Mod (lifestyle)

Mod is a subculture that began in London in 1958 which spread throughout Great Britain and, in varying degrees, to other countries and continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of stylish London-based young men in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz.

Significant elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music (including soul, ska, and R&B); and motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa). The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs.

In England during the early to mid 1960s, mod culture became more widespread. This led to an element of the mod scene occasionally becoming engaged in fights with the other dominant youth subculture of the period, rockers, which led to many news articles. The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to use the term "moral panic" in his study about the two youth subcultures, which examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the conflicts between mods and rockers subsided, as original mods grew older and moved away from the soul scene and into psychedelia. London became synonymous with fashion, music, and pop culture in these years, a period often referred to as "Swinging London."

There was a mod revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, which was followed by a mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in southern California, Vancouver, and Toronto.

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