Mods vs Rockers in the 1960s : Creation of a Moral Panic

Read through and watch the text(s) below and then answer the question that follows in bold print at the end of the post...

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 designer suits, 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, ska and bands such as The Who. 

The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths. 

The seafront vandalism and violence described in the newspaper article was later made into the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

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?

Young people have been seen as being a danger to society from 1960s - present. This is because the type of language that gets used by the media is portraying that young people are seen as being like animals as well as describing them as soldiers in a war. Examples of language being used would be that the media have described young people as "Wild Ones" therefore describing young people as animals. 'Wild Ones" is also a reference to the film "The Wild One" which is about the rivalry of 2 gangs, The Mods and The Rockers. Other vocabulary that gets used to describe young people would be invade, charge, battle and rioting. All of these words have connotations of war and that young people have been seen as a threat to society because of the use of language that has been used by the media.

In one image, there are figures of how many youths and teenagers were arrested/involved in these "battles". In Margate, 3 young men were stabbed, Brighton there was 75 "rioting" teenagers that were arrested by the police. In Bournemouth, there were 20 youths that were taken to police headquarters after a sea-front fight which all of them would have appeared in court. This shows that young people were shown as being dangerous because of all the havoc they caused for society. Police were also rushed to the Winter Gardens Concert because 200 teenagers smashed windows, 20 more were arrested. But a 50 year old called Mrs Ellen Green routed 200 teenagers with a mop. This then shows that these teenagers could not have been much of a threat because they were being fended off by a mop.

In another image it shows the rockers are having to get away from the Mods and having to jump over a balcony in. The rockers are being fended off by deck chairs and the image shows that they will use anything in order to try and injure others, people at home would see this image and start to feel worried and scared to go out because they may think that they will get attacked as well.

The Daily Mirror posted an article stating more about the "Wild Ones"; the reference to the film and also use the word invade as well which is military language. But in this image, a rocker is seen talking to a policeman who has a dog with him as well which shows that dogs were needed in order to stop the fighting, the dog shown is an Alsatian and are used as police dogs today. The newspaper also uses military language by saying the "Battle" of Brighton.

More military language gets used in the final 2 images/articles because one of them says "charge of the mods" and the other one says "Wild ones beat up margate". Both of these titles will make the people feeling worried because they are making out that the mods and rockers are attacking everyone, when really they were just attacking each other. The media makes out that the situation is as bad as they say it is by saying they are attacking civilians.