2. Youth subcultures in the 60’s: Mods “Mod (from modernist) is a subculture that originated in London, England in the late 1950s and peaked in the early-to-mid 1960s” This was the first time in history in which the young adults hadn’t had to contribute their wages to the family finances, this meant they spent their money on attire. Frequently they spent their money on customised suits and makes such as Ben Sherman, as a very patriotic group they were strong on having the union jack within their clothing and very often would often customise their clothing with the Royal Air Force roundel, giving their jackets a pop art style. Frequently Mods, would use scooters as their form of transport. The scooters were stylish and practical seen as public transport often stopped running quite early in the evening. They were cheap to run compared to a car, therefore much more accessible for a young working class mod. Mods often would customise their scooters, adding on an excessive amount of mirrors and painting them “two tone and candyflake”, often their scooters were the makes Vespa or Lambretta, but for the younger Mods Italian scooters were the epitome of class. “Male mods adopted a smooth, sophisticated look that emphasised tailor-made Italian suits (sometimes white) with narrow lapels, mohair clothes, thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), pointed-toe leather shoes that were nicknamed winkle pickers, as well as Chelsea or "Beatle" boots, Tassel Loafers, Clarks Desert Boots and Bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated the look of the French Nouvelle Vague cinema actors of the era.” The Beatles were typically seen as Mod icons because of their fashion sense, but their music wasn’t that popular with the Mods, who tended to prefer R&B based bands like Small Faces, The Kinks, The Yard birds and particularly The Who.
3. Youth subcultures in the 70’s Punk The Punk subculture started from the music industry, initially in the United States with bands such as The Ramones, this is around the same time as The Sex Pistols and The Clash became popular in the UK. Their music was different to what people had listened to before, the songs contained a lot of swearing and showed a very anarchistic side to the music industry. The beauty of punk is the fact that anyone could be one, the subculture almost made equality between the sexes. Like the mod culture in the 60’s, punks were very patriotic. But with much more futuristic views in the sense that they were all very anti-racist, many would often have the Nazi symbol on their clothing crossed out. Although a majority of punks were from white predominant countries, but any walk of life could be punk it didn’t matter what social class or race you were. The notable trends amongst punks were the fact that they had many views, a large majority were vegetarian or vegan and were often campaigning for animal and human rights. Their view points also included non-conformity, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism and anti-racism. Punk fashion was quite harsh, their clothing consisted mainly of ripped skin tight jeans and leather jackets, often accessorised with safety pins or razor blades. Giving their outfit a much edgier and different look, body modification was also very popular amongst this sub culture. The Sex Pistols in particular had been marketed to create an anarchistic way of life, the look and lifestyle became popular, the public thought they were rebelling by dressing and acting punk but instead they had been marketed in this way and the public were just conforming to this way of life.
4. Youth subculture in the 80’s Skinheads Some skinheads gave the sub-culture a bad name, especially in the 70s in which they engaged in violence against South- Asian immigrants. These early skinheads were not a part of any political movement, but as time passed the media were soon conveying the skinheads to be promoters of racism and neo-Nazism. Meanwhile their were 2 groups of skinheads who spoke out against neo-Nazism and political extremism, they were in support of traditional skinhead culture, they were the Glasgow Spy Kids in Scotland (who coined the phrase Spirit of 69), and the publishers of the Hard As Nailszone in England. The skinhead subculture from the 1980’s was adapted from the 60’s subculture of mod, most people perceived skinheads to be violent thugs when in fact they were really not.. Their fashion mainly consisted of skin-tight bleached jeans which were often Levi’s with Dr Marten boots and Ben Sherman or Fred Perry polo shirts which either a Harrington jacket or a trench coat. They were very smartly dressed and took care in their appearance, their hair was short and cropped often with a grade 2 all over. They didn’t have facial hair but would sometimes experiment with their sideburns. Like other subcultures throughout time they were also very patriotic, with some skinheads often having a cross tattooed on their hands or foreheads. Girls were dressed very similarly men, often sharing clothes with their boyfriends. Most skinhead girls would have majority of their head shaved but with a fringe, their make-up would also be quite neutral. The music which was popular amongst skinheads was the genre of Ska music, this orientated from black orientated cultures meaning that their was a strong Jamaican vibe, creating the skinhead reggae genre. Bands which were popular within this genre were The Specials
