I've heard a lot about Mods vs Rockers in the '60s. But can either side reasonably claim to have 'won', either overall or in any of the significant individual 'battles', e.g. the 'Battle of Brighton'?
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1If it can been seen as an overall 'campaign', I'd suggest that rockers won. Purely because they are still around, en masse today. You don't however, really see mods anymore ?– Pat DobsonJul 14, 2015 at 8:26
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2I dunno, I thought the whole britpop thing had a kind of mod-ish lambretta-parka-RAF roundel thing going on that has kind of hung around since...– user16Jul 14, 2015 at 10:46
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"Kind of hung on" is a pretty generous definition, I think. You will come upon many "rockers" before you find a person of the parka/scooter persuation at the very least.– Meaningful UsernameJul 14, 2015 at 11:30
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1youtube.com/watch?v=8E4znu82XhE– Wad CheberAug 18, 2015 at 21:22
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1I see more mods/skins on scooters than I do proper rockers on BSAs/Triumphs (can't actually remember the last time I seen a real rocker), and that's with driving by the Ace every day too.– Roger MellieMay 18, 2016 at 18:57
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1 Answer
First I would like to define the terms Mods and Rockers, according to Wikipedia:
Rockers
The rocker subculture was centred on motorcycling, and their appearance reflected that. Rockers generally wore protective clothing such as black leather jackets and motorcycle boots (although they sometimes wore brothel creeper shoes). The common rocker hairstyle was a pompadour, while their music genre of choice was 1950s rock and roll, played by artists like Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Bo Diddley.
Mods
The mod subculture was centred on fashion and music, and many mods rode scooters. Mods wore suits and other cleancut outfits, and preferred 1960s music genres such as soul, rhythm and blues, ska, beat music, and British blues-rooted bands like The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Small Faces.
Who won?
I will base my opinion on what subculture is still popular today. I think that Mods music genres and culture is more popular today. Mods covered larger music genre so it has probably touched more music fans than Rockers.
And Mods fashion style seem to be more common today (elegant suit, short and flat haircut ) than Rockers (motorcycle leather protections, pompadour hairstyle...).
Mod culture had his revival in the late 70s and in the 80s and some Mod bands from this period were still active recently.
- The Chords in 2010
- Secret Affair in 2012
Also recent brit rock seem to have more influences from the Mods than the Rockers. Here is a clip from Lostprophets that makes obvious references to Mod culture (scooters, suits, haircuts..).
