Exam Question: Analyse the impact of media representation on the collective identity of British youth in the 1960's

Collective identity is where someone feels or shows that they belong to a certain group type that shapes their personal identity. Some examples of collective identity are Casuals, Hipster and Mod. Youths seem to be drawn toward sub-cultures because it fits their identity, the way they dress, what type of people they hand around with and the way they act around one another.

British youth in the 1960's were all about the Mod's and Rockers. The fashion spread through the country with the smartly dressed Mod's and the all black, aggressive Rockers. Although, throughout time and history, the media has played a massive part in the way these sub-cultures has been portrayed and put a label over the sub-cultures. The 1964 riots in the South coast of Britain involved the two sub-cultures, the Mods and Rockers. The Mods wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets and were often known to carry coshes and flick-knives. They rode Vespa or Lambretta scooters, modified with numbers of mirrors or mascots and listened to music such as Ska and The Who. Rockers rode motorbikes with no helmet to protect them, with leather gear on and listened to music such as Elvis and Gene Vincent. These two major gangs collided and clashed in the 1964 weekend violence in Brighton, which was famously made in to a film called Quadrophenia. Quadrophenia shown the audience a insight into how this youth culture were sting and what they were doing in their everyday life. From violence to love, this showed the true colours of these two different sub-cultures. Although, this film may have been a hit with the cinema, the audience was now labelling the sub-cultures on how they were portrayed in the film. The representation of teens are now changing in the eyes of the world.

"Subcultures try to compensate for the failure of the larger culture to provide adequate status, acceptance and identity. In the youth subculture, youth find their age related needs met". 

Dick Hebdige suggests that the reason for these sub-cultures and the way they act is to get attention, create there own identity and portray a message to viewers. The Mod's have certainly got their own identity with they way they dress and they way they act mixed with the film Quadrophenia, showing that the media has played a massive role in getting them known and made people have an opinion on them. The Mods and Rockers didn't want to follow the crowd with wearing 'normal clothes' and listening to  plain music, they wanted to be different, stand out from the crowd but this back fired on them as a sub-culture. When the Rockers came along, they created this hatred towards each other resulting in both of the groups getting a bad name for themselves.