Who’s Generation

WHO’S GENERATION

The rock ’n’ roll scene in Britain in the early Sixties was defined by the rivalry between Mods and Rockers. Mods, the sharp-dressing, motorscooter-riding fans of bands like The Who, Small Faces, and the Kinks, were popularizers of skinny ties, miniskirts, and the indiscriminate use of amphetamines. Rockers were leather-clad and crude; they wore greasy hair, rode motorcycles, and favored exactly those bands the Mods proclaimed outdated. The pitched battles between the Mods and the Rockers were solely over the superficial differences in the lifestyles that accompanied their respective tastes in music; for the two groups, with their violence, their drug abuse, and their casual exploration of sex, left an eventually melding legacy that today’s youth embodies.

JB

About the Author

John Buckley

WHO’S GENERATION

The rock ’n’ roll scene in Britain in the early Sixties was defined by the rivalry between Mods and Rockers. Mods, the sharp-dressing, motorscooter-riding fans of bands like The Who, Small Faces, and the Kinks, were popularizers of skinny ties, miniskirts, and the indiscriminate use of amphetamines. Rockers were leather-clad and crude; they wore greasy hair, rode motorcycles, and favored exactly those bands the Mods proclaimed outdated. The pitched battles between the Mods and the Rockers were solely over the superficial differences in the lifestyles that accompanied their respective tastes in music; for the two groups, with their violence, their drug abuse, and their casual exploration of sex, left an eventually melding legacy that today’s youth embodies.