“By the 1960s, the first teenage generation free from conscription emerged in Britain. Young people were finally given a voice and freedom to do what they wanted. The parents of the Sixties teenage generation had spent their youth fighting for their lives in the Second World War and wanted their own children to enjoy their youth and be able to have more fun and freedom. By the early 1960s, teenagers were already significantly different to those of a decade ago.” This quote, from the article The 1960s The Decade that Shook Britain by Kimberly Watson, expresses the reason subcultures like mods and rockers were initiated and why they became so accepted. The mod and rocker movement started as a rebellion for the youth of Britain to find their own
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Mods were busy people working from 9-5 jobs so they would usually go out late at night. During the 1960s in Britain the pubs closed around 11 p.m, therefore mods ended up spending their leisure in coffee bars and clubs. They would arrive to the coffee bars wearing their trench coats to protect them from any unwanted debri from dirtying their clothes while riding their scooters at high speeds. Due to the mods wanting to escape the dull and old fashion from their working lives they would dress sharply and clean to seem from a higher class and the point was to dress to impress(NOTECARD 35). Women mods had a similar situation as the men did, they only dressed differently when not around authority that would shun them like school and family. Girl mods would often dress like the male mods wearing their boyfriend’s pants, shirt, a little bit of black eyeshadow makeup, and sometimes had short hair. The times to dress like male mods would be during leisure at the coffee bars or when going out to the clubs, which was due to the fact that they did not feel judged by the guys and felt free. Male mod were starting to have a more open mind about women and often got some fashion inspiration from them(NOTECARD 36). For the mods fashion was very important, but for rockers the motorcycle was the most important part of their subculture. During their free time rockers would speed through the streets racing to the cafe shops, which were their meeting point, while trying to not get caught by the cops. Therefore, it was very important to wear clothes that would protect them from wind, rain, dirt, pebbles, or anything else they might not want to experience while riding their motorcycle. For this reason the rockers considered the way mods dressed to be too femalish and weak looking, since mods would wear nice Italian suits that were light colored when rockers
Mods were busy people working from 9-5 jobs so they would usually go out late at night. During the 1960s in Britain the pubs closed around 11 p.m, therefore mods ended up spending their leisure in coffee bars and clubs. They would arrive to the coffee bars wearing their trench coats to protect them from any unwanted debri from dirtying their clothes while riding their scooters at high speeds. Due to the mods wanting to escape the dull and old fashion from their working lives they would dress sharply and clean to seem from a higher class and the point was to dress to impress(NOTECARD 35). Women mods had a similar situation as the men did, they only dressed differently when not around authority that would shun them like school and family. Girl mods would often dress like the male mods wearing their boyfriend’s pants, shirt, a little bit of black eyeshadow makeup, and sometimes had short hair. The times to dress like male mods would be during leisure at the coffee bars or when going out to the clubs, which was due to the fact that they did not feel judged by the guys and felt free. Male mod were starting to have a more open mind about women and often got some fashion inspiration from them(NOTECARD 36). For the mods fashion was very important, but for rockers the motorcycle was the most important part of their subculture. During their free time rockers would speed through the streets racing to the cafe shops, which were their meeting point, while trying to not get caught by the cops. Therefore, it was very important to wear clothes that would protect them from wind, rain, dirt, pebbles, or anything else they might not want to experience while riding their motorcycle. For this reason the rockers considered the way mods dressed to be too femalish and weak looking, since mods would wear nice Italian suits that were light colored when rockers