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The evolution of the hipster.
"Culture and subculture is produced through complex networks of talking, gesturing and acting, through which meanings are exchanged between members of a society. Objects such as images and media texts come into play in this network of exchange not as static entities…but as alive agents that draw us to look and to feel or speak in particular ways…”
(Sturken and Cartwright, 2001) https://gerrybsite.wordpress.com/tag/subculture/

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"The ten commandments of hipsterdom"
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/the-10-cimmandments-of-hipsterdom-how.html

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Hipsters have popularised the wearing of glasses. Whereas in the past people who wore glasses were called names such as 'specky' or 'four eyes', it definitely wasn't 'cool' to wear glasses!

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An example of extreme body modification. What will happen to this woman's body as she ages? Will she still feel the same way about her modifications when she's a pensioner?

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Hipster fashion is particularly popular with young men

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Punk style is still popular today.

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Gunther Krabbenhoft, who is in his 70's, believes his clothes are an expression of his inner-self.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/gunther-krabbenhoft-timeless-style

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Richardson, N. & Locks, A. (2014). Body Studies: The basics. Routledge. 1-29.
Subcultures. (2106).  http://subcultureslist.com/teddy-boys/

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“Body mod is about altering the physical appearance or the
structure of a particular area of your body through a number of different
methods.” (Hill, 2016)
                                                         
Body modification is sometimes likened to elective plastic
surgery, in that, people undergo procedures to alter their body to more closely
resemble how they feel it should look. This aesthetic modification is often
motivated by a desire to improve one’s self-esteem or to take control, or
reclaim, one’s own body. For others, however, the act of body modification is
one of rejection. To reject the proprietal norms which dictate the ideal, or
desirable iconography.

Although the motivating factors behind body modification are not
dissimilar to those of the “furries”, body modification is obviously a lot more
permanent. Does this therefore mean their identity becomes more fixed, and will
no longer change according to context, era and culture? Is it this permanency
that gives people a true sense of self and identification? Will they, however,
still feel the same need to regress from mainstream society later in life?

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“Body mod is about altering the physical appearance or the
structure of a particular area of your body through a number of different
methods.” (Hill, 2016)
                                                         
Body modification is sometimes likened to elective plastic
surgery, in that, people undergo procedures to alter their body to more closely
resemble how they feel it should look. This aesthetic modification is often
motivated by a desire to improve one’s self-esteem or to take control, or
reclaim, one’s own body. For others, however, the act of body modification is
one of rejection. To reject the proprietal norms which dictate the ideal, or
desirable iconography.

Although the motivating factors behind body modification are not
dissimilar to those of the “furries”, body modification is obviously a lot more
permanent. Does this therefore mean their identity becomes more fixed, and will
no longer change according to context, era and culture? Is it this permanency
that gives people a true sense of self and identification? Will they, however,
still feel the same need to regress from mainstream society later in life?

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http://www.outinperth.com/blood-and-bones/

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While
context, era and culture often dictate compliance to a particular discourse,
there are always those who will display resistance. Invariably this resistance
will begin with the body. This may be because, according to Michel Foucault
(cited in Richardson & Locks, 2014, p. 16) “the body is directly involved
in a political field”. The body becomes an object of power relations, through
societal demands for appropriate behaviour and iconography (Richardson &
Locks, 2014, p.16)

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While
context, era and culture often dictate compliance to a particular discourse,
there are always those who will display resistance. Invariably this resistance
will begin with the body. This may be because, according to Michel Foucault
(cited in Richardson & Locks, 2014, p. 16) “the body is directly involved
in a political field”. The body becomes an object of power relations, through
societal demands for appropriate behaviour and iconography (Richardson &
Locks, 2014, p.16)

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"The immediate irony of non-conformity is that it inevitably leads to conformity of another kind; adherence to a new canon. This hypocrisy underpins a lot of the criticism of hipsters, yet there is another level of hypocrisy worth noting; the mainstream is becoming increasingly hipster." (Egan, S. 2011)
So called 'Hipsters' are regularly mocked for both their individualism  as well as their conformity with current trends.

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"Hipsters" are mocked at the moment, but do we even know who they really are? Wikimedia Commons/Jack Newton

The term "hipster" has become increasingly prominent in Australia's urban lexicon this year. Even the Sydney Morning Herald has caught on, writing about " Hipster Housing ", featuring a young bespectacled couple on the front of the weekend property pages.

It is a rather scathing phrase, used at the moment primarily as a criticism. Across the cartoons, jokes, video parodies and feature articles, a caricature emerges.

The hipster is that funny smelling kid in tight jeans who sits in front of you on the bus or tram, pre-rolling cigarettes and judging you through his Ray Bans because you don't have an ironic tattoo, 80s facial hair or read the zine he and his friends author.

Yet my own experience with hipsters indicates that such representations share only a partial, albeit humorous, likeness to reality.

How to define a hipster

Further reading of the hipster commentary will see some gross inconsistencies emerge.

For some critics, hipsters are all about the latest trend, whereas others argue vintage and kitsch are more highly valued. Some say hipsters wear their jeans around their knees, yet others claim high-waisted pants to be the preferred style. Hipsters are simultaneously mocked for both insisting on individualism and adhering to conventions.

Overall, the varying media definitions of hipsters inevitably oversimplify what is actually quite a complex and significant cultural happening.

Underneath subculture

Flickr/craigfinlay

Perhaps the biggest problem in trying to qualify the hipster movement is the tendency to use a subcultural lens, which suggests there are a coordinated group of people performing these social acts with reason and intent.

Granted in Sydney there are bars ( Chingalings, The Cricketers Arms), music festivals ( Laneway, Peats Ridge) and suburbs ( Newtown, Surry Hills) where hipsters visibly congregate, but any notion of solidarity or collective ideology will be shattered if you ask these people if they think they are hipsters.

The most likely response is a strong refutation, often on the grounds that they were into, for example, vintage shops before they even knew what a Hipster was.

An ironic concession is also possible; "Yes I am the most hip hipster around, and I pride myself on that achievement."

In a sense, both responses typify the hipster concerns of authenticity and subversion respectively. But attempts to see these responses as universal are also unsatisfying. Furthermore, if you are undertaking such bizarre ethnography, you are surely on the cusp of hipsterism yourself.

Rebelling and conforming

The other imposition on hipster culture is that it is resistant. Loose ties to independent media, youth rebellion, and past subcultures (including the original 1950s hipsters fabled in Norman Mailer's essay " The White Negro ") may have aided this diagnosis.

The immediate irony of non-conformity is that it inevitably leads to conformity of another kind; adherence to a new canon. This hypocrisy underpins a lot of the criticism of hipsters, yet there is another level of hypocrisy worth noting; the mainstream is becoming increasingly hipster.

The hipster aesthetic has emerged as the best form of sellable cool. Sydney publicans James Wirth and James Miller (The Flinders, The Abercrombie) have cottoned on to this nicely, purchasing formerly run down Sydney Hotels and revamping them with some tragically stylish memorabilia, cool music and attractive bar staff (a formula so successful even Sydney hospitality heavyweights Justin Hemmes and the Short brothers have been trying it out).

Fast-food chains like Grill'd, Beach Burrito and Mad Pizza e Beer are all working on a similar charm. And most midrange car commercials these days seem to show hipsters bopping around carelessly to indie music.

Hipster vs punk

Flickr/Platform 3

All this might seem to disqualify hipsters from the category of subculture. But even the original punk scene in London - perhaps the most mythologised of subcultures - was equally complex and contradictory.

What lent punk a singular narrative, crystallising it as an actual culture, was not its protagonists, but rather the media. The subsequent process of (mis)representation and reinterpretation was so unpredictable that punk music popped up some years later in America as the sound of Neo-Nazism.

Perhaps the best way to rethink the issue is to consider a subculture the way we think of a national culture. Individuals or groups within a nation are both influenced by and distinguish themselves from the national culture, which whilst not without convention, is largely an abstract and fluid concept.

Furthermore, people do not belong specifically to this culture, but rather it is one of many that constitutes their identity and levels of association can vary greatly. Subcultural involvement is much the same.

Hipsters gone global

However, just as with punk, simplistic representations of hipsters cannot be separated from the lived experience. Hipsterism is a global phenomenon, suggesting the way it has spread is largely due to information exchange.

Furthermore, the day-to-day lives of hipsters, or people who look like hipsters at least, are affected by the stereotype promoted through the media and parody; hipsters might call other hipsters, hipsters insinuating they are merely following a hipster cliché. As you can see, it's easy to get caught in circles here and things can get a bit surreal.

Whilst employed as an insult, and overused of late into relative ambiguity, the uprising of the term "hipster" has ultimately had the effect of strengthening an array of ideologies and styles that have been around for a while.

It is a cognitive social shift that can't be removed from gentrification and the new style of "creative workspaces", and it is not likely to slow given the strong presence of hipster types in the media promoting its use, even if through criticism.

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Looking beyond the parody to define the hipster

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The term "hipster" has become increasingly prominent in Australia's urban lexicon this year. Even the Sydney Morning Herald has caught on, writing about " Hipster Housing ", featuring a young bespectacled couple on the front of the weekend property pages. It is a rather scathing phrase, used at the moment primarily as a criticism.

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According to Richardson and Locks
(2014, p.4), “we only gain a sense of our self, a sense of identification,
through interaction with culture”.                                                                                                                                 

 This quote
reflects a constructionist view that a person’s identity changes according to
context, era, and culture. As opposed to the essentialist view that one’s identity
is static and inflexible.

Throughout
history culture has demanded conformity to particular discourses. However, some
members of society feel a need to challenge regimes of normative. This act of
resistance is often achieved through bodily transgression. By transgressing
from the rules set by propriety, a person challenges the discipline of the
normative. However, the very act of transgression demonstrates the
transgressors beliefs regarding what is considered normative, and therefore
displays a respect for the established norms. The transgressor subsequently
becomes part of a subculture, which contains its own rules and boundaries, to
which members are expected to conform. In time, the style of many subcultures
is adopted by mainstream fashion, where they become normative. (Richardson & Locks, 2014, p.1-30)

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According to Richardson and Locks
(2014, p.4), “we only gain a sense of our self, a sense of identification,
through interaction with culture”.                                                                                                                                 

 This quote
reflects a constructionist view that a person’s identity changes according to
context, era, and culture. As opposed to the essentialist view that one’s identity
is static and inflexible.

Throughout
history culture has demanded conformity to particular discourses. However, some
members of society feel a need to challenge regimes of normative. This act of
resistance is often achieved through bodily transgression. By transgressing
from the rules set by propriety, a person challenges the discipline of the
normative. However, the very act of transgression demonstrates the
transgressors beliefs regarding what is considered normative, and therefore
displays a respect for the established norms. The transgressor subsequently
becomes part of a subculture, which contains its own rules and boundaries, to
which members are expected to conform. In time, the style of many subcultures
is adopted by mainstream fashion, where they become normative. (Richardson & Locks, 2014, p.1-30)

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This raises the question, is the act of transgression futile? Or does this offer an explanation as to why some members of society feel the need to go to more and more extreme lengths to modify their appearance?

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1970’s Punk

"This was a rebellion
of youth against what is youthful, a refusal of cosmetic beauty... Marx, Mao
and swastikas cancelled each other out, difference became indifference."
(Knor & Richon, 1977).

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1970’s Punk

"This was a rebellion
of youth against what is youthful, a refusal of cosmetic beauty... Marx, Mao
and swastikas cancelled each other out, difference became indifference."
(Knor & Richon, 1977).

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The work of two photographers whose pictures depict the early days of punk in London, many of which have not been seen for 30 years, is being shown at the photographic fair Paris Photo.

Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon both arrived in London in 1976 and met that year while studying for a film and photographic arts degree at the Polytechnic of Central London, an establishment which at that time was at the forefront of the development of photographic theory.

Together they embarked on a joint photographic project to document the emerging London punk scene, capturing members of the new movement at work and school, as well as those who would only emerge in their punk guise at night.

Knorr and Richon wanted to move away from the established way of working at that time, the grainy black and white photograph taken by an "invisible" photographer, capturing what was presented as the truth with their camera. It was of course not that all, but just one truth amongst many possible views of an event.

No youth cultural movement since the punks of the late 1970s has had the slightest influence on mainstream culture, and the so-called hipsters of today owe their very name to the avant-gardists of their grandparents' generation
Will Self

A Point of View: Should the baby boomers leave the stage?
Instead they used flash lighting, often off camera, to ensure higher quality pictures and to emphasise the relationship between photographers and subject.

At the time they wrote: "We chose a direct confrontation with our subject. This is why our pictures are posed, affirming our presence instead of eluding it. We attempted to achieve such a formal approach in order to emphasise punk symbolism and to make it more readable."

The decision to shoot in black and white ensures the pictures have rich dark black tones in the clothing, contrasted with pale faces that stare into the lens they do convey something of what it meant to be a punk.

Writing in the introduction to their book, Punks, Knorr and Richon note that the protest of the movement was, "not only verbal but also visual and gestural".

"This was a rebellion of youth against what is youthful, a refusal of cosmetic beauty... Marx, Mao and swastikas cancelled each other out, difference became indifference."

The photographs were taken in 1977, the backdrop to the pictures were two London clubs, the Roxy in Covent Garden and Global Village in Charing Cross.

Karen Knorr is currently the professor of photography at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey, and Olivier Richon professor of photography at the Royal College of Art.

Here's a selection from Punks by Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon published by GOST Books.

All photographs © Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon courtesy GOST Books

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The work of two photographers whose pictures depict the early days of punk in London, many of which have not been seen for 30 years, is being shown at the photographic fair Paris Photo.

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'Hipsters' in London have become a target of hatred, as they are seen to stand for the gentrification of society. Despite being a distinct sub-culture they are not rallying against the system. Instead they are, in many ways, accepting and working with the system.  They appear to have embraced entrepreneurialism, and the neo-liberal values which dominate contemporary society. Their appearance and actions are symbolic of the current era.  (Feldman-Barrett, C. 2015

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Last week, anti-gentrification protesters took to the streets of London's East End as part of a series of parades organised by the anarchist group Class War.

One of their targets, the Cereal Killer Cafe, was bombed with paint and scrawled with graffiti that read "scum". While businesses such as this one are a symptom of the city's extreme gentrification, rather than its cause, they have - in the eyes of some - become symbolic of this rampant and unwelcome redevelopment.

The subsequent media coverage, whether earnest or cheeky, drew attention to the establishment's hirsute and tattooed proprietors, Gary and Alan Keery. Why were the bearded brothers subjected to such ire? Apparently because they're hipsters.

It has become fashionable to hate the hipster. They are blamed not only for big issues such as gentrification, but also for the style crime of donning distinctly unhip fashions (at least in the eyes of other current or former subculturalists).

However, in this instance, many commentators rightly highlighted the fact that while hipsters and their quirky businesses - cafes that charge A$11 per bowl of cereal, for instance - are easy targets of scorn, they are only symptomatic of larger socio-economic realities and problems.

Following this story, I could not help but think what future cultural historians might make of the early twenty-first-century hipster.

Historicising youth subcultures

Over the last decade, in both popular media and scholarly work, there has been a surge of interest in the historicising of post-war youth subcultures. TV documentaries celebrating these narratives, such as the recent Street, Sound & Style (2015) and films like This is England (2006) and Northern Soul (2014), exemplify this growing trend.

On the academic front, the Interdisciplinary Network for the Study of Subculture, Popular Music and Social Change (currently based at the University of Reading) is made up of scholars from around the world who work on projects highlighting young people's contributions to history. Many of these academics are interested in constructing narratives that attempt to make sense of why youth subcultures or lifestyles arose when they did.

Youth cultures characteristically embody the various sensibilities of an era. For instance, my own work on Mod culture depicts the original British subculture of the early 1960s as one that firmly wanted to put the trauma of war behind it by adopting all that was ultra-contemporary and up-to-the-minute. Instead of necessarily trying to reinvent neighbourhoods (though, to be fair, some Mods were also ambitious entrepreneurs), Mods focused on reconceptualising themselves.

The first iteration of the subculture saw male Mods cut dashing figures across London's grey East End in their European-style suits and atop sleek, Italian scooters. For them, reaching for the "now," the "new" meant looking beyond Britain's shores.

The more commercialised, mid-sixties "Swinging London" version of the culture embraced pop art and space-age motifs. Female Mods wearing paper dresses or white and silver miniskirts jauntily reflected this forward-thinking.

Numerous authors have described the advent of punk in 1970s Britain, with its "no future" ethos, as a reaction to the economic crises of the decade. Recent ruminations on the 1980s New Romantics position them as make-up-laden yuppies - Thatcherites in disguise.

While it's important to recognise nuance and variation within all youth subcultures or trends - and not paint any of them with one, totalising brush - it is also an intriguing exercise to consider how young people's interests, sensibilities, and actions are symbolic of their times.

The hipster as a reaction to neoliberal values

Since reading about the London protests, I have thought about what future historians might make of the hipster. Attention has already been paid to the hipster as a possible manifestation of and/or reaction to the neoliberal values that have come to dominate contemporary life in the developed world. While some academics and cultural commentators have critiqued the hipster more generally, others also have discussed the group's neoliberal sensibilities more specifically.

While some might see hipsters as "progressive", this tag may be limited to their appearance alone. They are far from radical. Hipsters, as purveyors of pricey artisanal goods, are not trying to buck the system or advocate for social change. They are not "angry youth".

If anything, their ardent embrace of entrepreneurialism and D-I-Y craftiness suggests that they have wholeheartedly accepted the fact that "the market" rules one's lot in life. If living and thriving in hyper-expensive cities like London or New York requires opening a business that charges A$11 for a bowl of cereal, so be it.

Seemingly inherent to the hipster's philosophy is the pragmatic acceptance that one's possibilities are determined by the economic and political systems in place.

The fact that the hipster's mode of operation has inspired such disdain - often among those who identify with more traditional youth subcultures such as punk - is likely because hipsters are seen as selling out (or buying in) rather than trying to resist or subvert mainstream realities.

While a full sleeve of tattoos may suggest more historically familiar notions of "rebellion", the much-ridiculed Amish-style beard alludes instead to an austere, old-world sensibility. It is more than likely that many of those youths involved in the London protest would perceive hipster identity as the antithesis of their own.

In thinking through the existence of the hipster - and why he (see footnote) has become the target of such ire - it is important to ask ourselves this: Why is there still an underlying expectation that any seemingly "non-mainstream" group of young people are rebellious or want to "question the system"?

In a more pessimistic response to such a question, those who dislike the hipster may say that we have entered into an age where many young people are just happy to accept what is; that hipsters see themselves as living in a world that is both post-subculture and post-rebellion.

It is certainly easy to see how precarious employment, inflated costs of living, and heightened levels of surveillance would prompt capitulation on all fronts - making even the supposedly "hip" not quite what they seem.

A less damning and more supportive reading of the hipster would argue that young people do not have to "fight the power" or "system" because they are the system (and are reinventing it). The agency and empowerment offered to the millennials through their mastery of digital media has not only provided the world with Silicon Valley Wunderkinds, but hipster entrepreneurs, too. They are two functions of the same app.

While I am not the first to speculate on why the hipster has come to be a part of our contemporary world, I will certainly not be the last. What will the hipster come to symbolise about life in the early twenty-first century when historians of the future reflect on this era?

Note: Yes, "he". The hipster is most always perceived as male, though there are certainly many millennial women who take part in this subculture or lifestyle (minus the Amish-style beards).
Christine Feldman-Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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Comment: How will history understand the hipster?

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Last week, anti-gentrification protesters took to the streets of London's East End as part of a series of parades organised by the anarchist group Class War. One of their targets, the Cereal Killer Cafe, was bombed with paint and scrawled with graffiti that read "scum".

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“Furries is the name of the subculture fascinated by fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics.” (The Feed, 2016)

Often members of the furry culture, have been ostracised from main stream society, prior to joining the furry movement, for not meeting societal norms. Through the wearing of costumes they can develop their own “fursona”, which may have character traits or bodily characteristics, they feel are lacking in themselves. For instance, their mascot suits may make them appear more muscular, and their “fursona” may be much more confident and outgoing than they are themselves.

Their alter-egos allow them to feel part of a community, to experience acceptance. The costumes give them freedom to be who they aspire to be.

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For self-confessed furry Dan Harmer, it started off as a hobby but over the years it became "more of a lifestyle".

"The term furry ... it can be a very, very broad definition," he says.

"It's just a group of people that share a similar interest to anthropomorphic characters and hang out with each other and have a good time."

Anthropomorphic characters are fictional animals with human characteristics, such as the cast of Looney Toons, The Muppets or Bojack Horseman.

Harmer has found dozens of others like himself and organises a weekly meet up for Brisbane-based furries, which attracts close to a hundred attendees each time.

"In Australia alone there's at least two to three thousand known furries," he says.

"I don't even want to think about how many there could be in the rest of the world: hundreds of thousands at least. Possibly more."

Venetia Robertson from the University of Sydney has studied the subculture intimately and looked at some of the commercial aspects as well.

"A fursona is obviously a portmanteau of furry and persona used to describe the animal character that someone has developed, usually themselves," she says.

"In Australia alone there's at least two to three thousand known furries."

"It can be based off a fictional universe that already exists or it can be entirely of their own making.

"Sometimes this can involve getting a costume made to represent that fursona.

"One of the trademark features of the furry fandom is some people who have the money or the resources are able to get fur suits made which are full mascot costumes.

"They need to be costume made to reflect that person's fursona and they can be very expensive, upwards of $5000."

One of the most widely written about aspects of the furry subculture has been the sexual preferences of those who participate in it, but Harmer says that has been blown out of proportion.

"Honestly the whole fetish side of things, it's a bit of a myth. There's not much to it all," he says.

"I'm not going to deny it, that it is a part, but it probably is less than one per cent. It's more about the community getting together and enjoying life."

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"It's just a group of people enjoying life": The culture of furries

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For self-confessed furry Dan Harmer, it started off as a hobby but over the years it became "more of a lifestyle". "The term furry ... it can be a very, very broad definition," he says. "It's just a group of people that share a similar interest to anthropomorphic characters and hang out with each other and have a good time."

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In post-war Britain "teddy boys" took advantage of increased financial wealth to create their own unique style. Their clothes and attitude were like a badge which set them apart from main stream society.

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In post-war Britain "teddy boys" took advantage of increased financial wealth to create their own unique style. Their clothes and attitude were like a badge which set them apart from main stream society.

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(Subcultures  , 2016)

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"Clothes became more than individual adornment: a matter of deep tribal identification.(Savage, J., 2014)

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"Clothes became more than individual adornment: a matter of deep tribal identification.(Savage, J., 2014)

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There is a long history of fashion and appearance being used as a way of regressing from societal norms. These then became distinct sub-cultures, and were usually portrayed as being rebellious and delinquent.

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Fifty years ago this month, on the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964, the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who went with screaming headlines like 'Battle of Brighton', and 'Wild Ones 'Beat Up' Margate' . Editorials fulminated with predictions of national collapse, referring to the youths as 'those vermin' and 'mutated locusts wreaking untold havoc on the land'.

Whitsun 1964 has become famous as the peak of the Mods and Rockers riots, as large groups of teenagers committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of southern resorts like Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth. Extensively photographed and publicised at the time, these disturbances have entered pop folklore: proudly emblazoned on sites about Mod culture and expensively recreated in the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

Yet, as ever when you're dealing with tabloid newspapers, things are not quite what they seemed. What was trumpeted as a vicious exercise in national degeneration was to some extent, pre-hyped by the press. It was also not as all-encompassing as the headlines suggested: although an estimated 1,000 youths were involved in the Brighton disturbances, there were only 76 arrests. In Margate, there were an estimated 400 youths involved, with 64 arrests. While unpleasant and oppressive, this was hardly a teen take-over.

The cycle had begun six weeks or so earlier, during a dull and unseasonably cold Easter weekend. Up to 1,000 or so young Londoners had descended on Clacton, a smallish resort on England's eastern coast. Bored with the bad weather and limited facilities, groups had separated according to their tribe: there were scuffles and stone-throwing, and the generally threatening appearance of teenagers en masse, barely restrained by an underwhelming police presence.

On Easter Monday, the press went big with the story: 'Day of Terror by Scooter Groups' (Daily Telegraph), 'Youngsters Beat Up Town - 97 Leather Jacket Arrests' (Daily Express), and 'Wild Ones Invade Seaside - 97 Arrests' (Daily Mirror). Citing "fighting, drinking, roaring, rampaging teenagers on scooters and motorcycles", the Mirror referenced the notorious 1953 Marlon Brando film, The Wild One, which in mid-sixties Britain was still banned by the British Board of Film Censors, as likely to incite juvenile delinquency.

After that sensational write-up, the pattern was prepared for the next public holiday, andsouthern seaside resorts became the theatre. Contrasted with the anomie of Clacton, it became split along stylistic and tribal lines: between smart, scooter-riding, of-the-minute Mods, and leather-jacketed, scruffy Rockers − the younger siblings of the early 60s Ton Up Boys. 'Grease' they were called, and, although they had long hair − longer than many Mods − they were seen as throwbacks to Marlon Brando and 1950s Teddy Boys.
Generation X
The relationship between the rioters and the press was examined in Generation X, an influential piece of youth sociology by Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson − published in 1964 to capitalise on the apparent turmoil of contemporary youth. The cover simulated a variety of lurid headlines or phrases ̶ "RIGHT OLD MESS', 'PUNCH UP', 'QUEER ̶ but the book gave room to the voices of real teens, allowing them to speak freely. It remains a valuable document.

It began with a quote from "John Braden, 18, a London mechanic": "yes, I am a Mod and I was at Margate. I'm not ashamed of it − I wasn't the only one. I joined in a few of the fights. It was a laugh, I haven't enjoyed myself so much for a long time. It was great − the beach was like a battlefield. It was like we were taking over the country. You want to hit back at all the old geezers who try to tell us what to do. We just want to show them we're not going to take it."

The Whitsun 1964 disturbances announced the fact that a new generation was claiming its space and its time. As evidenced by the interviews in Generation X, the early baby-boomers were more confident, better educated, and even more restless than their 1950s counterparts: the Edwardians, later Teddy Boys, who had become notorious for their combination of strange, exaggerated clothes and tendency towards extreme violence.

Generation X captured, for the first time from within, a separate youth world that took its cues from music and fashion. As one interviewee observed: "a lot of today's teenagers have ambitions to be the top dresser in his district. Another ambition is to play in a beat group that's going to have some sort of fame". Films were still important as fantasy vehicles but the public life of 1960s teenagers was acted out in terms of Mod clothes, Bluebeat music and Soho clubs.
'Moral panic'
The Mod/Rocker disturbances soon faded as other styles came into youth culture prominence, but they set a pattern of tribal violence that would continue on and off throughout the rest of the 1960s (Skinheads v Hippies), the 1970s (Punks v Teds), and the 1980s − when the front cover of Time's European edition for 24 October 1983 showed a scary-looking Mohawk punk with the cover strap The Tribes of Britain. Inside, the lurid copy presented a country riven by inter-youth culture battles.

The events of 1964 were also a textbook example of what the sociologist Jock Young termed "a moral panic". This idea was explored by Stanley Cohen in his ground-breaking study of the Mod/Rocker riots, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media". Moral barricades are manned, solutions are devised by 'experts', and the episode fades or is successfully 'dealt with'.

Cohen observed how "one of the most recurrent types of moral panic in Britain since the war has been associated with the emergence of various forms of youth culture"'. What to the young seemed quite natural − the announcement of their generation's arrival, a claiming of public space within a country that catered little for their needs − to adults seemed threatening and a symptom of national decay. There was violence, to be sure, but some of this was simply adult projection: a dark vision of a nightmare future symbolised by alien youth.

Folk Devils and Moral Panics was published in 1973, and coincided with the pioneering work undertaken at Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies: during the next few years, books like Resistance Through Rituals by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, and Dick Hebdige's Subculture: the Meaning of Style developed subcultural theory − in short, the mapping of youth tribes as both a commercial creation and a way of resistance − as a method of analysing mass youth culture.
Retromania
It also fed back into popular culture. The early to mid 1970s saw all manner of nostalgic elements enter the pop mainstream, as the modernism of the '60s was replaced with an awareness of the past: the early 1960s retro of the vastly influential George Lucas film, American Graffiti, the Pop Art references in Roxy Music's Virginia Plain, the Mod pop retro of David Bowie's 1973 covers album, Pin Ups, the harking back to the 1964 heyday of the Mods and Rockers in the Who's 1973 album, Quadrophenia.

At the same time, the various incarnations of the shop run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 Kings Road passed through historical subcultures: in Let It Rock (1972-3), the Edwardian clothes of the Teddy Boys, in Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die (1974) '40s zoot suits and '50s rocker leathers. In Sex (1974-6) they sourced fetish clothing along with their own original designs, usually festooned in slogans and extreme imagery.

In May 1976, McLaren told the magazine Street Life, "I think now kids have a hankering to be part of a movement... They want to associate with a movement that's hard and tough and in the open like the clothes we're selling here." Early punk audiences mixed handmade designs with clothes sourced from the 1940s and 1950s − in a dizzying, living collage.

Punk in turn kick-started an explosion of subcultural research, as all the strands that had been packed into the original movement unravelled into individual styles. The punks v Teds battles of 1977 − a self-conscious reprise of the Mods v Rockers disturbances − were followed by the reappearance of Skinheads, the Mod Revival of 1979, the Ska revival, and the onset of the New Romantics, who freely and gleefully plundered styles going right back to the 19th Century. Clothes became more than individual adornment: a matter of deep, tribal identification.

In the early '90s, just as Britain's style wars were abating − thanks to rave culture and the onset of sportswear as a youth cult staple − the phrase Generation X was given a new lease of life. Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture examined the early adulthood of another generation: coinciding with the success of Nirvana's Nevermind and the consequent obsession with Grunge, it caught the emergence of the cohort born in the mid to late 1960s, just after the baby boomer bulge.

Since then, the phrase has been adapted for successive waves of young adults: Generation Y, Generation Z, Generation Rent etc − so much so that it has become almost meaningless. Most of the stories using these generational tropes follow the time-honoured media template: either positive − celebrating the young in consumerist terms as early adopters and trend-spotters − or condemnatory, usually in terms of violence orapathy.

Whether it be Generation X, Y or Z, adults continue to project their hopes and fears onto adolescents. Talking about a generation marks the arrival of a fresh cohort who will respond to the world in their own way. Whether adults like it or not, teenagers embody the future, and many of them will respond to the challenges they face in constructive and creative ways.
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Fifty years ago this month, on the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964, the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who went with screaming headlines like 'Battle of Brighton', and 'Wild Ones 'Beat Up' Margate' .