"We are the Mods": A Transnational History of a Youth SubcultureDrawing 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 | 1 |
Whose Modern World? Mod Culture in Britain | 15 |
Figure 2 | 30 |
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 19 | 175 |
Figure 22 | 181 |
Is It a Mod World After All? | 185 |
Figure 7 | 89 |
Figure 9 | 97 |
Figure 10 | 106 |
MopTops Miniskirts and Other Misdemeanors | 109 |
| 207 | |
| 239 | |
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Common terms and phrases
60s Mod album Beat Beat music Beat-Club Beatles became boys Britain British Invasion British Mod Carnaby Street clothing Club contemporary cosmopolitan culture's dance described Despite dresses early Eddie Piller England English female film gender aesthetics German Mods German youth global hair hairstyles Hamburg Hippie identity images Internet interview Japan Japanese Mod Jazz kids Kinks Klaus Voormann late 70s lifestyle live Liverpool London look magazine mainstream male Mary Quant miniskirts Mod culture Mod events Mod fashions Mod girls Mod Revival Mod scene Mod style Mod's modern Modernists Mods and Rockers musicians Nazi Nonetheless parkas participants past Paul Weller played pop art popular postwar Punk Quadrophenia Rock role scooter Skinheads Small Faces songs Soul sounds Star-Club subculture symbolized teenagers teens things Tokyo told Twiggy Vespa wearing women wore working-class young Germans youth culture