanished.

New beginnings

At the lowest end of the scale, both in philosophy and appearance, the ‘Hard’ Mods were rougher than the rest of their comrades. Scruffier, and with cropped hair, they became the first Skinheads. They kept the original Mod music alive and retained basic elements of the Mod look – three-button suits, Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts, Sta-press trousers and Levi's jeans - but mixed them with exaggerated working class trappings such as braces and Dr. Martens boots.

Later influence

The film Quadrophenia (1979), based on the album of the same name by The Who (1973), celebrated the movement. Partly because of the success of this film, a Mod Revival occurred during the late 1970s in the UK, and the early 1980s in the United States, particularly in Southern California. Many of these later bands were influenced by British punk rock of the time, which itself bore some influence from Mods, particularly in the ironic use of British symbols, particularly the Union Jack.

The band The Jam were highly influenced musically and stylistically by mod culture, as are the more recent Ocean Colour Scene, who often collaborate with Paul Weller, and The Ordinary Boys. Mods made up (and continue to make up) a large proportion of the northern soul movement, a subculture based on obscure American soul records from the 1960s and 1970s. Mod culture is also an influence on some members of the German electronic music scene: keyboard wizard Erobique and electronic singer/songwriter Lotte ohm. are influenced by Mod, as is Frank Popp.

Quotes

"Mod is clean living under difficult circumstances" - Peter Meaden

In the film A Hard Days Night when Ringo Starr was asked if he was either a mod or a rocker? he said "I'm a mocker"

External links

http://www.modculture.co.uk
http://www.uppers.org
http://www.twistedwheel.com
A Mod's story
Mod Scooter images

British cultural icons | Youth culture in the United Kingdom | Subcultures

Mod | Mods | Mod (Subkultur) | Mod (movimiento juvenil) | Mod | モッズ | Mods | Моды | Mod

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