Before Punk There were Rockers

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Waiting for Bill Haley to arrive at London's Heathrow airport, April 28th, 1968, a group of rockers are decked out in their studded leather jackets.   During the swinging 60s in London, various sub-cultures emerged, notably the Mods and the Rockers.   Fashion and counter-cultural modes of behavior have fueled youth rebellion since the dawn of time.  Yet somehow, the emergence from conformity of the 1950s has a special place in our rebel-loving hearts.

While the rockers tended to be working-class youths who favored jeans, leather jackets, motorcycles, and rock and roll music, the mods wore more traditional clothes — fashionable, European style suits and ties — and listened to music that was less outwardly shocking to adults.

Rockers viewed mods as effeminate and snobbish, while mods looked down on rockers’ uncultured, scruffy appearance and boorish attitudes.  Fights often broke out when mods and rockers encroached on each others’ territory.  During the summer of 1964, gangs of mods and rockers fought pitched battles in seaside towns along the south coast of England.

Sources:

American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History, By Gina Misiroglu, Routledge (2015)

Mods and Rockers, Wikipedia