Mod

Mod (or to use its full name Modernism) was a lifestyle based around fashion and music that developed in London, England in the late 1950's and reached its peak in the early to mid 1960's.

Mods were obsessed with clothes and music, including Black American R&B and Soul, Jamaican Ska and Bluebeat and a select few British groups. Mods would gather at all-night clubs to show off their clothes and dance.

An alternative youth movement known as 'Rockers' often clashed with the Mods, leading to street battles between the two factions in the seaside resort of Brighton. These events led to much anguished discussion about 'modern youth' in Britain during the early 1960s. The conflicts inspired Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange in which the anti-hero is a kind of futuristic Mod. The film Quadrophenia, with music by the Mod group The Who also commemotated the movement.

see also Mods and Rockers