SUBCULTURE AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION: TEDDY BOYS
Teddy boys were seemingly inspired by the rock'n'roll artists of the 1950s- Their fashion revolved around drape jackets, drainpipe trousers, skinny ties and creepers. However, this isn't accurate. The Teddy Boy culture that emerged in the early 50s in fact predates the introduction of American Rock'n'roll to Britain in 1955. However, despite the style not being the birth of the subculture, the music was quickly adopted by the Teddy Boys and became closely joined.
The Teds (as they were also known) had a reputation for violence and troublemaking in the media.
 On July 2nd 1953, the infamous story of the stabbing of John Beckley in Clapham Common took place.  "The clothes of the defendants had been of interest to the prosecution who wanted to know if the youths on the common wore tight trousers and strange-looking coats with a slit down the back? It was during the reporting of this trial when the press, for the first time, started to make a connection between the odd-looking clothes of the South Londoners and casual violence." (http://www.edwardianteddyboy.com/page6.htm) The Teds had a revival in the 70s , with minor style changes- thanks to the invention of hairspray, more extreme quiffs were possible , and traditional dark colours were replaced with bright luminous ones. Significantly, there were now black Teds- the original culture was known for being racist, but the few black Teddy Boys in the second generation were accepted.  1976  |
| Teddy Girls |
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