Youth as Fun

Youth as Trouble

Dick Hebdige "Hiding In The Light"

I have previously introduced you to Dick Hebdige. We talked about his 1979 book titled 'Subculture - the Meaning of Style' and I gave you the quotation below as one you should learn:

"Members of  a subculture often subject their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, music and mannerisms" - Hebdige (1979)

Hebdige also wrote a book called 'Hiding in the Light' which was published in 1988. It is here that he discussed the concept of youth being represented as either a threat or a non-threat. 

The first chapter of this book opens as below:

Hebdige's hypothesis here is that society in general (through the media) are only concerned in representing youth when there is something negative to say. He discusses the birth of the concept of the 'teenager' and goes on to assess the effect of consumerism and the move from a one-dimensional representation of youth, to a two-dimensional representation of "youth as trouble, youth as fun". He writes that teenagers are seen as either "troublesome youth" or "fun-loving youth."

Hebdige sees 'youth as trouble' as being a political representation whereas 'youth as fun is commercially driven.

So, when you look at representations of British Youth Culture in the past can you see evidence to support Hebdige's thoughts? You can read 'Hiding in the Light' in full by CLICKING HERE.

Thinking of contemporary media, that is to say the media from 2010 onwards, is there evidence to support Hebdige's assertion that British Youth are portrayed as either:

"Troublesome youth"

or,

"Fun-loving youth"

TASK

Copy and paste this post across to your own blog.

Create 2 more posts for your blog; 1 titled "Youth As Trouble" and the other titled "Youth As Fun"

In each of these posts, compile a selection of images from contemporary UK media (film, television, newspapers, magazines) which shows representations of British Youth in this particular light.

Past exam Questions

Here is a collection of past questions from the Collective Identity section of the exam paper. Hopefully, by looking at these you will be reassured that the exam does not hold any great terrors for you.

A good piece of advice to try to make the question more accessible is to replace the term 'group of people' with 'British Youth'. 

For example:

Analyse the ways in which at least one group of people is mediated'

becomes

Analyse the ways in which British Youth are mediated.

Mods vs Rockers in the 1960s : Creation of a Moral Panic

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 designer suits, 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, ska and bands such as The Who. 

The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths. 

The seafront vandalism and violence described in the newspaper article was later made into the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

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?

Throughout the texts above, the population of young people are portrayed to be a danger to society. This is done in a variety of ways via the media and in particular the newspapers. 

The main way in which the young people have been described by such newspapers is to be 'wild'. The Daily sketch used the phrase 'wildest ones yet' in a description of the young people of Whitsun. This phrase is one that will stay with the older groups of people when casting a judgement over all of young people. In this same article, the headline uses a lot of military based phrases such as beach crowds had to 'take cover' during the 'battle' between the mods and the rockers. This sort of language has been used to give a clear image of war and mass destruction between the two groups which impacted on the general public also.

The Daily Mirror, a well established newspaper company, also had their say on the bank holiday mayhem. In an article on the incidents of Margate, they used the phrase 'Wild ones beat up Margate'. This particular headline was used to set in the minds of the general population of Britain that these teenagers, that not only belonged to the two groups, but just teenagers in general where a danger to society as they had not only battered each other but also destroyed the sea-side town. The media coverage on this bank holiday was presented in such a way that meant people would scapegoat all of teenagers as dangerous and a drag on general society. 

The article of this Mirror report chad a further subheading with strong references to war. It read 'Mirror Men see the savage battle on the sands'. This wording seems to ave strong links with D-Day which of course would have been lived through by the older generation just 20 years previously. This sort of imagery is one that the newspaper companies will have anted to entrench in the people's mind when reading and discussing the teenage society. 

Collective Identity

What is a Mod?

(especially in the early 1960s) a young person of a subculture characterized by a smart stylish appearance, the riding of motor scooters, and a liking for soul music

What is the historical context of the Mod?

The term mod derives from modernist, a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. This usage contrasted with the term trad, which described traditional jazz players and fans. The 1959 novel Absolute Beginners describes modernists as young modern jazz fans who dress in sharp modern Italian clothes. The novel may be one of the earliest examples of the term being written to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. This usage of the word modernist should not be confused with modernism in the context of literature, art, design and architecture. From the mid-to-late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or modern.

Coffee bars were attractive to British youths because, in contrast to typical pubs, which closed at about 11 pm, they were open until the early hours of the morning. Coffee bars had jukeboxes, which in some cases reserved space in the machines for the customers' own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music. Frith notes that although coffee bars were originally aimed at middle-class art school students, they began to facilitate an intermixing of youths from different backgrounds and classes. At these venues, which Frith calls the "first sign of the youth movement", young people would meet collectors of R&B and blues records, who introduced them to new types of African-American music, which the teens were attracted to for its rawness and authenticity.

What are the "fashions, mannerisms and music" that "signal their membership" of this youth sub-culture?

• Male mods adopted a smooth, sophisticated look that included tailor-made suits with narrow lapels (sometimes made of mohair), thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), Chelsea or Beatle boots, loafers, Clarks desert boots, bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated the look of French film actors

• The early mods listened to the "sophisticated smoother modern jazz" of musicians such as Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as the American rhythm and blues (R&B) of artists such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Mods became "dedicated to R&B and their own dances."

• A notable part of the mod subculture was recreational amphetamine use, which was used to fuel all-night dances at clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel. Newspaper reports described dancers emerging from clubs at 5 a.m. with dilated pupils. Some mods consumed a combined amphetamine/barbiturate called Drinamyl, which was nicknamed "purple hearts".

• Many mods drove motor scooters, usually Vespas or Lambrettas. Scooters were a practical and affordable form of transportation for 1960s teens, and in the early 1960s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night. For teens with low-paying jobs, scooters were cheaper and easier to park than cars, and they could be bought through newly-available hire purchase plans.

• In early-1960s Britain, the two main youth subcultures were mods and rockers. While mods were seen as "effeminate, stuck-up, emulating the middle classes, aspiring to a competitive sophistication, snobbish and phony", rockers were seen as "hopelessly naive, loutish and scruffy", by wearing leather jackets and riding motorcycles. Dick Hebdige claims that the "mods rejected the rocker's crude conception of masculinity, the transparency of his motivations, his clumsiness"; the rockers viewed the vanity and obsession with clothes of the mods as immasculine.