This will be based around the ways in which the media reported on events on the South coast of England in 1964.
We will read through and watch the text(s) below and then answer the question that follows in bold print....
The 1960s saw the birth of the teenager and life was never the same again. It was the start of a social and sexual revolution in Britain.
This revolution was partly a reaction to the austerity of the post war years, increased prosperity and spending power, and advances in technology and science.
Young people woke up to the idea that that they could have an identity and lifestyle different from their parents.
Teenagers started to break free from the traditions and rules of previous generations in fashion, lifestyle and sexual behaviour. They wanted their own music, clothes and freedom to do their own thing.
The Teenage Boom
In the early 19th century teenagers were treated as 'big children' or 'little adults' but this was to change from the 1950s and 60s.
The 1960s saw young people liberated from Victorian and post-war taboos, limitations and inhibitions.
It was the age of the contraceptive pill, drug culture and the permissive society.
Music provided the soundtrack for a generation with groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks topping the charts.
Fashion Revolution
The fashion revolution had its roots in the 1950s when Mary Quant opened her first shop, Bazaar, on Kings Road Chelsea in 1955.
But it was the Sixties that were to be the fashion decade with models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton hitting the headlines.
London's Carnaby Street was the height of fashion whilst boutiques sprung up across the country selling affordable versions of the latest fashion gear.
Even the boys weren't left out with the new mods and rockers snapping up fashions to create their own tribes.
Hemlines went up and down with the mini, the midi and maxi skirt enjoying success with trendy shoppers. Then there were hot pants which caused a fashion sensation in the late 60s and early 70s.
Mods vs Rockers : 1964
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 clothing 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 and Ska.
The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis.
The violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by British youth.
Here is an interesting section from the full article:
"On the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964, the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who went with screaming headlines like ‘Battle of Brighton’, and ‘Wild Ones 'Beat Up' Margate’ . Editorials fulminated with predictions of national collapse, referring to the youths as 'those vermin' and 'mutated locusts wreaking untold havoc on the land'.
Whitsun 1964 has become famous as the peak of the Mods and Rockers riots, as large groups of teenagers committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of southern resorts like Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth. Extensively photographed and publicised at the time, these disturbances have entered pop folklore: proudly emblazoned on sites about Mod culture and expensively recreated in the 1979 film Quadrophenia.
Yet, as ever when you're dealing with tabloid newspapers, things are not quite what they seemed. What was trumpeted as a vicious exercise in national degeneration was to some extent, pre-hyped by the press. It was also not as all-encompassing as the headlines suggested: although an estimated 1,000 youths were involved in the Brighton disturbances, there were only 76 arrests. In Margate, there were an estimated 400 youths involved, with 64 arrests. While unpleasant and oppressive, this was hardly a teen take-over."
The Media's Response
The main conduit for 'news' in the early 1960s was newspapers - these had a much higher circulation than today and were, effectively, the dominant media of the time.
Why do you think this was the case?
Let's take a look at some of the newspaper reports relating to these events.
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?
One way the use of media created a danger of young people to the older generations in the newspapers in 1964 Britain, is through the military language for example "Wild ones invade the seaside 97- arrested". The word "wild" illustrates how the youth are un tame and out of control, which shocked the older generations. Another way in which the younger generation is looking dangerous to the older generations is by the word "invade" this is a military language style which creates an image of like infestation of the youth where they are unwanted. The headline "Beach crowds take cover from battling mods and rockers wildest ones yet" is another example of military style language where the use of the verb "battling" creates a war like image in the readers mind making the youth see even more dangerous.
The use of aggressive language of the media can affect the viewers perception on the youth. The headline "Wild ones 'Beat up' margate 40 arrested in all day clashes" The repetition of the adjective "Wild" is labelling all of the younger generations as un tame and un controllable this is amplifying the dangers of the youth to make the older generations insinuating the worst outcomes. Another way in which the youth is represented as aggressive through the media is by the subheading "The wild ones of Whitsun went even wilder yesterday. The use of alliteration of this text is highlighting the descriptive word "wild" which is used in various other headlines in 1964 extends the point further by stating they "went even wilder yesterday". As this is creating a nock on affect to scare the older generations even more about how the youth are increasingly spiralling out of control.
CLICK HERE to read journalist Jon Savahe's account of the fighting that took place in 1964 on the south coast of England.
'Quadrophenia' - A Fictional Recreation
Set in London and, subsequently, the south coast of England in 1964, this film is useful to watch as an interpretation of what was happening in teenage culture in the mid 1960s.
The film's narrative reveals the story of Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels), a London Mod.
Disillusioned by his parents and a job as a post room boy in an advertising firm, Jimmy finds an outlet for his teenage angst with his Mod friends Dave (Mark Wingett), Chalky (Philip Davis) and Spider (Gary Shail). One of the Mods' rivals, the Rockers, is in fact Jimmy's childhood friend, Kevin (Ray Winstone). An assault by aggressive Rockers on Spider leads to a retaliation attack on Kevin. Jimmy participates in the assault, but when he realises the victim is Kevin, he doesn't help him, instead driving away on his scooter.
A bank holiday weekend provides the excuse for the rivalry between Mods and Rockers to come to a head, as they both descend upon the seaside town of Brighton. A series of running battles ensues. As the police close in on the rioters, Jimmy escapes down an alleyway with Steph (Leslie Ash) – a girl on whom he has a crush – and they have sex. When the pair emerge, they find themselves in the middle of the melee just as police are detaining rioters. Jimmy is arrested, detained with a violent, charismatic Mod he calls 'Ace Face' (Sting), and later fined the then-large sum of £50. When fined £75, Ace Face mocks the magistrate by offering to pay on the spot, to the amusement of fellow Mods.
Back in London, Jimmy becomes increasingly depressed. He is thrown out of his house by his mother, who finds his stash of amphetamine pills. He then quits his job, spends his severance package on more pills, and finds out that Steph has become the girlfriend of his friend Dave. After a brief fight with Dave, the following morning his rejection is confirmed by Steph and with his beloved Lambretta scooter accidentally destroyed, Jimmy takes a train back to Brighton.
In an attempt to relive the recent excitement, he revisits the scenes of the riots and of his encounter with Steph. To his horror, Jimmy discovers that his idol, Ace Face, is in reality a lowly bellboy at a Brighton hotel. Jimmy steals Ace's scooter and heads out to Beachy Head, crashing the scooter over a cliff, which is where the film begins with Jimmy walking back from the cliff top in the sunset back drop.
1960s British Youth : An Alternative Representation
Let's go back in time to 1961, just 3 years before the media in Britain represented its youth as being violence driven hooligans who were a threat to the very fabric of society.
1961 saw the release of the film 'The Young Ones' starring, amongst others, Cliff Richard.
The story is about the youth club member and aspiring singer Nicky (Cliff Richard) and his friends, who try to save their club in western London from the unscrupulous millionaire property developer Hamilton Black, who plans to tear it down to make room for a large office block.
The members decide to put on a show to raise the money needed to buy a lease renewal. The twist in the story is that Nicky in reality is Hamilton Black's son, something he keeps keeps secret from his friends until some of them try to kidnap Black senior to prevent him from stopping the show.
Although he is fighting his father over the future of the youth club, Nicky can't allow them to harm him, so he attacks the attackers and frees his father. In the meantime, Black senior has realised that his son is the mystery singer that all of London is talking about, after the youth club members have done some pirate broadcasts to promote their show.
So, although he's just bought the theatre where the show is to take place, in order to be able to stop it, the proud father decides that the show must go one. At the end, he joins the youth club members on stage, dancing and singing, after having promised to build them a new youth club.
TASK
Here is the trailer for the film.
How is the representation of British Youth different here to what you have previously seen?
In 1961 the release of the film 'The Young Ones' starring, amongst others, Cliff Richard. which was 3 years before the violence by young British teenagers. Which was represented through the media as a threat to society. The storyline of 'The Young Ones' is a youth club member wanting to be a singer which is the character name 'Nicky' who is the actor (Cliff Richard) and his friends. their club is threatened to be knocked down by Hamilton Black, who wants to turn it into a large office.
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