Wednesday 3 April 2013

FROM THEORY INTO PRACTICE - CONTENT

CONTENT RESEARCH

To begin my research I first found the definition of what a Mod and what a Rocker was.

From the early to mid-1960s young, mainly working class, Britons with cash to spend joined one of two youth movements.

 The Mods wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets and were often armed with flick-knives. They rode Vespa or Lambretta scooters bedecked with mirrors and mascots and listened to Ska music and The Who.

 More Info:

 Rockers rode motorbikes - often at 100mph with no crash helmets - wore leathers and listened to the likes of Elvis and Gene Vincent. - BBC

More Info:

Reunion of The subcultures.

 One of my personal interest's in the mod and rocker's culture was the fashion of that time. I then decided to research what influenced the style and why.

MODS + FASHION 

 Women:
In London in the early 1960s the preppy, art and music-inspired Mod (modernist) movement. (in opposition to the leather-wearing rockers), took hold. The pastel hues of the 50s were replaced by bright colours, bold geometric shapes, boxy jackets and patent shoes. - Source

 The Mod girls wore straight, knee length skirts, patent rounded shoes along with the iconic shift dress and mini’s. Their own style of make-up made the eyes a feature with thick eyeliner, plucked eyebrows and little or no lipstick. - Source
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In the 1960s, Fashion and Retail was at its all time high. As the mod style went mainstream boutiques like Quants Bazaar which was on Kings Road were born. It was very popular as the designer Mary Quant created the new fashion trend of Mini Skirts which went across the nation and still lives on today. 

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Women's Boutiques: Palisades, Tuffin & Foale

Hair: 
The girls displayed a boyish image. They darkened their eyes and wore their hair short to fit a unisex type of culture. Some of these hairstyles included the pixie cut, the flip, the bob and the beehive.

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 Men:
The Mod boys dressed in suits, neat narrow trousers, and pointed shoes. Most iconic of Mod attire was the mohair suit. All suits had to be tailor-made with particular attention to detail and a hand stitched finished which could often take up to a month to make. Day to day Mods would knock about in Fred Perry tops, Levi or Wrangler jeans and a pair of hush puppies or desert boots. The Crombie and trilby would often finish the look.  
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Clarks desert boots were uniform mod footwear in the 60s



Hair:
The male mods had various hairstyles but the most popular look was the fringe cut. The hair was been deliberately cut (with scissors) in a way that causes the hair to cover the forehead.
I then looked at a book by Bill Harry 'The 60's' The book contained loads of refferal pictures from the mod style. 

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 However the images were unreachable online due to copyright restrictions.


Mod fashion - the-60s Photo




Model and trend-setter Twiggy became the poster girl for 1960s style, especially the Mod movement, with her pixie hair and almost-cartoonish eye makeup.

 - Jean Shrimpton




Source
The Who were the band of the 1960's and were the epitome of mod. Many male mods looked up to the band members as style icons and music legends.

 ROCKER'S + FASHION
The rockers style was heavily influenced by the white American rockabilly style. 

 Women + Men:
Rockers were riders of motor cycles and needed substantial protection from the elements so the rocker fashion style was born out of necessity and practicality. Both men and women wore simular attire due to their interest in motorbikes. Leather was the material of choice for motor bike wear. So Rockers dressed themselves in warm black leather jackets, slim-fitting trousers without turn-ups and high, thick, leather boots that were usually black. They also wore loose fitting T.shirts – band t’s, Wrangler jeans and customised their clothes with chains, studs, pins and patches. Rockers took their fashion cues from American movies like The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause and listened to rock and roll. 

Bikers of the 59 Club, ca 1965


Female Biker of the 59 Club, London early 1960&#8217;s via


Female Hair:
The female rocker had no distinct hairstyle however it ranged from a long cut with a full fringe or short and curly. Their hair was generally a bed head look possibly due to the motorbike helmets.

Biker girls at the 59 Club, circa 1965.
Male Hair:
The rockers hairstyle tended to be a pompadour, which was a very popular cut in the 50's rock and roll scene. The hairstyle was inspired by musicians such as Elvis, Gene and Vincent.



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k-a-t-i-e-: From The Teds England, 1976 Chris Steele-Perkins

Rebel Youth Series by Karlheinz Weinberger: Portrait, circa 1962

 ICONS:

Grace Slick born October 30, 1939 is an American singer, songwriter, and former model. She was a true female rocker that the rocker girls looked up to.

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Elvis was major icon for the rockers not only because of his music but his rockabilly style. Many male mods dressed themselves after him.

- Eddie Cochran

 For primary research I went to some local boutiques in Manchester that specialised in the style of mods and rockers.

AFFLEX PALACE: 3 story building with different boutiques and stalls that supply clothes, merchandise, ect.



 

A collection of Mod badges and Logo's stemming from fashion to music









A collection of Rocker badges and Logo's stemming from fashion to music

 POP BOUTIQUE: A mod inspired store selling clothes, furniture and music from that era.







Music in the 1960's had a massive influence on why people joined the certain subcultures and provoked the way they dressed. I then looked into the different styles each subcultures listened to and the quotes from the songs for the content of my book.

MOD'S + MUSIC


Mods in the 1960's were heavily influenced by British bands, ska and reggae music. One of the infamous bands in that era was The Who.
Gig posters + Tickets:

The Who Live at The Goldhawk Club poster

1968 The Who's appearance at Bath, Pavilion poster









youaintpunk: I took this photograph of the Specials in 1981 on the Seaside Tour during a similar time of economic crisis, cuts, racism and unemployment - Janette Beckman



Quotes:
For the content of my book I looked into quotes from that era that represented mods and the time.




ROCKERS + MUSIC

Rockers in the 1960's were heavily influenced by American 1950's rock and roll music. 

Rockability playlist






QUOTES

'Come On' Everybody' - Edward Cochran


'Jailhouse Rock'- Elvis Presley

 'Blue Suede Shoes' - Elvis Presley

 'Hound Dog' - Elvis Presley

 'Be Bop A Lula'- Gene Vincent

 'Rocky Road Blues' - Gene Vincent


For primary research I went to the Vinyl exchange in Manchester and looked and some of the infamous mod and rocker bands CD's and Posters.





The Who album collection / memorabilia.





 
Rocker CD's + Elvis posters.

I then researched into what society thought about these subcultures and why people joined them.

MOD'S IN SOCIETY
  • Social Class:- A Mod was a product of working class British youth of the mid-sixties. The Mods were essentially from London and the South East and were complete followers of the latest fashion.
  • Attitudes:- They portrayed an image of being stuck up, emulating the middle classes, snobbish and phoney. They consumed purple hearts (a mixture of amphetamine and barbiturates). 
  • Influences:- Each had to have a Lambretta GT 200 or a Vespa GS 160. These were their scooters that they rode as part of their stigma that connected them to being a Mod. - Source





Mod Girl, London, photo Janette Beckman,1976

Mods in London, photo by Paul Wright 1979 via

Quotes:

"Look, I don't wanna be the same as everybody else. That's why I'm a Mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain't ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown."  - Quadrophenia film.

"We are the mods,
We are the mods,
We are,
We are,
We are the mods!" - Quadrophenia film.

ROCKERS IN SOCIETY
  • Social Class:- The rocker subculture came about due to factors such as: the end of post-war rationing in the UK, a general rise in prosperity for working class youths, the recent availability of credit and financing for young people. - Source
  • Attitudes:- Riding motorcycles was of the up most importance, so they kept away from drugs and alcohol. - Source
  • Influences:- The influence of American popular music and films, the construction of race track-like arterial roads around British cities, the development of transport cafes and a peak in British motorcycle engineering. - Source  The motorcycles were also modified or "souped up" in order to be in top racing form. Every Rocker had a ‘Triumph’ or a ‘Norton’, a brand of motorcycle. - Source

For primary research I took pictures of scooters and helmets that the subcultures wore.
RYAN VINTAGE


Authentic Lambretta Mod Helmets.

MANCHESTER PICADILLY

Modern day Mod's riding Lambretta's
Rocker Style motorbike in TGI fridays


 Mods and Rockers, both with British working class roots, dominated the pop culture and it was within this cultural context that the sounds of the British Music Invasion developed and world fashion and cultural trends were invented.  Both subcultures had conflicting views, this then prompted me to research into what they where. 


 MODS VS. ROCKERS

The subcultures not only had different taste's in style and music. But they also didn't like each other. The subcultures were infamously known for having brawls. The clashes between Mods and Rockers in Margate, Kent, during Whitsun weekend in 1964 were dubbed "gang warfare" and the "battle of the beaches".
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MAY DAY IMAGES





















For primary research I watched the film Quadrophenia, a lot of the incident that happened that day was based on the film. I documented the music, style of dress and issues that were apparent in the film at that time.
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