The Paradox of Re-Colonization

Abstract

I'm getting put down, I'm getting pushed round, I'm being beaten every day, My life's fading, But things are changing, I'm not gonna sit and weep again. 1 His jacket "cut and slim and checked / Maybe a touch of seersucker, with an open neck," Jimmy rides "a GS scooter with [his] hair cut neat," 2 perfectly fitting the profile of the Mod, the late 1950s sharp-dressing, amphetamine-pushing British rebel youngster, instrumental in introducing jazz, blues and R&B to the British (and European) taste.In Quadrophenia's version, Jimmy the Mod is less the turn-of-decade existentialist extension of the coffee shop beatnik and more the precursor of 1970s disenfranchised punk.Jimmy rides to Brighton hoping to recapture the excitement of his teenage rebellion, but finds himself on a rock in the sea, where he contemplates whether to jump in and drown himself, or return to working-class oblivion.Loosely referring to the real-life events of Easter 1964 in Brighton, when battles between rival youth gangs-the notorious Mods and Rockers-made national and international headlines, Quadrophenia could be read as Pete Townshend's artistic autobiography, in which Pete/Jimmy the Mod revisits that pivotal moment in his career, circa 1964, when together with a legion of other British musicians, he was instrumental in taking the rock 'n' roll revolution of the 1950s (personified by the Rockers) to new levels (personified by the Mods) which would shape the course of British and American popular music in the latter part of the century.Music scholar James Perone has described the Mods vs. Rockers dichotomy in early 1960s British culture as "a metaphor for the development of British Invasion rock," 3 a proxy for the cultural tensions out of which, in the five years spanning 1959 to 1964, a revolution in musical and cultural styles emerged on the British music scene and was then exported to America, where it lay the foundation of rock music as it is known today.This essay will explore 1 The Who, "I've Had Enough," in Quadrophenia.2 Ibid. 3 Perone, Mods, Rockers, and the Music, 2.

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