Mod (subculture)

Mod, from the word modernist, is a subculture that began in the late 1950s London and spread throughout Great Britain, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries. It continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of stylish London-based young men and women in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz. Elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits) and music (including soul, rhythm and blues and ska, but mainly jazz). Mods rode motor scooters, usually Lambrettas or Vespas. In the mid-1960s, members of the subculture listened to pop groups with rhythm and blues (R&B) influences, such as the Who and Small Faces. The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night jazz dancing at clubs. During the early to mid-1960s, as the mod movement grew and spread throughout Britain, certain elements of the mod scene became engaged in well-publicised clashes with members of a rival subculture, the rockers. The conflict between mods and rockers led sociologist Stanley Cohen to use the term "moral panic" in his study about the two you