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?

The then newspaper giant the Daily Sketch over exaggerated the extent of the damage and fights that happened in the south of England between the 2 main social groups, the Mods and the Rockers. Within the 1960’s the younger generation wanted to feel part of a group within society. This is proven with one headline from the Daily Sketch which reads “Beach crowds take cover from battling Mods and Rockers” with the main caption being “Wildest ones yet”. These 2 lines show exactly how the media over exaggerates smaller happenings. Such as with the phrase “wildest ones yet” implies that there have been many previous ones before but in reality there were only a handful of incidents prior to the “riots” on the south coast.

Also the use of military language forces upon the issue that many of the older generation will have memories of the war not to long before this. Such as the use of the word battle. This would bring back memories of war, and make it seem like the youths are far more dangerous and a threat than they actually are. This also causes more police to go to Brighton to which in turn forces more of the 2 social groups to go down and support, this snowball effect continues out of control and therefore the media is a key contributor to the violence there

Overall i feel that the media in general represents the public youth as a violent and disrespectful group, when in reality they were just trying to have fun. Also there were only a handful of arrests and fights, with 1 stabbing as well. But the media needed to make a story so more people would get interested in reading it. This changed the mind set of the public so that if they saw one of the groups in public they would have an instant feeling towards them without actually knowing what they are like