The more I look at pictures, films etc. of mods, the more they look like the "Rah Rahs" who ruled my New Jersey junior high school with an iron fist. I'm only saying that they looked the same. This is getting into a bunch of semiotics stuff, but I think that the signifiers meant different things in different countries. For mods, fashion, dance and R and B music were rebellious. In the Garden State, the fashionable kids, up with the latest dance steps, just bought the latest Motown release, were also the boys most likely to succeed, the captains of the football team, and the guys who took it on themselves to beat up anyone who stepped out of line. Also, although they listened to Black music, they hated Blacks and used to fight with white kids who had Black friends. In High School, they became the lead hippie haters. On the other hand they also hated the working class white kids who were greasers. Oh the agonies of navigating teenage tribes.
Remember the guy on the Sex Pistols interview album- the one who called the radio station and said, "I'm 24 years old, and I've been waiting 24 years for this kind of music"? That could have been me. I was 24, and seething with discontentment. Finally found a subculture as cranky as me.
Loved The (early) Who through the whole damn thing. Still do.
In extremely general terms, sometime around 1968, the English mods went one of the two ways. They either dropped acid and became hardcore freaks, or they shave their heads and became Nazis.
Hi, I’m an amphetamine molecule and this is The Who.
Best. Band. Ever.
ReplyDeleteFuckin' right. Know wot I mean, John?
ReplyDeleteThe more I look at pictures, films etc. of mods, the more they look like the "Rah Rahs" who ruled my New Jersey junior high school with an iron fist. I'm only saying that they looked the same. This is getting into a bunch of semiotics stuff, but I think that the signifiers meant different things in different countries. For mods, fashion, dance and R and B music were rebellious. In the Garden State, the fashionable kids, up with the latest dance steps, just bought the latest Motown release, were also the boys most likely to succeed, the captains of the football team, and the guys who took it on themselves to beat up anyone who stepped out of line. Also, although they listened to Black music, they hated Blacks and used to fight with white kids who had Black friends. In High School, they became the lead hippie haters. On the other hand they also hated the working class white kids who were greasers. Oh the agonies of navigating teenage tribes.
ReplyDeleteRemember the guy on the Sex Pistols interview album- the one who called the radio station and said, "I'm 24 years old, and I've been waiting 24 years for this kind of music"? That could have been me. I was 24, and seething with discontentment. Finally found a subculture as cranky as me.
Loved The (early) Who through the whole damn thing. Still do.
In extremely general terms, sometime around 1968, the English mods went one of the two ways. They either dropped acid and became hardcore freaks, or they shave their heads and became Nazis.
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it up.
ReplyDelete