The mod subculture originated in London in the late 1950s among young men who listened to modern jazz music. It focused on fashionable tailored suits, music genres like soul, ska, and R&B, and riding motor scooters. British teenagers in the 1960s rejected the dull and repressed culture of the 1950s and created their own subculture centered around being cool, sharp, and modern. While newspapers portrayed mods as having a leisurely club-going lifestyle, most mods actually worked semi-skilled jobs with limited free time and income to spend on clubs and fashion.