"We are the Mods": A Transnational History of a Youth Subculture

Front Cover
Peter Lang, 2009 - Art - 248 pages
Drawing on archival research, oral history interviews, and participant observation, this examination of the adoption and adaptation of Mod style across geographic space also maps its various interpretations over time, from the early 1960s to the present. The book traces the Mod youth culture from its genesis in the dimly lit clubs of London's Soho, where it began as a way for young people to reconfigure modernity after the chaos of World War II, to its contemporary, country-specific expressions. By examining Mod culture in the United States, Germany, and Japan alongside the United Kingdom, «We Are the Mods» contrasts the postwar development of Mod in those countries that lost the war with those that won. The book illuminates the culture's fashion, music, iconography, and gender aesthetics, to create a compelling portrait of a transnational subculture.
 

Contents

Figures
2
Whose Modern World? Mod Culture in Britain
15
Figure 1
25
Stuart Whitman Photo by author
45
Figure 3
56
The Young Idea
61
Figure 5
63
Figure 6
81
Figure 12
123
Figure 13
138
Figure 16
145
Japans Cult of Mod
149
Figure 17
160
Figure 20
178
Is It a Mod World After All?
185
Bibliography
207

Figure 8
93
Figure 10
106
MopTops Miniskirts and Other Misdemeanors
109

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases