Josh Atkinson OUIL501 Context of Practice - Essay
How has the culture of the Modernists ‘Mods’ in the late 1950’s to mid 1960’s Britain influenced and impacted the idea of Subculture in British society and culture today?
This essay will be looking into and discussing the idea of Subcultures in British culture but specifically doing so with an in depth focus on the culture known as the Modernists (Mods). Specifically analysing how much of an impact and influence they had collectively on the idea of subculture and what it means today, posing the question of whether it has indeed had an impact in a contemporary sense in British Society or not. In recent cultural history, mostly of the mid to late 20th Century, there have been many examples of subcultures that have shaped British Culture, through the music and fashion with many variations of ‘street styles’. Up until recently however as in over approximately the past decade there has been a distinct lack of them and the 21st century or the new millennia arguably brought in a decline of the subculture. Notorious cultures such as Punk, Emo, Goth and even ‘Lad’ culture all have their roots among their predecessors more specifically due to the Mod culture and that movement. Even if Mods themselves had their own predecessors of the Teds or Teddy boys it is the real impact culturally that the Mods had on those subsequent subcultures which followed and evolved from the Modernists that is influential and can be viewed as highly important on the idea of British culture today. In order to understand the potential impact that this subculture has had on British society it is therefore imperative to look into who the Mods were and what they stood for or perhaps what they stood against in a societal sense. The Modernists were a British Formed Youth culture of the late 1950’s to mid 1960’s who were focused influence wise predominantly around Music and Fashion. The culture was a male led culture which mainly consisted of London based ‘stylish’ young men. Their musical tastes and influence contributed to their name and of course their overall image. Musically they took influence from a wide variety of genres such as Modern Jazz, Rhythm and Blues and later the music of Northern Soul, Ska and Motown. The women undoubtedly played their part but it is widely credited as a male based culture or at least in terms of who instigated it with only a handful of major female ‘players’ with the movement.
The British Modernists themselves were born also out of many, it seems contributing factors. The generation in which the culture was created was a post second world war generation part of the so called ‘baby boomer generation’, most of them born in the mid to late 1940’s and developed as teenagers in the 1960’s. It was undoubtedly an age of conformity, austerity and poverty. This led to a new wave of youth who