Mods decline The term “ Mod” derives from modernist which was a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans, contrasting with the term ’trad’, which described traditional jazz players and fans. The movement was first started from Britain where the mod style was first a subculture developed by teenagers. ‘Absolute Beginners’ By Colin MacInnes A book written in 1959 and describes modernists as young modern jazz fans who dress in sharp modern Italian clothes. The novel is seen as one of the earliest examples of the term ”Mod” being used 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. Etymology The ‘Mod’ Attitude Mods VS Rockers In early-1960s Britain, the two main youth subcultures were the Mods and the Rockers. Mods were seen as "effeminate, emulating the middle classes, aspiring to a competitive sophistication,“ whilst Rockers were seen as "hopelessly naive, loutish and scruffy", emulating the motorcycle gang members in the film The Wild One, by wearing leather jackets and riding motorcycles. Sociologist 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. BBC News (1964) stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns on the south coast of England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and Clacton. The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to coin the term ‘moral panic’ in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics, which examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s although Cohen argues that they were no different from brawls at seaside resorts and after football games, irrespective of their clique. London was the centre of the Mod subculture. By this time teenagers were bored with what they deemed as uninspired British culture around them, repressed and riddled with class war. Mod characteristics: These teens wanted a new style and or image and want to break the formal tradition being worn by their parents. The mods rejected the "faulty pap" of 1950s pop music and sappy love songs, aiming to be "cool, neat, sharp, hip, and smart" by embracing "all things sexy and streamlined", especially when they were new, exciting, controversial or modern. The mod subculture was associated with fashion, clubs, music, dancing, amphetamines and scooters. The mods or teens developed a style based on being hip, sharp dressers, with streamlined clothing in solid colours. Mod fashion or clothing is symbolized by very bright colours, geometric as well as colour block prints, and short hemlines seen in miniskirts or shift dresses. Men wore tailored suits & button- down shirts with skinny ties. The mod style or movement has been described as streamlined, narcissistic as well as androgynous. Many styles were influenced by Italian fashions and pop art. “For young mods, Italian scooters were the embodiment of continental style and a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing,” Dick Hebdige argues that the subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialised, artificial and stylised to the point that mod clothing styles were being created "from above" by clothing companies and by TV shows like Ready Steady Go!, rather than being developed by young people customising their clothes and combining different fashion. As psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular in the United Kingdom, many people drifted away from the mod scene. Bands such as The Who and Small Faces had changed their music styles and no longer considered themselves mods. “You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns. And the public wants what the public gets. But I don't get what this society wants. I'm going underground,” -Going Underground, The Jam. “You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns. And the public wants what the public gets. But I don't get what this society wants. I'm going underground,” -Going Underground, The Jam. Mods In the 1990s, Britpop bands such as Oasis, Blur and Ocean Colour Scene showed that they were influenced by the mod revival, in terms of music and fashion. In the 2000s,Indie Rock bands who were influenced by the mod revival included The Libertines, Kaiser Chiefs, Twisted Wheel and The Last Shadow Puppet. In 2010, the mod-influenced band Missing Andy saw their debut single, "The Way We're Made (Made In England)", reach number 38 on the UK Singles Chart and number 7 on the UK Indie Chart after their status was confirmed as runners-up in Sky 1’s TV talent competition, Must Be The Music.