Fashion as a subculture (about British scooters). Abstract youth subculture in modern Britain

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Now we will try to find out how such different, and in some ways even opposite concepts are connected. So, youth subculture is most often the result of a young person's dissatisfaction with what is happening in society. This is an attempt to follow their own ideology, to create their own world. A person chooses what is closer to him, what he likes, plus the subculture gives young people a much-needed opportunity for self-realization and self-expression. The key word here is "young". Youth - due to psychological and social characteristics is the most active part of the population. She easily perceives everything new. It is characterized by creative activity, initiative. Young people are not afraid of change, but rather strive for it. The youth is the main consumer of fashion. Another feature of young people is that their critical thinking is just beginning to take shape, they can be influenced, especially by the media. Therefore, it is difficult to say demand creates supply, or supply creates demand. Be that as it may, the bulk of young people are subject to the influence of fashion. It is also noticeable that young people react faster to changing fashion than the bulk of the population. This trend can be seen especially well in the appearance of young people. It would seem that not so long ago, everyone without exception wore flared trousers, and then smoothly moved to black and tight ones. As mentioned earlier, fashion is associated with the instinct to imitate. This is one of the contradictions inherent in young people - to be like everyone else and at the same time stand out.

This contradiction is resolved thanks to the subculture. For example, a goth among “friends” will be like everyone else, but compared to people who do not belong to this subculture, he will be a “black sheep”. The goal is achieved, it will be noticed.

Each subculture has its own fashion and style. A single style unites people, whether it be music, clothing or lifestyle.

No matter how subcultures try to isolate themselves from a common base culture, it is very difficult to completely autonomize.

For a teenager of the 50s, rock and roll was literally a revolution in everything: in the manner of dancing, speaking, walking, in views of the world, power, parents, and most importantly, a revolution in a person’s views on himself. This is how rock culture was born. And among young people it has become really fashionable.

The beatniks demonstrated their dissimilarity to the rest precisely in their indifference to style, as such, which is also a style. They were very disrespectful of their outward appearance. The young ladies who listened to "savage music" themselves looked like both savages and "pin-up girls" at the same time: a lot of bright makeup, defiantly open tight-fitting blouses, tight skirts with a slit or puffy "flared sun", etc. Similar silhouettes are found in modern fashion ...

In the 60s, the subculture "Modos" (Fashion) arose. Mods pick up on the Teddy Boys (1950) for their dapper dressing style. Their motto is "moderation and accuracy!". The Mods wore perfectly fitting suits, the chemical marvel of the early 60's—snow-white nylon shirts with narrow collars, thin ties, boots with narrow toes, faux leather jackets with zippers, neat hairdos. In 1962, the legendary Beatles became followers of the Modos style. Youth fashion, booming in this decade, has its influence on the classic haute couture houses. Such houses offered their clients a “ennobled” version of youth fashion: knee-length skirts, suits “modernized” with bright colors and new lines, classic “boats” with low heels, etc.

The fashion of the late 1960s is influenced by a new youth subculture - "hippies". Diffuser hippie style brought bright ethnic oriental motifs into fashion, a deliberate shabby effect and, among other things, jeans, which were something of a symbol of protest against bourgeois uniforms. With their appearance and behavior, hippies emphasized the denial of the norms of official culture. In search of individuality, young rebels mixed clothes from different styles, times and peoples. They sang the value of old clothes. From here went the effect of wear and torn jeans.

Modern fashion is becoming more and more democratic, it no longer imposes strict rules, allowing everyone to express their individuality. Fashion is cyclical, so things that used to be popular often get a second life. And if you restore the history of this or that thing, you can find a connection with a wide variety of subcultures.

It is known that some subcultures continue to live to this day, while others cease to exist. It also has a connection with the fashion phenomenon. Fashion quickly responds to changing needs of young people. And sometimes it is ahead of their change, creating new ones. If something ceases to be relevant, it goes from everyday life to history. Pagers, for example, can now only be found in a museum, but at one time it was fashionable. The same situation with subcultures. Zutiz, rockabilly, beatniks, hippies have long disappeared (if there are, then very few). But now such a subculture as emo, for example, has gained immense popularity among young people. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the abundance of young people dressed in this style. People who don’t consider themselves emo dress like that, they just think it’s beautiful. Hairstyles that came into fashion thanks to this subculture also took root very well.

There are many representatives of hip-hop culture and various branches of rock culture. This conclusion is also based on daily observations. Such subcultures owe their mass character to the fashion created by the youth media.

Subculture sometimes gives life to completely new things and ideas. And as it develops and interacts with society, this “new” phenomenon gradually penetrates into the general culture and can even become a classic in any field.

Often fashion creates subcultures. For example, let's take the subculture "dudes". It appeared in the USSR and existed from 1940 to the beginning. 1960s. As a reference, this subculture had a Western (mainly American) lifestyle. The dudes stood out for their bright clothes, original manner of speaking (special slang). They had a special interest in Western music and dance. Western fashion still has a huge impact on our country. Unfortunately, this applies not only to clothing ... Subcultures are also an indicator of this. It is difficult to recall at least one subculture that would originally have arisen in Russia. Basically, they all came to us from the West.

Another subculture that is directly related to fashion is the hipster or indie kid. The name speaks for itself. It comes from the English word hip, which translates as "to be in the subject." Fashion is perhaps the main component of hipster culture.

No matter how hard the representatives of this or that subculture try to stand out and retreat from the official fashion, in the end it turns out that the more massive the subculture becomes, the more likely it will be fashionable and vice versa, the more fashionable among the youth the subculture will be, the more massive it will be.

Thus, the connection of subcultures with fashion is obvious, this connection can be expressed in different ways: subcultures create their own fashion, at the same time influencing the development of fashion in general, they in a sense give rise to a new fashion, and sometimes fashion makes it possible and development of subcultures. This complex connection concerns mainly the external image, some individual elements. But, as mentioned earlier, fashion is not only clothes, it affects almost all spheres of life of a modern person. Therefore, the connection between fashion and subculture is deeper than it seems at first glance. But even its external manifestations are enough to conclude that it exists.

The influence of subcultures on fashion can not be overestimated - it is not worth once again to expand on what role fashion, glam rock, punk and Vivienne Westwood parties of the 70s, hip-hop and or grunge of the 90s played in this. Many designers from the mid-1960s to the present day are inspired by the style of individual communities united by a cultural code, ideology and appearance (the fashion industry has always strived to unite people in this way). Now, quite non-obvious examples have come into play. We talk about not the most famous, but influential subcultures - from Mexican cholos to psychedelic adepts of the 1970s - and how they influenced today's fashion trends.

Text: Alena Belaya

Cholo

The roots of the cholo subculture are in the younger generation of immigrants from Mexico who settled in the United States a generation or two ago. Initially, the term was used to refer to the local population of South and Central America, but in the 1960s, "cholo" began to refer to the working class Mexicans living in the States and representatives of their civil rights movement Chicano Movement. Actually, at the same time, in the 1960s, the designation "cholo" was picked up by criminal youth and began to be used for self-identification - this is how an independent subculture was formed.

At first, only guys belonged to cholo, they wore baggy pants, alcoholic T-shirts and sports sneakers (still among the popular cholo brands are Dickies, Ben Davis and Lowrider), but girls gradually picked up the style. In fact, the female version of the cholo differs only in make-up: arched tattooed eyebrows, lips outlined in dark pencil, cat eyes arrows, plus a characteristic hairstyle with a high pile above the forehead and a manicure that Lena Lenina herself would envy.

Cholo as a subculture took a lot from underground hip-hop, so Chola girls decorate themselves with golden trinkets for a sweet soul varying degrees gravity (but the guys, by the way, not really). Gradually, from the urban culture of low-income areas of Los Angeles and San Diego, the cholo subculture became the mainstream, which was picked up first in pop culture (one of the first by Fergie and Gwen Stefani), then in fashion. As a result, stylist Mel Ottenberg sculpts a chola girl out of Rihanna, Dazed & Confused magazine shoots in the spirit of cholo, and designers dedicate collections to chola girls - remember at least Rodarte and Nasir Mazhar of the spring-summer 2014 season.

LGBT hip hop

LGBT hip-hop, or homo-hop as it is also called, appeared at the dawn of the 1990s in California. Initially, homo-hop was not positioned as a separate musical direction, but served to identify the LGBT community in the hip-hop scene. The term itself was introduced by Tim'm T. West, a member of the Deep Dickollective team. Loudly asserting itself in the 1990s, homo-hop died down for a while at the beginning of the new millennium (with the possible exception of the documentary “Pick Up the Mic” featuring the main homo-hop artists of our time), only to be revived with the advent of the 2010s.

The new generation of hip-hop artists not only did not hide their unconventional sexual orientation(Frank Ocean was one of the first African-American performers to come out, and Azealia Banks does not hide her bisexual inclinations), but she also actively supported the LGBT movement, often in texts. It is noteworthy that initially homo-hopers generally did not have any special distinctive signs in terms of clothing, and straight artists flirted with drag culture: from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to World Class Wreckin’ Cru. Nevertheless, some conservatives are sure that Kanye West and Trinidad James performing in skirts are the result of the spread of the gay movement in the hip-hop ranks, and no worse than Rihanna twerking in microshorts and bike shorts. Le1f- a living example of discrimination against masculinity in general and in hip-hop in particular.

Men's fashion in recent years has been generally striving to gradually blur gender boundaries - from the main conductor of street culture to the luxury industry, Ricardo Tisci, who brought male models to the catwalk in skirts, ending with the latest men's shows. For example, Loewe under the new creative director Jonathan Anderson or the absolutely beautiful Christophe Lemaire, after watching which the girls make impressive wishlists.

Casuals

Casual was formed in the British subculture in the late 1980s, when football hooligans ditched fan uniforms in favor of designer pieces and expensive sportswear in order to attract police attention as little as possible. The style that casuals began to exploit appeared much earlier - back in the days of teddy fights in the 1950s and mods in the early 1960s. Having collected and digested the subcultural heritage of their predecessors, casuals have developed their own visual formula: Fiorucci straight-cut jeans, adidas, Gola or Puma sneakers, Lacoste polo shirt and Gabicci cardigan.

It is believed that the London hooligans were introduced to the European street fashion of that time by fans of the Liverpool football club, who accompanied their favorite team on all European trips and brought heaps of clothes from expensive sports brands (at that time - adidas or Sergio Tacchini). In the late 1990s, football fans gradually moved away from the original casual look, and expensive designer brands, in turn, removed from sale things associated with casual (in particular, Burberry faced a problem with their signature cage).

The movement began to experience another rise from the mid-2000s, and in our time, casuals are not even always devoted football phantoms, but the bow is still the same as it was at dawn: skinny jeans, a Palace T-shirt, a classic Reebok model. This image (let's designate it as “laconic and neat”) can be seen today both on Topman mannequins and on the catwalks of Burberry Prorsum and Paul Smith, and in the subcultural context, lad casual is called a substitute for heritage exploiting ultra-masculinity and sloppy hipsterism.

We have already talked about how great the influence of sports on modern fashion is: things that were originally intended for classes in a fitness club now fit quite organically into the urban environment, and heels give way to comfortable shoes like sneakers, sneakers and slip-ons. The history of the interpenetration of fashion and sports can be observed since the middle of the 19th century: in 1849, the Water-sure Journal published an article urging women to abandon the heavy crinolines that were fashionable at that time in favor of clothes that would give more freedom of movement. Two years later, the famous feminist Amelia Bloomer appeared in public in a knee-length skirt and wide trousers like Turkish harem pants, later named after her - bloomers.

However, bloomers experienced a real boom only in the 1890s, when women began to master the then popular cycling. Further, echoes of sports themes appeared in the collections of Gabrielle Chanel (the same jersey material and models inspired by tennis uniforms), and Elsa Schiaparelli (her Pour le Sport collection), and later Emilio Pucci (ski clothes), Yves Saint Laurent (hunting suit, specifically the Norfolk jacket), Azzedine Alaia and Roy Halston (top like bikini top), Karl Lagerfeld (1991 surf-themed spring-summer collection for Chanel), Donna Karan (dresses early 1990- x from neoprene) and many others.

Separately, in this chronology, it is worth highlighting the 1970s - the era when sports became an important and fashionable part of the lifestyle. By the end of the decade, everyone was literally obsessed with aerobics and jogging, not only for objective health reasons, but also because it was considered sexy, and fashion, in turn, became the platform where sports and sex merged into a single whole. So, in the field of fashion design, they began to actively use fleece, lycra, terry, polyurethane, parachute fabric, and girls wore plastic visors as a fashion accessory.

With the beginning of the new century, sport still ran like a red thread through fashion collections almost every season, but the next serious wave of popularity came in 2012, which many associate, in particular, with the London Olympics. Collaborations of sports brands with fashion designers began to appear with enviable popularity: adidas with Stella McCartney, Jeremy Scott and Mary Katranzou, Nike with Ricardo Tisci, and the catwalks were clearly influenced by sports style - just remember the collections of the same Stella McCartney FW 2012/ 2013 and SS 2013, Alexander Wang for his own brand in SS12 and this spring for Balenciaga, Givenchy as the main promoter of sweatshirts of all stripes, Prada and Emilio Pucci for SS14. In general, the list is endless. One thing is clear - all together led to the fact that today sportswear widely accepted as inseparable from everyday life.

Psychedelia

Psychotropic drugs became a part of subcultural life in the USA and Great Britain in the mid-1960s: in general, the ideology of psychedelic adherents was expressed in opposition to the Western world of consumerism and, naturally, an attempt to escape from reality. After the “Summer of Love” that happened in 1967, the counterculture finally took shape in the hippie movement, which elevated not only the principles of peace and love, but also the widespread use of psychotropic substances, such as LSD, into a cult.

Staying in a state of altered consciousness, in particular, implied a hypertrophied perception of colors, textures and pictures and significantly influenced the formation typical image hippies and on the development of graphics: acid shades, smooth, as if flowing silhouettes, textured fabrics were used. By the way, the popularity of the traditional Indian paisley pattern was explained by the same thing - during the drug trip, multi-colored "cucumbers" folded into cool pictures. In a word, all the dressing tricks served to make the psychedelic experiences even more spectacular.

Paraphernalia boutiques in New York and Granny Takes a Trip in London served as the main conduits of psychedel fashion, where they sold pieces designed by Thea Porter, Zandra Rhodes, Jean Muir and Ozzy Clark. The legacy of psychedelics can be considered the rave movement of the late 1980s with its acid colors T-shirts, hellish tie-dye and plastic jewelry - all these tricks were once adopted by both Franco Moschino and Gianni Versace.

Psychedelic aesthetics has also not bypassed the fashion of the newest time - for the most part in the form of neon flowers, which since 2007 began to appear in collections with enviable constancy. However, not only them: if you think about it, the much-loved (today, however, not so much) kaleidoscopic digital prints are nothing more than echoes of psychedelic-friendly ornaments of the 1970s, as well as the return of tie-dye and 70s style generally. In particular, the widespread use of optical prints in this year's autumn collections.

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine
Sevastopol city humanitarian university
Faculty of Philology

Individual work on the course "History of England"
on the topic: "Youth subculture in modern Great Britain"

Completed:

Checked:

Content:
1. Introduction...................... ......................... ..... ............................. ............... .......3p.
2. The concept of youth subculture………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. Reasons for the emergence of a subculture…………………………..……..... 6p.
4. Classification of subcultures (table)…………..…………..……..…….. 8p.
5. The most common subcultures among modern British youth…………………………………………………………………….10p.
6. Conclusion…………...………………………………………………………………………. ... ............... 25p.
7. List of used literature……………………………...…….. 26p.

1. Introduction.
- Poets, actors, artists, in my opinion, these are the real architects of change, and not scientists and politicians-legislators who approve the change after it happens ...
(c) William Burroughs
Scientists are trying to explain the reason for the appearance of subcultures by economic, social, cultural reasons, they derive this problem from the conflict between fathers and children, etc. All the existing many explanations do not once again indicate that this problem is quite complex, and ongoing research suggests that there is no unambiguous answer, and is not expected in the near future.
The relevance of this topic lies in the fact that subcultures appear constantly, and in the future we will encounter them, in order not to be afraid of this, we need to try to understand them.
A subculture is a community of people whose beliefs, views on life and behavior are different from those generally accepted or simply hidden from the general public, which distinguishes them from the broader concept of culture, of which they are an offshoot. The youth subculture appeared in science in the mid-1950s. Since traditional societies develop gradually, at a slow pace, relying mainly on the experience of older generations, insofar as the phenomenon of youth culture refers mainly to dynamic societies, and was seen in connection with "technogenic civilization". If earlier culture was not so clearly divided into "adult" and "youth" (regardless of age, everyone sang the same songs, listened to the same music, danced the same dances, etc.), now the "fathers" and "children" have serious differences in value orientations, and in fashion, and in the methods of communication, and even in the way of life in general. As a specific phenomenon, youth culture also arises due to the fact that the physiological acceleration of young people is accompanied by a sharp increase in the duration of their socialization period (sometimes up to 30 years), which is caused by the need to increase the time for education and professional training that meets the requirements of the era. Today, a young man ceases to be a child early (according to his psychophysiological development), but according to his social status, he does not belong to the world of adults for a long time. "Youth" as a phenomenon and sociological category, born of industrial society, is characterized by psychological maturity in the absence of significant participation in the institutions of adults.
The emergence of youth culture is associated with the uncertainty of the social roles of young people, uncertainty about their own social status. In the ontogenetic aspect, the youth subculture is presented as a phase of development through which everyone must go. Its essence is the search for social status. Through it, the young man "exercises" in the performance of the roles that he will later have to play in the world of adults. The most accessible social platforms for specific activities of young people are leisure, where you can show your own independence: the ability to make decisions and lead, organize and organize. Leisure is not only communication, but also a kind of social game, the lack of skills in such games in youth leads to the fact that a person considers himself free from obligations even in adulthood. In dynamic societies, the family partially or completely loses its function as an instance of socialization of the individual, since the pace of changes in social life gives rise to a historical discrepancy between the older generation and the changed tasks of the new time. With the entry into adolescence, the young man turns away from the family, looking for those social ties that should protect him from a society that is still alien. Between a lost family and a society not yet found, a young man strives to join his own kind. The informal groups formed in this way provide the young person with a certain social status. The price for this, often, is the rejection of individuality and complete submission to the norms, values and interests of the group. These informal groups produce their own subculture, which differs from the culture of adults. It is characterized by internal uniformity and external protest against generally accepted institutions. Due to the presence of their own culture, these groups are marginal in relation to society, and therefore always contain elements of social disorganization, potentially tend to deviate from generally accepted norms of behavior.
Quite often, everything is limited only by the eccentricity of behavior and the violation of the norms of generally accepted morality, interests around sex, "parties", music and drugs. However, the same environment forms a countercultural value orientation, the highest principle of which is the principle of pleasure, enjoyment, which acts as an incentive motive and the goal of all behavior. The entire value network of the youth counterculture is connected with irrationalism, which is dictated by the recognition of the actual human only in the natural, that is, the dissociation of the "human" from the "social" that arose as a result of the "monopoly of the head." The consistent implementation of irrationalism defines hedonism as the leading value orientation of the youth counterculture. Hence the morality of permissiveness, which is the most important and organic element of the counterculture. Since the existence of the counterculture is concentrated on "today", "now", then the hedonistic aspiration is a direct consequence of this.

2. The concept of youth subculture.
The concept of youth subcultures was initially applied by sociologists in Western Europe and the United States only to the criminal environment. Gradually, the content of the concept expanded and began to be used in relation to the norms and values that determine the behavior of a certain social group of young people - thus, the concept of "subculture" was associated with the concept of "cultural paradigm", that is, the set of ideas and rules that gives a kind of matrix of behavior in different situations. However, while studying this matrix, scientists came across facts that forced them to question some ideas that previously seemed self-evident. For example, the English scholar Grant McCracken, in his widely acclaimed book Plenitude: Culture by Commotion, describes his conversations with various groups of teenagers (goths, punks and skaters). The researcher found that differences in clothing, fashion, etc., that is, external differences, indicate internal differences, namely: differences in values and their gradation. Some of the observers, he noted, believe that the actions of adolescents are guided by the desire to gain recognition from their peers, and everything else (clothing, language, musical tastes, demeanor, etc.) is just "monkey" necessary for belonging to a group. This point of view comes from the idea of youth culture as a natural sequence.
Another point of view comes from the fact that the subculture is a confrontation, which is that the cause of diversity in the adolescent world is an expression of inter-age and class hostility. This position is developed, for example, by the book of American researchers Sue Widdicombe and Robin Wooffit "The Language of Youth Subcultures: Social Identification in Action" (New York, 1995). Teenagers enter a hostile world. This point of view was defended, in particular, by the authors of one of the first significant books on youth subcultures - the British Stuart Gell and Tony Jefferson in the book "Confrontation through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain", published in London in 1976.

3. Causes of the subculture.
Why do subcultures arise?
The most common answer is this: to resolve contradictions in the mainstream culture, if it is unable to provide the new generation with an effective ideology. A subculture takes shape in its own style of behavior, in language, clothing, and rituals capable of creative development.
The relationship between the "main" culture and "deviations" is trying to define the theory of subcultures as a scientific discipline. It works in the conceptual field of cultural studies, based on specific sociological research and other humanitarian disciplines. Marxist theory denies subcultures, considering youth subcultures as an ideology designed to mask the antagonistic contradictions of capitalist society and replace them with the confrontation of generations.
Close to the Marxist views of supporters of the theory of social conflict.
Social action theorists emphasize the behavior of the individual in his contacts with others. In this understanding, subcultures are seen as a system that regulates the implementation of the interests and needs of young people in society.
There is no doubt that each of us happened to walk down the street, ride the subway or just watch TV and see people who are somehow different from others. These are informals - representatives of modern subcultures.
The very word informal, informal denotes unusualness, brightness and originality. An informal person is an attempt to show his individuality, to say to the gray mass: "I am a person", to challenge the world with its endless everyday life and lining up everyone in one row. Scientifically speaking, a subculture is a system of values, attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles, which is inherent in a smaller social community, spatially and socially more or less isolated. Subcultural attributes, rituals, and values, as a rule, differ from those in the dominant culture, although they are associated with them. The English sociologist M. Break noted that subcultures as "systems of meanings, ways of expression or life styles" developed by social groups that were in a subordinate position, "in response to the dominant systems of meanings: subcultures reflect the attempts of such groups to resolve the structural contradictions that have arisen in a broader social context". Another thing is culture - a mass phenomenon - a system of values inherent in most of society and a way of life dictated by society.
We will make sure that subcultures are a huge bright world that reveals to us all the shades of life. To do this, we will briefly analyze each subculture.

4. Classification of subcultures.

Types of subcultures

		Description of subspecies
Muses- calic	Subcultures based on fans of various genres of music.	Alternatives	fans of alternative rock, nu metal, rapcore
		Goths	fans of gothic rock, gothic metal and darkwave
		indie	indie rock fans
		Metalworkers	fans of heavy metal and its varieties
		Punks	punk rock fans and supporters of punk ideology
		Rastafans	reggae fans, as well as representatives of the religious movement Rastafari
		rockers	rock music fans
		Ravers	fans of rave, dance music and discos
		Hip hop (rappers)	rap and hip hop fans
		Traditional skinheads	ska and reggae lovers
		Folkers	folk music fans
		emo	emo and post-hardcore fans
		Rivetheads	Industrial music fans
		junglists	Fans of jung and drum and bass
image- you	Subcultures distinguished by style in clothing and behavior	visual kei
		Cyber Goths
		Fashion
		Nudists
		dudes
		teddy-boys
		Military
		Freaks
Political and worldview	Subcultures distinguished by public beliefs	anarcho punks
		Antifa
		RASH skinheads (redskins)
		SHARP skinheads
		NS skinheads
		Beatniks
		Informals
		new age
		Straight Agers
		Hippie
		Yuppie
By hobby	Subcultures shaped by hobbies	Bikers	motorcycle lovers
		Writers	graffiti fans
		tracers	parkour lovers
		hackers	Fans of computer hacking (often illegally)
For other hobbies niyam	Subcultures based on cinema, games, animation, literature.	Otaku	Anime fans (Japanese animation)
		bastards	Using slang jargon
		Gamers	Fans of computer games
	Historical reenactors	role movement	Live RPG Fans
		Tolkienists	Fans of John R.R. Tolkien
		Therianthropes	-
		Furry	Fans of anthropomorphic creatures
Hooligan	The identification of these subcultures is often disputed, and not all of them are classified as such.	Rude-fights
		Gopnik
		Lubera
		Ultras	Highly organized, very active fan club members
		Football hooligans

5. The most common subcultures among modern British youth.
Skinheads. (Skinheads)
Paradoxically, the lumpen subculture of “skinheads” (skinheads) was considered to be initially racist, even “fascist”. As already mentioned in the chapter about the Jamaican Rudiz subculture, which settled in London, skinheads took from their black peers not only reggae music, but also style and jargon. It got to the point that in one of the party books of stagnant times, the author reported that reggae is “a product of the skinheads subculture, aggressively racist music, etc.”. True, then, the same author unexpectedly characterizes it as a heavy metal analogue of a military march (hence, he did not hear anything), but calling the praise of the African race white racism is too much. It is interesting that for the “skinheads”, the analogue of our “lubers” and “gopniks”, it was the “East”, revered by the “hippies”, personified by immigrants from South Asia (“Paki”), endowed with all conceivable and inconceivable vices. By the way, in England, where the “Pakis” were the main victims of racism, and in Germany, where they are Turks, and in France, where they are North African Berbers and Arabs, black immigrants quickly adopt the lifestyle of the indigenous population and do not cause such irritation, as stubbornly Muslims who stick to their customs.
In 1964, the Mods, especially those from the lower strata of society, instinctively felt, with the beginning of the days of Swing London, a real threat to their existence as a separate subculture. While the "mod style" was copied and embellished by thousands and thousands of young people, a small contingent of "real" people decided to turn their backs on mass culture, hardened their image and moved back to their roots. Also rejecting the dominant culture that pop music has now become, the skinheads draw their inspiration from the music of the rudiz - ska, bluebit and rock steady (see page 70). Dominant "psychedelists" and "hippies" become for them not only traitors to the "Mod's precepts", but also class enemies. Having neither their own cultural elite nor the opportunity to realize themselves in a mass culture oriented towards middle-class youth, the skinheads feel like outsiders and withdraw into their conservatism, based on the old values of the working outskirts. Their style, now Dressing Down, now fully corresponded to aggressive self-assertion on the streets of large industrial cities: heavy boots (usually with a steel cup-shaped toe) with high lacing, wide trousers with suspenders or cropped (rolled up) jeans, rough jackets, white T-shirts, shaved heads.
From 1965 to 1968 in the history of "skinheads" there is an "incubation" period. But already in the middle of the 68th, they already appear by the thousands, especially adoring outrage at football matches. Their style was just the opposite of "hippie". Instead of non-resistance, they took on the cult of violence, “extinguishing the hippies”, homosexuals (Turner, on the contrary, in contrast to liminal personalities who had a lack of expression of sexual characteristics, here there is just an emphasis on sexual characteristics in individuals oriented to the structural state of society) and “packs” , whom they considered and consider to be degenerates. However, "Public Opinion", in contrast to the domestic times of the "heyday of Lubers and Kazan" (eighties), was not on their side.
Some of the “skins” soften the image a little, even slightly let go of their hair and, because of their suede jackets, become “suede skins” (in 1972 they were also called “smoothed”). It is complemented by black windbreakers, wide-brimmed hats and, oddly enough, black umbrellas. But this direction, which in fact returned the “skins” back to 1964, due to the flourishing of the “glam” style in music and fashion, quickly withered and soon completely disappeared.
When in 1976 the Punks appeared on the scene of youth subcultures and an open confrontation began between them and the Teddy Boys, who were experiencing a short-term revival, it was time for the skinheads to choose which side they would take in street clashes. Most of the young skinheads, mostly urban, joined with the punks, while the rural minority supported the Teddies. Punks and skinheads seemed to be on opposite sides of the street style barricades. After merging with the “skins”, a funny metamorphosis took place - they began to listen to punk rock, shaved heads now adorned with a punk mohawk, but the clothes remained the same. The new subculture was named “Oi!” (i.e. “Oh!”). Two years later, a split is planned in the “skins” camp, connected with a cooling off towards the “blacks” and the beginning of pogroms, which they explained as a traditional class expression of their dislike for “newcomers”. The fact is that in the late eighties, a stream of immigrants from the Caribbean poured into England, and the economic crisis created intense competition for jobs. And if the orthodox "skinheads" continued to feel sympathy for the "rudiz", "Oi!" openly join the ultra-right – the “National Front” and other political groups. Thanks to the press, soon all “skinheads” begin to be called racists and fascists, and only a few think about the original roots of skinheads and how it all began.
In the popular in the eighties in the UK movement "Two Colors" and the movement close to it "Rock against Racism", most of the punks, "rude boys", part of the skins and the second generation of "mods" united. In the United States and Great Britain, just a few years ago, a group calling itself SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) appeared, declaring itself louder and louder. Its founder in England, Rudy Moreno, stated: “Real skinheads are not racists. Without the Jamaican culture, we simply would not exist. Their culture mingled with that of the British working class, and it was through this fusion that the world saw the Skinheads.”
Goths.
Goths are representatives of a youth subculture that originated in the late 70s of the XX century on the wave of post-punk. The gothic subculture is very diverse and heterogeneous, but the following features are characteristic of it to one degree or another: a gloomy image, interest in mysticism and esotericism, decadence, love for horror literature and films, love for gothic music (gothic rock, gothic metal , death rock, darkwave, etc.).

The history of the subculture is ready

The main priority in this subculture is a peculiar worldview, a special perception of the surrounding world, death as a fetish, which can be considered one of the signs of belonging to the Goths. But do not forget that Gothic appeared thanks to music, and to this day, it is the main unifying factor for all goths. The subculture is ready - this is a modern trend that is characteristic of many countries. It originated in the UK in the early eighties of the last century against the backdrop of the popularity of gothic rock - an offshoot of one of the post-punk genres. And the gloomy decadents of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and The Banshees can truly be considered the founders of the genre. Later gothic bands of the 80s: The Sisters Of Mercy, The Mission, Fields Of Nephilim. And it was they who formed their own special gothic-rock sound, but this subculture does not stand still, there is no static in it. Everything, on the contrary, is in dynamics, in which life and death, good and evil, fiction and reality are combined. By the beginning of the 90s, new styles of gothic music appeared - ethereal and darkwave (melancholic psychedelia), dark folk (pagan roots), synth-goth (synthetic gothic). And by the end of the 90s, gothic fit perfectly into such styles as black, dead and doom-metal. Now the development of gothic music is mainly associated with electronic sound and the formation of a "dark scene" - combining gothic electronic and industrial bands, for example, Von Thronstahl, Das Ich, The Days Of The Thrompet Call etc. This subculture is diverse and heterogeneous, because it cultivates individuality, but it is possible to identify common features for it: love for gothic music (gothic rock, gothic metal, death rock, darkwave), a gloomy image, interest in mysticism and esotericism, decadence , love for horror literature and films.

Idea uniting ready

The Gothic worldview is characterized by an addiction to a "dark" perception of the world, a special romantic-depressive outlook on life, reflected in behavior (isolation, frequent depression, melancholy, increased vulnerability), a special perception of reality (misanthropy, a refined sense of beauty, addiction to the supernatural), attitude to society: rejection of stereotypes, standards of behavior and appearance, antagonism with society, isolation from it. Also characteristic features of the ready are artistry and the desire for self-expression, manifested in the work on their own appearance, in the creation of poetry, painting, and other forms of art.

Their religion and symbols

One of the features of the Gothic perception of the world is an increased interest in the supernatural, in magic and the occult. A tradition attempting to revive Celtic magical rituals, or an occult tradition, is based on Scandinavian paganism. Therefore, there are a lot of pagans and even Satanists among the Goths, but for the most part they are people attracted by gloomy religious aesthetics - outward manifestations, who are not "real" Satanists. There are also Goths who study a wide variety of ancient philosophies: from Egyptian and Iranian to Voodoo and Kabbalah. But in general, most of the Goths to one degree or another are Christians. As you can see, there is no single Gothic tradition. Gothic aesthetics is extremely diverse in terms of the set of symbols used: you can find Egyptian, Christian and Celtic symbols. The main sign is the Egyptian ankh, a symbol of eternal life (immortality). The connection with the Goths is obvious here - initially the goth subculture arose thanks to the vampire aesthetics ("Nosferatu"), and who are vampires, if not "undead", that is, "not dead", living forever. Christian symbolism is used more rarely, mostly in the form of ordinary crucifixes (only with a more stylish design than usual). Celtic symbolism is found in the form of abundant use of Celtic crosses and various ornaments. Occult symbolism is quite widely represented, pentagrams, inverted crosses, eight-pointed stars (symbols of chaos) are used.

The image is ready

The Goths have their own recognizable image, which has recently undergone significant changes. No matter how Gothic develops, two basic elements remain unchanged: the predominant black color of clothing (sometimes with elements of other colors), as well as exclusively silver jewelry- gold is not used in principle, since it is regarded as a symbol of ordinary, hackneyed values, as well as the color of the sun (silver is the color of the moon).

Varieties ready:

Goth vampires. The most modern and fashionable variety is ready. These are usually very closed characters who are offended by the whole world. The most pleasant pastime is to tell a friend about the newly invented method of suicide or to think about your sores.

Goths - Punk Goth. Style ready-veterans. Iroquois, safety pins, ripped jeans, leather jackets. Almost 100% punk.

Goths - Androgyn Goth. "Sexless" Goths. All makeup is aimed at hiding the gender of the character. Corsets, bandages, skirts, latex and vinyl clothing, high heels, collars.

Goths - Hippie Goth. The style is characteristic of pagans, occultists or older Goths. Baggy clothes, hoods, raincoats. Hair of natural color, freely flowing, with braided ribbons. Amulets, but not metal, but wooden or stone, with the image of runes and other magical signs.

Goths - Corporate Goth. Goths working in large companies and forced to dress in accordance with the corporate style. Office wear, as close to gothic as possible. No makeup, minimal jewelry, everything is strict and black.

Goths - Cyber Goth. It's newer. Cyberpunk aesthetic. Active use of techno design: gears, pieces of microcircuits, wires. Clothing is most often made of vinyl or neoprene. Hair is shaved or dyed purple, green or blue.

Punks.
Punks (English punks) - a youth subculture that arose in the mid-70s in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, the characteristic features of which are love for punk rock music, a critical attitude towards society and politics. The name of the famous American artist Andy Warhol and the band Velvet Underground, which he produced, is closely associated with punk rock. Their lead singer, Lou Reed, is considered the founding father of alternative rock, a movement closely associated with punk rock. The popular American band the Ramones is considered the first band to play "punk rock" music. Damned and Sex Pistols are recognized as the first British punk bands.

Ideology

Punks adhere to various political views, but for the most part they are adherents of socially oriented ideologies and progressivism. Common beliefs are the desire for personal freedom and independence (individualism), non-conformism, the principles of "do not sell", "rely on oneself" and the principle of "direct action" (direct action). Other strands of punk politics include nihilism, anarchism, socialism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-nationalism, anti-homophobia, environmentalism, vegetarianism, veganism, and animal rights. Some individuals related to the subculture adhere to conservative views, neo-Nazism, or are apolitical.

The appearance of punks

Punks are distinguished by their colorful outrageous image.

Ravers. Cyberpunks.
The ravers are a vibrant and huge youth subculture, clustered around "mobile sound systems" like the Spiral Tribe and many others. Something obsessed with “techno-music” gypsies with only one difference - they are only for the weekend, a kind of “Sunday ravers”. In many ways, they are the children of the Thatcher era, coming from the now wide sections of the middle class, which has grown significantly in recent years. Young people at the center of rave culture may sound like hippies, look like punks, but they also display post-Thatcher autonomy and independence. Only a few of them work, the rest prefer to live on unemployment benefits or donations distributed at raves. In the United States, such people were conditionally nicknamed “Generation X”, because it seems now almost impossible to fit the new generation into some kind of theoretical framework. These are young people, unaffected by the business boom of the eighties, who did not see any interest in public life, preferring to become outsiders. The British version can also be called "Generation E" (from ecstasy - the most popular drug of the nineties, the most powerful stimulant that creates a long-term feeling of contentment and euphoria).
To match this drug and music - monotonous and hypnotic, saturated with monotonous, shamanic trance rhythms. It all started in the summer of 1988, when “acid house” music, “black”, a radical version of disco, which, in addition to purely technical achievements, had a huge influence on the black traditions of rap and disc jockey (DJ) came to England from the States from the States. break practice (rhythmic failures), which then grew into a huge and influential techno culture in the country or a “scene” with many sub-styles. Techno - muddy pulsations of discos in huge hangars, where “cyberpunks” are given to the waves of space. Techno is the folk culture of degenerate overpopulated metropolitan areas. The cult of anonymity, depersonalization is brought in it to the limit. The bulk of techno groups are fundamentally indistinguishable. The appearance of a sampler in technical musical equipment, with the help of which almost anyone can make their own music from someone else's pieces, opened a new era in the development of subcultures. The summer of 1988 is also called "the second summer of love." For a few it was a return in a transformed form of hippie philosophy. Others reproached the ravers for total hedonism, drug propaganda and disregard for the older generation. The next year, what started as an underground scene turned into a massive "commercial" rave with up to 20,000 participants. In many ways, the rise in popularity of raves was facilitated by the conservatives, who passed the law “On Strengthening Responsibility for Organizing Paid Gatherings”. Raves became difficult and expensive to organize. Economically speaking, supply was stifled as demand increased. As a result, the road was opened for those who wanted to politicize this largest youth movement since the sixties. “People used to just want to dance, but now they are increasingly answering the question, why are they banned?” says Fraser Clark, publisher of alternative rave magazines. The musicians representing this subculture borrowed much from the hippie ideology and image (removing long hair, but leaving colorful clothes), supplementing it with new age ideas, such as chaos theory and economic radicalism. They see ego needs and materialism as the main social evil. Their motto is "No Money, No Ego". At the same time, they resolutely insist on their apoliticality. From the punks they took the idea of total freedom, saying that the only reason they are underground is because the government forces them to do so by their laws. Like the first punks, ravers and cyberpunks develop their own technical distribution channels for “techno”, only on a much larger scale. Independent studios release so-called “white labels” (that is, discs without manufacturer names), singles without covers in small editions, which disperse to clubs, which are experiencing a real boom even now, and specialty stores. At the same time, both radio and international record companies were left out of work, which were unable to quickly respond to rapidly changing musical styles. Buying techno labels, that is, record companies, is almost impossible - music does not require large expenses, it is easy to record. The Crime Act of 1994 reduced the possibility of holding free raves to a near minimum, but attempts to organize commercial ones also often fail due to local authorities - this happened this year with the largest techno festival "Tribal Gathering". The future of this subculture in the light of the current changes in the youth environment seems to me vague. From my point of view, as a movement, both musical and stylistic, it has exhausted itself, fatigue and apathy set in. Part of the ravers joined the "new age", the rest turned into club ravers, returning after parties to everyday reality. They became the dominant culture, turning temporarily declining rock back into a viable, truly alternative force to society.
Junglelists.
Junglists (from the English Junglist; often, in accordance with the East End Cockney dialect, pronounced jang-ga-list) is a drum and bass-inspired youth subculture that emerged in the UK in the early 1990s and is currently moment being one of the main movements of the country.
The appearance of a "real" junglist is sporty attire (T-shirt, hoodie or loose shirt, baggy pants, athletic shoes) and, unlike rappers, no gold jewelry of any kind. Behavior and speech adopted from ore-fights.
The main feature of the jungle movement is its multinationality. It exists not only in the UK, but all over the world, including Russia.
Grunge. Indie kids.
Several factors contributed to the emergence of a new indie subculture in the UK in the mid-eighties:

etc................. Subculture Mods

Fashion(English) mods from Modernism, Modism) is a British youth subculture that formed in the late 1950s. and peaked in the mid-1960s. Mods replaced teddy-boys, and later the skinhead subculture spun off from the environment of the most radical mods.

A distinctive feature of the mods was their special attention to appearance (initially, fitted Italian suits were popular, then British brands), love for music (from jazz, rhythm and blues and soul to rock and roll and ska). By the mid-60s, the music of such British rock bands as the Graham Bond Organization, Zoot Money Big Roll Band, Georgie Fame, Small Faces, Kinks and The Who (whose album was based on the film " Quadrophenia). The film was received ambiguously, to this day there are disputes about its adequacy and role in popularizing the fashion movement.

Motor scooters (especially the Italian Lambretta and Vespa models) were chosen as modes of transport, and collisions with rockers (owners of motorcycles) were not uncommon. Mods tended to meet in nightclubs and seaside resorts such as Brighton, where in 1964 the infamous street clashes between rockers and mods took place.

In the second half of the 60s. the mod movement waned and has only sporadic revived since then. At the end of the 70s. mod style has been adopted by some punk bands (Secret Affair, The Undertones and The Jam).

And in English:

Mod(from modernist) is a subculture that originated in London, England, in the late 1950s and peaked in the early-to-mid 1960s.

Significant elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music, including African American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music, and R and motor scooters. The original mod scene was also associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs.From the mid-to-late 1960s and onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable, or modern.

There was a mod revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, which was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California.

Etymology

The term mod derives from modernist, which was a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. This usage contrasted with the term trade, which described traditional jazz players and fans. The 1959 novel Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes describes as a modernist, a young modern jazz fan who dresses in sharp modern Italian clothes. Absolute Beginners may be one of the earliest written examples of the term modernist being used to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. The word modernist in this sense should not be confused with the wider use of the term modernism in the context of literature, art, design and architecture.

History

Dick Hebdige claims that the progenitors of the mod subculture "appear to have been a group of working-class dandies, possibly descended from the devotees of the Italianite style." Mary Anne Long disagrees, stating that "first hand accounts and contemporary theorists point to the Jewish upper-working or middle-class of London's East End and suburbs."Sociologist Simon Frith asserts that the mod subculture had its roots in the 1950s beatnik coffee bar culture, which catered to art school students in the radical bohemian scene in London. Steve Sparks, who claims to be one of the original mods, agrees that before mod became commercialized, it was essentially an extension of the beatnik culture: "It comes from 'modernist', it was to do with modern jazz and to do with Sartre" and existentialism. Sparks argues that "Mod has been much misunderstood... as this working-class, scooter-riding precursor of skinheads."

Coffee bars were attractive to youths, because in contrast to typical British pubs, which closed at about 11 pm, they were open until the early hours of the morning. Coffee bars had jukeboxes, which in some cases reserved some of the space in the machines for the students" own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music Frith notes that although coffee bars were originally aimed at middle-class art school students, they began to facilitate an intermixing of youths from different backgrounds and classes.At these venues, which Frith calls the "first sign of the youth movement", youths would meet collectors of R&B and blues records, who introduced them to new types of African-American music, which the teens were attracted to for its rawness and authenticity. .According to Hebdige, the mod subculture gradually accumulated the identifying symbols that later came to be associated with the scene, such as scooters, amphetamine pills, and music.

Decline and offshoots

By the summer of 1966, the mod scene was in sharp decline. Dick Hebdige argues that the mod subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialized, artificial and stylized to the point that new mod clothing styles were being created "from above" by clothing companies and by TV shows like Ready Steady Go!, rather than being developed by young people customizing their clothes and mixing different fashions together.

As psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular in the United Kingdom, many people drifted away from the mod scene. Bands such as The Who and Small Faces had changed their musical styles and no longer considered themselves mods. Another factor was that the original mods of the early 1960s were getting into the age of marriage and child-rearing, which meant that they no longer had the time or money for their youthful pastimes of club-going, record-shopping and scooter rallies. The peacock or fashion wing of mod culture evolved into the swinging London scene and the hippie style, which favored the gentle, marijuana-infused contemplation of esoteric ideas and aesthetics, which contrasted sharply with the frenetic energy of the mod ethos.

The hard mods of the mid-to-late 1960s eventually transformed into the skinheads.Many of the hard mods lived in the same economically depressed areas of South London as West Indian immigrants, and those mods emulated the rude boy look of pork pie hats and too-short Levis jeans.These "aspiring "white negros"" listened to Jamaican ska and mingled with black rude boys at West Indian nightclubs like Ram Jam, A-Train and Sloopy"s.

Dick Hebdige claims that the hard mods were drawn to black culture and ska music in part because the educated, middle-class hippie movement's drug-oriented and intellectual music did not have any relevance for them.He argues that the hard mods were also attracted to ska because it was a secret, underground, non-commercialised music that was disseminated through informal channels such as house parties and clubs. The early skinheads also liked soul, rocksteady and early reggae.

The early skinheads retained basic elements of mod fashion - such as Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts, Sta-Prest trousers and Levi's jeans - but mixed them with working class-oriented accessories such as braces and Dr. Martens work boots. Hebdige claims that as early as the Margate and Brighton brawls between mods and rockers, some mods were seen wearing boots and braces and sporting close cropped haircuts (for practical reasons, as long hair was a liability in industrial jobs and streetfights).

Mods and ex-mods were also part of the early northern soul scene, a subculture based on obscure 1960s and 1970s American soul records. Some mods evolved into, or merged with, subcultures such as individualists, stylists, and scooterboys, creating a mixture of "taste and testosterone" that was both self-confident and streetwise.

Fashion

Jobling and Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and Kings Road districts. Maverick fashion designers emerged, such as Mary Quant, who was known for her increasingly short miniskirt designs, and John Stephen, who sold a line named "His Clothes", and whose clients included bands such as Small Faces.

Two youth subcultures helped pave the way for mod fashion by breaking new ground; the beatniks, with their bohemian image of berets and black turtlenecks, and the Teddy Boys, from which mod fashion inherited its "narcissitic and fastidious tendencies" and the immaculate dandy look.The Teddy Boys paved the way for making male interest in fashion socially acceptable , because prior to the Teddy Boys, male interest in fashion in Britain was mostly associated with the underground homosexual subculture's flamboyant dressing style.

Clubs, music, and dancing

The original mods gathered at all-night clubs such as The Roaring Twenties, The Scene, La Discothèque, The Flamingo and The Marquee in London to hear the latest records and to show off their clothes and dance moves. As mod spread across the United Kingdom, other clubs became popular such as Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester. They began listening to the "sophisticated smoother modern jazz" of Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet." They became "...clothes obsessed, cool, dedicated to R&B and their own dances."Black American servicemen, stationed in Britain during the Cold War, also brought over rhythm and blues and soul records that were unavailable in Britain, and they often sold these to young people in London. Although the Beatles dressed "mod" in their early years, their beat music was not popular among mods, who tended to prefer British R&B based bands. specifically mod bands also emerged to fill this gap. These included The Small Faces, The Creation, The Action, The Smoke, John's Children and most successfully The Who. The Who's early promotional material tagged them as producing "maximum rhythm and blues", but by about 1966 they moved from attempting to emulate American R&B to producing songs that reflected the Mod lifestyle. Many of these bands were able to enjoy cult and then national success in the UK, but only the Who managed to break into the American market.

The influence of British newspapers on creating the public perception of mods as having a leisure-filled clubgoing lifestyle can be seen in a 1964 article in the Sunday Times. The paper interviewed a 17-year-old mod who went out clubbing seven nights a week and spent Saturday afternoons shopping for clothes and records. However, few British teens and young adults would have the time and money to spend this much time going to nightclubs. Jobling and Crowley argue that most young mods worked 9 to 5 at semi-skilled jobs, which meant that they had much less leisure time and only a modest income to spend during their time off.

Amphetamines

A notable part of the mod subculture was recreational amphetamine use, which was used to fuel all-night dances at clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel. Newspaper reports described dancers emerging from clubs at 5 a.m. with dilated pupils. Mods bought a combined amphetamine/ barbiturate called Drinamyl, which was nicknamed "purple hearts" from dealers at clubs such as The Scene or The Discothèque. Due to this association with amphetamines, Pete Meaden's "clean living" aphorism may be hard to understand in the first decade of the 21st century. However, when mods used amphetamines in the pre-1964 period, the drug was still legal in Britain, and the mods used the drug for stimulation and alertness, which they viewed as a very different goal from the intoxication caused by other drugs and alcohol. Mods viewed cannabis as a substance that would slow a person down, and they viewed heavy drinking with condescension, associating it with the bleary-eyed, staggering lower-class workers in pubs. Dick Hebdige claims that mods used amphetamines to extend their leisure time into the early hours of the morning and as a way of bridging the wide gap between their hostile and daunting everyday work lives and the "inner world" of dancing and dressing up in their off -hours.

Dr. Andrew Wilson claims that for a significant minority, "amphetamines symbolized the smart, on-the-ball, cool image" and that they sought "stimulation not intoxication ... greater awareness, not escape" and "confidence and articulacy" rather than the "drunken rowdyness of previous generations." Wilson argues that the significance of amphetamines to the mod culture was similar to the paramouncy of LSD and cannabis within the subsequent hippie counterculture. The media was quick to associate mods" use of amphetamines with violence in seaside towns, and by the mid-1960s, the British government criminalized amphetamine use. The emerging hippie counterculture strongly criticized amphetamine use; the poet Allen Ginsberg warned that amphetamine use can lead to a person becoming a "Frankenstein speed freak."

Scooters

Many mods used motorscooters for transportation, usually Vespas or Lambrettas. Scooters had provided inexpensive transportation for decades before the development of the mod subculture, but the mods stood out in the way that they treated the vehicle as a fashion accessory. Italian scooters were preferred due to their cleanlined, curving shapes and gleaming chrome. For young mods, Italian scooters were the "embodiment of continental style and a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing". They customized their scooters by painting them in "two-tone and candyflake and overaccessorized with luggage racks, crash bars, and scores of mirrors and fog lights", and they often put their names on the small windscreen. Engine side panels and front bumpers were taken to local electroplating workshops and recovered in highly reflective chrome.

Scooters were also a practical and accessible form of transportation for 1960s teens. In the early 1960s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night, and so having scooters allowed mods to stay out all night at dance clubs. To keep their expensive suits clean and keep warm while riding, mods often wore long army parkas. For teens with low-end jobs, scooters were cheaper than cars, and they could be bought on a payment plan through newly-available Hire purchase plans. After a law was passed requiring at least one mirror be attached to every motorcycle, mods were known to add four, ten, or as many as 30 mirrors to their scooters. The cover of The Who's album Quadrophenia, (which includes themes related to mods and rockers), depicts a young man on a Vespa GS with four mirrors attached.

After the seaside resort brawls, the media began to associate Italian scooters with the image of violent mods. When groups of mods rode their scooters together, the media began to view it as a "menacing symbol of group solidarity" that was "converted into a weapon".With events like the November 6, 1966, "scooter charge" on Buckingham Palace, the scooter, along with the mods" short hair and suits, began to be seen as a symbol of subversion. After the 1964 beach riots, hard mods (who later evolved into the skinheads) began riding scooters more for practical reasons. Their scooters were either unmodified or cut down, which was nicknamed a "skelly".

gender roles

In Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson's study on youth subcultures in post-war Britain, they argue that compared with other youth subcultures, mod culture gave young women high and relative autonomy. They claim that this status may have been related both to the attitudes of the mod young men, who accepted the idea that a young woman did not have to be attached to a man, and to the development of new occupations for young women, which gave them an income and made them more independent.

In particular, Hall and Jefferson note the increasing number of jobs in boutiques and women's clothing stores, which, while poorly paid and lacking opportunities for advancement, nevertheless gave young women disposable income, status and a glamorous sense of dressing up and going downtown to work. The presentable image of female mod fashion meant it was easier for young mod women to integrate with the non-subculture aspects of their lives (home, school and work) than for members of other subcultures. look for women demonstrated the "same fussiness for detail in clothes" as their male mod counterparts.

Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss claim that the emphasis in the mod subculture on consumerism and shopping was the "ultimate affront to male working-class traditions" in the United Kingdom, because in the working-class tradition, shopping was usually done by women. They argue that British mods were "worshipping leisure and money... scorning the masculine world of hard work and honest labor" by spending their time listening to music, collecting records, socialising, and dancing at all-night clubs.

Conflicts with rockers

Main article: Mods and Rockers

As the Teddy Boy subculture faded in the early 1960s, it was replaced by two new youth subcultures: mods and rockers. While mods were seen as "effeminate, stuck-up, emulating the middle classes, aspiring to a competitive sophistication, snobbish, phony", rockers were seen as "hopelessly naive, loutish, scruffy", emulating Marlon Brando"s motorcycle gang leader character in the film The Wild One by wearing leather jackets and riding motorcycles. Dick Hebdige claims that the "mods rejected the rocker"s crude conception of masculinity, the transparency of his motivations, his clumsiness"; the rockers viewed the vanity and obsession with clothes of the mods as not particularly masculine.

Scholars debate how much contact the two groups had during the 1960s; while Dick Hebdige argues that mods and rockers had very little contact, because they tended to come from different regions of England (mods from London and rockers from more rural areas), and because they had "totally disparate goals and lifestyles".However, British ethnographer Mark Gilman claims that both mods and rockers could be seen at football matches.

John Covach's Introduction to Rock and its History claims that in the United Kingdom, rockers were often engaged in brawls with mods. BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns on the south coast of England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and Clacton.The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to coin the term moral panic in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics, which examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. early 1960s, both at seaside resorts and after football games. He claims that the British media turned the mod subculture into a negative symbol of delinquent and deviant status.

Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labeled mods and rockers as "sawdust Caesars", "vermin" and "louts".Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964, which warned that mods and rockers were "internal enemies" in the United Kingdom who would "bring about disintegration of a nation"s character". The magazine Police Review argued that the mods and rockers" purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire".

Cohen argues that as media hysteria about knife-wielding, violent mods increased, the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would "stimulate hostile and punitive reactions" among readers. As a result of this media coverage, two British Members of Parliament traveled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism. One of the prosecutors in the trial of some of the Clacton brawlers argued that mods and rockers were youths with no serious views, who lacked respect for law and order. Cohen says the media used possibly faked interviews with supposed rockers such as "Mick the Wild One". As well, the media would try to get mileage from accidents that were unrelated to mod-rocker violence, such as an accidental drowning of a youth, which got the headline "Mod Dead in Sea"

Eventually, when the media ran out of real fights to report, they would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading "Violence", even when the article reported that there was no violence at all. Newspaper writers also began to use "free association" to link mods and rockers with various social issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, drug use, and violence.

(According to Wikipedia)

Created 21 Feb 2012

“Fashion”, without exaggeration, is an incredible “cultural” phenomenon of our century.

You can always remain a “fashion”, the main thing is to move on an unbeaten path, constantly discovering new layers in music, clothing, literature and cinema. “Taking from everywhere the most worthy, they sought to create something previously unknown, something that cannot leave indifferent. It is not surprising that among the mods themselves, the most worthy was considered the one who had the most exquisite wardrobe, the most interesting collection of records, the best library, the most developed mind. In terms of style, and fashion came from the so-called upper-working and lower-middle class (that is, from families of professional, highly paid workers and employees) - this is Dressing Up, brought to the absolute. In 1963 The Beatles exploded into music culture and "invented sex". Around the same time, fashion began to take shape as a purely teenage subculture with its own traditions, ideas and idols. The reason for all this is the post-war economic boom that England experienced in the fifties and sixties. As a result of the boom, young people have some free cash in their hands, and young minds are at the mercy of previously unknown problems - where to spend all this?

Both the “Teddy Boys” and the “Beats” found fashion to borrow: from the former, they inherited a heightened interest in the smallest details that turned almost into a mania, as soon as it came to fashion, thanks to the latter, the stylishness of the “Mods” acquired a clear minimalist bias. Combining these two components, "fashion" and got their own unique sharp image. The average Englishman, accustomed to more insipid things, had difficulty digesting this. “When everyone in England sang about free love, which was very ambiguous, fashions also turned out to be troublemakers - but for exactly the opposite reason. The feeling was that they were deeply indifferent to this problem. I think mods were by nature too self-centered to pair up.”
The search for mods for their own style was not limited to borrowing alone. In many ways, they went "from the contrary." Motto - "Moderation and accuracy!" Narrow-collared shirts, fitted suits, always white socks and neat hairstyles (usually “French” style). The last money was spent on getting the latest Italian fashion - whether it be clothes or a scooter - the main means of transportation for mods, unlike rockers. Moreover, the appearance was determined not only by material capabilities, there were also a lot of subtleties that prescribed what was possible and what was not (for example, such severity - with a certain width of the trousers, the distance between them and the boots should have been half an inch, and with a slightly larger width - already a whole inch ). The slightest oversight - and you turned into a universal laughing stock.

The main word in the “mod” lexicon was “obsessed”, borrowed from the “cult” mod novel by Colin McCleans “Absolute Beginners” (1958). This obsession was also in music - they absorbed like a sponge and modern jazz, and blues, and soul, it is unknown how leaked from black musicians in the States, and absolutely exotic things, like Jamaican ska music. Thus, a cross-cultural dialogue of subcultures was carried out. Moreover, the “mods” adopted from the blacks not only music, but also the jargon of the Jamaican “rudiz” and some other elements of style. They imitated Prince Baxter, the creator of many songs about the Rude Boys. In 1965, a boom among the mods was caused by Baxter's song "Madness" - hence the name of the presenter British group"ska". In the 1960s, the first multi-racial clubs appeared - "Ram Jam" in Bristol and others. Popular culture, having digested the "mod" radicalism and mixed it with the British beat and rhythm and blues, brought The Who and Small Faces to the top of the commercial success. Really innovative ensembles such as Action, Creation and The Eyes were left behind.
The image of “fashion”, thanks to the press, soon became really fashionable among a huge number of teenagers and, with its mass character, prepared a short-lived phenomenon that would be called “Swinging London” in the mid-sixties. In 1963-65, the famous confrontation between rockers and mods began in the seaside cities of England, and up to a thousand people sometimes participated in mass fights on both sides. If later ethnic minorities appeared as an enemy among the skinheads, then there was a struggle between social groups within society (rockers were, as a rule, from the lumpen strata of society, and listened to hard rhythm and blues, such as the Rolling Stones and "Kinks"). In connection with the mass distribution of the image, “real fashion” dissolves in the crowd in the literal sense of the word. In addition, with the release of the “Generation of Flowers” on the stage, the values have completely changed. And as Kevin Pierce wrote: “When everything was blown to the wind, those who once stood at the very source preferred “self-immolation” to “looting”. But their very spirit, the true mod spirit, turned out to be immortal. And the best of that the proof is the punk "explosion" that broke out in the 70s, behind which one sees the shadow of old mods.

By 1979, when punk began to slow down, interest in what lies behind the very concept of “fashion” awakened with renewed vigor. This was largely due to the famous British musician Paul Weller and The Jam. But it just so happened that Weller went to his mod peak for ten years, finally connecting Debussy, The Beach Boys surf rock and The Swingle Swingers modern jazz on the last disc of the Style Council group. This is how Mod's obsession was molded into a new art form.
Modov's subcultural "Renaissance" in the 1978-1980s brought a new rise in the popularity of the Jamaican "ska" and "bluebit", as well as the songs of "rudiz". These times were not so good. 1979 Not long after the Winter of General Discontent, Thatcher came to power. Unemployment rose. This affected the appearance of punks, who became the reincarnation of old mods. There was no trace of the former neatness. The graceful lines of the fashionable Italian suit were replaced by semi-military khaki outfits tailored without much refinement. However, this casual style allowed for some variety. One of the options: a very thin tie, a cardigan, bleached pipe jeans, white socks and powerful shoes. Calling what is happening “the revival of mods”, “the press and researchers of youth subcultures did not understand one obvious thing: if there was any funny moment in this “revival”, then it was a moment, nothing more, but at the same time there was a whole process of learning, learning new things. And very, very many people were involved in this process.”

The 80s became a time for the mod subculture to look for new forms. The music became more and more refined. This process was fueled, on the one hand, by the re-release of the Negro “soul” classics of the 60s, and, on the other hand, by the activities of underground bands like The Jasmine Minks and The Claim. Fashions increasingly entered jazz territory, which, in the end, led to the creation of the famous Acid Jazz company. Eddie Piller, one of the co-owners of "Acid Jazz", in the early eighties dealt with a "mod" magazine, and a little later connected several "mod" record companies on one label (recording company). And now, in the nineties, without any exaggeration, you can call all this “funk jazz” a living embodiment of the very spirit of the old mods.
Well, what is happening in the nineties with the “mod” style is already just rampant pluralism and democracy. Even the word “mod” itself is no longer amenable to precise definitions. Thirty years of dominance of youth culture with an endless change of "epochs" and "styles" has done its job. There are so many “Mods” now that it is not possible to make an accurate description. The current musical explosion in the UK has also contributed to this, the rise of the so-called “Britpop” - a musical direction in which rock bands (Oasis, Blur, Supergrass and Cast) have actually returned to the rhythm and blues sound of the “mods” of the sixties, only slightly making the sound heavier and faster, responding to the demands of the public, who want the music to be more politicized and aggressive. There are "Garage" mods in "psychedelic" shirts in poisonous colors, there are acid-jazz mods with sideburns and all in fancy white. There are Blur-mods (by the name of the group) in the "Adidas" suit. There are Mixer Mods, R&B mods, and Northern Soul Mods. Please note that within each of the named "units" there are "suborders". So, hardcore-style “mods” can be divided into at least four more categories! But with all this diversity, there is something that unites “fashion-96” with its predecessors. It also has its own "Zeitgeist" - that is, the spirit of the time, marked by certain political trends. A few years before that, “grunge” dominated the minds of young people. Not very attractive aesthetically, he became a sign of his difficult and stressful time. The new "fashions" gave their own stylistic response to this "aesthetics of decline and destruction." The sporty style of the “new wave” and the elegance of the “new glam” are closer and dearer to them. The English beginning begins to take its toll. Here is what Adam, owner of Jump The Gun, a store in Brighton that sells products exclusively for mods, has to say about this: After a period of marked American influence, we are once again returning to traditional British values. Fashions, being a typically British phenomenon, is the best fit for these new needs.”

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