The Mod subculture emerged in the 1960s in response to postwar optimism and American cultural influences in Britain. Mods were sharply dressed youth obsessed with fashion and music like The Beatles and The Who. They wore tailored Italian suits with polo shirts and had neat haircuts, riding on Vespa scooters. Their fashion and musical tastes set them apart from the mainstream and provided a sense of collective identity, while also worrying others about moral decline.

1. An underground or minority set apart from the mainstream. Usually grouped by
styles of dress and musical tastes.
Youth sub cultures are often formed as a response to hardship and often
originate in the working class (later to be hijacked and absorbed by the middle
class).
What do they get out of it?
A sense of belonging or COLLECTIVE IDENTITY
Attractive to youth because of quest to be deviant or rebel
Sense of fame via moral panics (like the mods)
How do others respond to it?
Moral panics
Sensational media – worries about MORAL DECLINE

2. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

3. I have given you the name of the sub culture for each era
Define the sub culture, including details of fashion and
musical tastes etc.
Why or how did this sub culture evolve? What was going
on at the time?

4. Before the 1940’s, more specifically before WWII, youth were seen and not heard. They took
life seriously, helping with the war effort. They took on jobs to help bring in money for their
family.
Once the war ended the role of teenagers quickly changed. Teenagers no longer had to drop
out of school because the economy was booming. Teens were now staying in school and
taking on part-time jobs. These part-time jobs and allowances provided spending money for
the youth of the decade.
The youth of this time were dependent on their parents, but also wanted their
independence.
The combination of spending and the need to be independent created the youth culture.
Before the 1950’s there was no music targeted at the youth. Grandparents had the
Charleston, parents had the jitterbug, and young blacks had rhythm and blues. Until rock
and roll white teens had no music to dance to.

6. • Post war optimism
• Independence
• American imports
(film, music):
First influences from America
• Patriotic clothing –red, white, blue
• Ben Sherman, Fred Perry
• Obsessed with fashion & music
• Beatles & The Who
• Scooters
'Mods' or Moderns were fashionconscious sharp dressers of the 1960s.
Emerging in part from the jazz
modernists of the 1950s, and partly from
working-class traditions of competitive
dressing, Mods aped the look of middleclass businessmen. They wore Italian-cut,
custom-made suits from Cecil Gee and
teamed them with polo shirts and neat
Vidal Sassoon haircuts. They rode Vespa
motor scooters.
• Drug of choice: amphetamine