Historical Case Studies - Write Up

Quadrophenia

Details

·      Made in 1979 and was produced by The Who, whose music is features heavily in the song. Their song ‘My Generation’ is apt for the song, as it shows the divide between the young people and their parents.

·      The main characters are Jimmy, Dave (Jimmy’s Friend), Steph (Feminine Character in an androgynous group), Ace (The ‘Leader’ of the Mods) and Kevin (Jimmy’s friend, who turns out to be a rocker).

·      It is mainly set in milkshake bars; clubs and then the big scenes are in Brighton. These were the usual locations of these groups of youths in the 60s.

Ideologies in the Film

·      The Mods vs. Society. You can see this when they are in Brighton and they are smashing up the milkshake bar and fighting with the rockers. They are going against the social norms and this would be why the real mods and rockers were the focal points of Cohen’s Folk Devils theory.

·      There is a divide between Youths and Parents. You can see this when Jimmy is shrinking his Levis jeans and his father asks him why he is wearing wet jeans. This shows that at the time they didn’t understand each other. Another instance of this is when Jimmy is watching The Who on TV and his father says that Pete Townshend is playing his guitar wrong. This shows the divide between what the parents believe in, and the sub-cultures they are a part of, and the way that Jimmy is.

·      Jimmy wants to be an individual. Jimmy thinks that being part of this gang is the most important thing, and that if he sticks to it then he will be alternative. However he takes it too far and ends up giving up his job and becoming estranged with his family, which comes as a consequence of a mass use of amphetamines.

Clockwork Orange

·      Made in 1971 by Stanley Kubrick and was an adaptation of the Anthony Burgess Book.

·      It was meant to show a utopian future of Britain and the way that people would act at this point.

·      The main characters are Alex and his ‘Droogs’, who are the gang who he takes around with him, giving out his ‘ultra-violence’.

Ideologies in/ from the film

·      Young people in these environments are vicious and will lash out, unprovoked to demonstrate their power. They were given a very negative press in the film and this meant that the film was frowned upon and many people believed that it should have been banned, as it could promote this sort of behaviour in real life situations.

·      In the years after the film was produced, newspapers used the term ‘Clockwork Orange’ as a way of describing the attacks that were similar to those in the film e.g. when two girls beat a 62 year old gay man to death, for no real reason.

Applicable Theory

·      STANLEY COHEN – He said that FOLK DEVILS (people who go against societies norms) are shown in the media so that people we see them and judge against them. This would create a MORAL PANIC, through DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION, which usually sensationalises an issue and makes it bigger than it ordinarily would be.

·      GRAMSCI – The Broadsheet Newspapers all display young people as folk devils (Cohen) and always gives them bad press. This was evident in the times that Jimmy lived in, with the newspapers telling the adults that these Mods and Rockers would ruin communities and cause trouble, putting their ideologies into others.

·      GAUNTLETT – He said that IDENTITIES AREN’T GIVEN, BUT NEGOTIATED by the things around them. You can see this in Quadrophenia, where the clothes that they wore, the music they listened to and the social norms and attitudes that their friends and peers held influenced their own ideologies.

·      HEBDIGE – He said that SUB-CULTURES WOULD CHALLENGE THE HEGEMONIC TIMES that we live in. The Mods and Rockers challenged this, with them amplifying what the papers were saying about them, behaving in the way that people were expecting them to and not challenging it. 

Section B Theory Grid

THEORIST	CONCEPT	OWN EXPLANATION	LINK TO CASE STUDIES
BUCKINGHAM	Complex and Complicated	Identity doesn’t just have one layer; it is constructed by the things around us and is complicated and complex.	In Quadrophenia Jimmy was a Mod like most of his friends, but then beneath that he was friends with a rocker, and ended up with split loyalties.
GRAMSCI	Hegemonic Control	The mass media feed us ideas that we learn to believe. This can be things that they tell us or attitudes they have, we learn to reflect their views, and not our own.	The Broadsheet Newspapers all display young people as folk devils (Cohen) and always give them bad press (Daily Mail in particular)
GAUNTLETT	Identities aren’t given	The identity that people see is not all our own, but is constructed by things that influence us e.g. music, style, people	Mods and Rockers were influenced by the music they listened to and the way that their role models dressed
COHEN	Folk Devils and Moral Panics	Mass media create folk devils, those who go against the social norms, and then use these people to create a moral panic, which is where they tell the public that this is going to challenge the social conventions.	Quadrophenia – Mods vs. Rockers, these are the Folk Devils and the Moral Panic was the fighting between them. People who were involved in the riots, fighting with those in control.
FOUCAULT	Discourses	People don’t have a real identity but a framework/ discourse, which they use to hide behind. The groups that they are part of, or the media that they use can do this.	In social media especially people are able to construct opinions about their own age groups, seen during the riots. Some youths had posts about going looting while others made pages like ‘Help The Met Police’
JENKINS	Participatory Culture	This is where the general public all feel that their contributions will matter. If these people collaborate then a change may occur.	People on sites like Twitter and Facebook came together during the riots. This was for both good and bad, some also used BBM to organise riots, whereas some used it to organise clean-up operations.
HEBDIGE	Subcultures challenge hegemony	When people join together to form their sub-cultues, they are able to challenge the popular beliefs about them (Hegemony)	Quadrophenia - Mods vs. Society. London Rioters vs, The Police. Working Classes vs. Rich Politicians (Plan B)