Quadrophenia

We are the mods, we are the mods etc...

By Chris Mcconnell

Mods and rockers, punk, ska, emo and rock: the cult identity you choose for yourself is constructed against that which you are not. In 1960s England, a post-war generation of youths were bored, and determined to reclaim a new identity. If you wanted to be different you joined a gang. The Mods: Toni and Guy haircuts, pill-popping parties, smart suits and Lambretta GTs, or The Rockers: marijuana-induced ‘fuck authority’ mentality, leather clad, greasy hair and triumph motorbikes.

It was a way of life that was defined by music: The Mods partied to The Who and the Rolling Stones. The Rockers chilled out to American rock ‘n’ roll, Gene Vincent and the Beatles. Quadrophenia’s cult classic status is emphasised in a soundtrack that poignantly represents these differences, whilst depicting the paradoxically playful and violent mob-culture that dominated the days and nights of cities such as London and Brighton.

In contemporary society we don’t have the same intense broad-daylight musically induced mob violence. We passed through the trigger-happy hip-hop bullshit of the 90s, but it was the explosive passion and identity struggle that made the mod and rocker era such a cult classic today.