Theoretical Representations and Approaches to Youth in 'Quadrophenia' Essay -

Theoretical Approaches to Representations of Youth in Media –

Having viewed the film ‘Quadrophenia’ prepare a 700 word essay. Using theories, theorists and textual analysis:

·         Explain, using your opinion, whether the youth representations are fair, biased or balanced.

·         Identify, at minimum, three theories that can be applied to the film and discuss why they can be.

·         Apply terminology.

The media production ‘Quadrophenia’ can be analysed as it depicts youth subcultures in a variety of ways. ‘Quadrophenia’ is set in the 1960s when the Mods and Rockers subculture was rife within society. Theoretical analysis can be applied to some components of production such as mise-en-scene, camera, editing and sound. A main idea that should be explained is hegemony; hegemony is the ideology and norms/ values of the dominant and superior group within society being passed onto the more inferior groups.

To begin with, the first theorist that can be applied to ‘Quadrophenia’ is Dick Hebdige. Hebdige, whilst studying youth subcultures, stated that youth groups resist hegemony through a sense of identity achieved, for example, through style. This is exemplified in the media text ‘Quadrophenia’ through the depiction of the youth subcultures of the 1960s known as the Mods and Rockers. Each youth group has a specific sense of identity achieved through clothing, music and vehicles. The Mods wore smart suits with green parker coats, rode scooters such as Lambretta’s or Vespa’s and listened to music that fuelled a dance craze culture. The Rockers on the other hand wore leather biker jackets, rode motorbikes and listened to rock ‘n’ roll music. The two youth subcultures, specifically the Mods, shown in ‘Quadrophenia’ resisted hegemony, the ideals of the bourgeoisie, instead favouring creating their own subcultures in which activities such as taking drugs, partying, damaging public property and fighting were all viewed as socially acceptable. Hebdige also says that youth groups are seen either as fun or troublesome; for instance other youths would stereotypically view the rebellious behaviour as fun whilst the wider culture, the dominant culture, of the time period would perceive the nature of youth subcultures to be troublesome. This is made evident when the Mods and Rockers fought on the beaches of Brighton in the film and the behaviour was passed off as natural by other youths whilst the adults, especially the character Jimmy’s mother, says how she is disappointed and angry about her sons dangerous and rebellious behaviour.

Furthermore, another theorist who can be applied to the representations of youth in ‘Quadrophenia’ is Ann Gould. Gould whilst studying youth behaviour, stereotypes and stigmatised labels associated with youths discovered that there were six key categories which all youths could be divided into.  The six stereotypical categories were: rebellious, artificial tribe, sexual, nihilistic, violent and self-destructive. The main character in ‘Quadrophenia’, Jimmy, can be placed into a multitude, if not all, of these categories. The characters in the media text are rebellious in that they are not only refusing to conform but directly going against the norms and values of wider society, relate themselves to an artificial family tribe in their Mod or Rocker youth subculture, are sexual with one another at parties or even in alley ways, nihilistic as they reject the hegemonic morals of the bourgeoisie, are violent in their persistent fighting between the almost gang culture of the Mods and Rockers and finally are self-destructive in their drug taking, fast driving and overall fast lifestyle. There is one definite instance in the film, at the end, in which the character Jimmy steals a scooter from another Mod and proceeds to drive it along a cliff top before sending it over the edge whilst to an audience it is ambiguous as to whether the character has committed suicide or not.

Finally, the last theorist to be applied to the film ‘Quadrophenia’ is Stan Cohen. Cohen exactly focused on the representations of youth in the context of Mods and Rockers for a period in his research into youth. Cohen said that media coverage of youth was reported in at least one if not all of the following ways: exaggeration and distortion, prediction and symbolisation. Youth subcultures were presented as folk devils, those who are bad for society, which lead to deviancy amplification of any negative events involving the youth subcultures causing moral panic amongst wider society. In the film ‘Quadrophenia’ the youth subcultures are presented both in a neutral and negative light as the film has elements of non-fiction tied in amongst the fictional character of Jimmy.

In conclusion, I believe that whilst it is difficult to decide whether the representations of youth are fair, biased or equal in ‘Quadrophenia’ as it is set in the 1960s as a historical media text I would say that despite stereotypical behaviour of youths is shown it does fairly represent at least some of the young generation although I would say that no media text could ever summate a whole group within society ,specifically youth, as there will always be anomalies.