Exam: Historical Perspective

Historical Perspective

We are starting our exam preparation by considering a historical perspective in relation to the construction of a collective identity for British youth.

This will be based around the ways in which the media reported on events on the South coast of England in 1964.

We will read through and watch the text(s) below and then answer the question that follows in bold print....

Historical Context

The 1960s saw the birth of the teenager and life was never the same again. It was the start of a social and sexual revolution in Britain.

This revolution was partly a reaction to the austerity of the post war years, increased prosperity and spending power, and advances in technology and science.

Young people woke up to the idea that that they could have an identity and lifestyle different from their parents.

Teenagers started to break free from the traditions and rules of previous generations in fashion, lifestyle and sexual behaviour. They wanted their own music, clothes and freedom to do their own thing.

The Teenage Boom

In the early 19th century teenagers were treated as 'big children' or 'little adults' but this was to change from the 1950s and 60s.

The 1960s saw young people liberated from Victorian and post-war taboos, limitations and inhibitions.

It was the age of the contraceptive pill, drug culture and the permissive society.

Music provided the soundtrack for a generation with groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks topping the charts.

Fashion Revolution

The fashion revolution had its roots in the 1950s when Mary Quant opened her first shop, Bazaar, on Kings Road Chelsea in 1955.

But it was the Sixties that were to be the fashion decade with models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton hitting the headlines.

London's Carnaby Street was the height of fashion whilst boutiques sprung up across the country selling affordable versions of the latest fashion gear.

Even the boys weren't left out with the new mods and rockers snapping up fashions to create their own tribes.

Hemlines went up and down with the mini, the midi and maxi skirt enjoying success with trendy shoppers. Then there were hot pants which caused a fashion sensation in the late 60s and early 70s.

Mods vs Rockers : 1964

One weekend in 1964 residents and holiday-makers in the seaside towns of Brighton, Bournemouth and Margate, were rocked by a sudden influx of young, cool gangs. They were Mods and Rockers, and the culture clash that occurred that weekend, described in the articles below in The Daily Sketch, Daily Mirror and others, has become iconic in the history of youth culture. 

Mods and Rockers were easily identifiable by their distinctive clothing styles: the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman clothing covered by a Parka jacket; while the Rockers wore leather biker jackets and jeans. Mods also rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown and Ska.

The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. 

The violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by British youth. 

CLICK HERE to read journalist Jon Savahe's account of the fighting that took place in 1964 on the south coast of England.

Here is an interesting section from the full article:

"On the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964, the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who went with screaming headlines like ‘Battle of Brighton’, and ‘Wild Ones 'Beat Up' Margate’ . Editorials fulminated with predictions of national collapse, referring to the youths as 'those vermin' and 'mutated locusts wreaking untold havoc on the land'.

Whitsun 1964 has become famous as the peak of the Mods and Rockers riots, as large groups of teenagers committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of southern resorts like Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth. Extensively photographed and publicised at the time, these disturbances have entered pop folklore: proudly emblazoned on sites about Mod culture and expensively recreated in the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

Yet, as ever when you're dealing with tabloid newspapers, things are not quite what they seemed. What was trumpeted as a vicious exercise in national degeneration was to some extent, pre-hyped by the press. It was also not as all-encompassing as the headlines suggested: although an estimated 1,000 youths were involved in the Brighton disturbances, there were only 76 arrests. In Margate, there were an estimated 400 youths involved, with 64 arrests. While unpleasant and oppressive, this was hardly a teen take-over."

The Media's Response 

The main conduit for 'news' in the early 1960s was newspapers - these had a much higher circulation than today and were, effectively, the dominant media of the time.

Why do you think this was the case?

Let's take a look at some of the newspaper reports relating to these events.

The video below shows how the media in the 1960s reported the clashes between mods and rockers and considers whether or not the media coverage exaggerated the scale of events leading to a 'moral panic' in relation to the behaviour of these youth subcultures.

This is evidence of historical creation of collective identity for British youth cultures.

Question

In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?

The 'Daily Sketch' newspaper creates a dangerous and 'Wild' representation of the youths in the 1950s. The newspapers headlines such as 'Wild ones' completely transform adults impressions of the youths from being treated as big kids or little adults to being feared and frightened of.

The most influenced subject featured in the newspaper that changed the way adults views the youth were the 'Mods and Rockers' moral panics. The actions occurred resembled violence and danger which caused the society to believe that the youths intentions and behaviour will change and match the young mods and rockers. 

As well using military language such as 'Invaded' and 'Battle' was a cleaver way the newspaper captured the attention of the older society as well as exaggerating the representation of the youths. 

'Quadrophenia' - A Fictional Recreation 

Set in London and, subsequently, the south coast of England in 1964, this film is useful to watch as an interpretation of what was happening in teenage culture in the mid 1960s.

The film's narrative reveals the story of Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels), a London Mod. 

Disillusioned by his parents and a job as a post room boy in an advertising firm, Jimmy finds an outlet for his teenage angst with his Mod friends Dave (Mark Wingett), Chalky (Philip Davis) and Spider (Gary Shail). One of the Mods' rivals, the Rockers, is in fact Jimmy's childhood friend, Kevin (Ray Winstone). An assault by aggressive Rockers on Spider leads to a retaliation attack on Kevin. Jimmy participates in the assault, but when he realises the victim is Kevin, he doesn't help him, instead driving away on his scooter.

A bank holiday weekend provides the excuse for the rivalry between Mods and Rockers to come to a head, as they both descend upon the seaside town of Brighton. A series of running battles ensues. As the police close in on the rioters, Jimmy escapes down an alleyway with Steph (Leslie Ash) – a girl on whom he has a crush – and they have sex. When the pair emerge, they find themselves in the middle of the melee just as police are detaining rioters. Jimmy is arrested, detained with a violent, charismatic Mod he calls 'Ace Face' (Sting), and later fined the then-large sum of £50. When fined £75, Ace Face mocks the magistrate by offering to pay on the spot, to the amusement of fellow Mods.

Back in London, Jimmy becomes increasingly depressed. He is thrown out of his house by his mother, who finds his stash of amphetamine pills. He then quits his job, spends his severance package on more pills, and finds out that Steph has become the girlfriend of his friend Dave. After a brief fight with Dave, the following morning his rejection is confirmed by Steph and with his beloved Lambretta scooter accidentally destroyed, Jimmy takes a train back to Brighton. 

In an attempt to relive the recent excitement, he revisits the scenes of the riots and of his encounter with Steph. To his horror, Jimmy discovers that his idol, Ace Face, is in reality a lowly bellboy at a Brighton hotel. Jimmy steals Ace's scooter and heads out to Beachy Head, crashing the scooter over a cliff, which is where the film begins with Jimmy walking back from the cliff top in the sunset back drop.