Using the example of Mods, How did different subcultures distinguish themselves in Britain during the 1960's? In the 1960's, young people questioned Britain and America's materialism and cultural and political norms,

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Using the example of Mods, How did different subcultures distinguish themselves in Britain during the 1960’s?

In the 1960's, young people questioned Britain and America's materialism and cultural and political norms, much as they've always done.  Seeking a better world, some used music, politics, and alternative lifestyles to create what came to be known as the counterculture. Briton’s in that era faced many controversial issues-from civil rights, female equality, nuclear arms, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity. Many members of the counterculture saw their own lives as ways to express political and social beliefs. Personal appearance, song lyrics, and the arts were some of the methods used to make both individual and communal statements. Due to this reason many different subcultures formed, each with very different views and also very different taste.

It has been argued that structural conditions, especially persistent, structural contradictions, often experienced as class problems, are a basic generating force for subculture. Cultural conditions, particularly those generated by social class, may interact with the apparent middle class consensus and, when assisted by neighbourhood traditions and specific historic circumstances, act in shaping the cultural form of a subculture.  One cultural form common in a subculture is fashion and its style.  Cohen notes that an important aspect of a reference groups such as a subculture group is the symbolic use of a style. “An actor learns that the behaviour signifying membership in a particular role includes the kinds of clothes he wears, his posture, his gait, his likes and dislikes, what he talks about and the opinion he expresses”.

Gangs, by definition, each have their own character. It is a structure sharing the same ideas, attachments and solidarity. The interests, activities, membership, and status differ according to each one. They usually have a particular hangout or meeting place where they mark their territory. Conflict usually occurs when there are clashes with other gangs, although conflict can also occur within their own group. "The gang is an interstitial group originally formed spontaneously and then integrated through conflict. It is characterized by the following types of behaviour: meeting face to face, milling, movement through space as a unit, conflict and planning”. Developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Mods and The Rockers were two groups that were closely related to the work of author S.E. Hinton who wrote the novel, "The Outsiders". Each group represented opposite tastes with regard to a number of social conventions such as clothing, grooming, music, and so on. These cultural differences shaped the two different groups and also provided the conflict of interests which led to their famous clashes in 1964.
It is the intention of this essay to explore the ways in which these two groups distinguished themselves and to establish whether this distinction was due to the culture of the two groups, such as varies music for instance, or whether outside influences, such as the press, were of equal or more importance.

Before the 1950’s, teenagers did not exist as a separate consumer group. They were classed as either children or adults. By the early 50’s, school leavers were earning better wages. As they did not have any responsibilities it meant they had a lot of money available to spend as they liked. However, at this point there was not a market catering specifically for them. They had generally been buying the same clothes, seeing the same films and listening to the same music as their parents. 

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It did not take long for these people to latch on to music that they could call their own and that their older generations did not like. The craze grew and grew and the group was established as juvenile delinquents and was soon named ‘teddy boys’. The teddy boys established a teenage market and a fashion which was totally working class in origins. They also made it acceptable for males to dress purely for show. The teddy boys paved the way for the establishment of the Mods in the early 1960’s and though fashion was a large part of the ...

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