Editing Mod (subculture) (section)

==Etymology and usage==
The term ''mod'' derives from ''modernist'', a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans.<ref>''Mods!'', Richard Barnes. Eel Pie (1979), {{ISBN|0-85965-173-8}}; ''[[Absolute Beginners (novel)|Absolute Beginners]]'', [[Colin MacInnes]]</ref> That usage contrasted with the term ''trad'', which described [[trad jazz|traditional jazz]] players and fans. The 1959 novel ''[[Absolute Beginners (novel)|Absolute Beginners]]'' describes modernists as young modern jazz fans who dress in sharp modern [[Italian fashion|Italian clothes]]. The novel may be one of the earliest examples of the term being written to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. That use of the word ''modernist'' should not be confused with ''[[modernism]]'' in the context of literature, art, design and architecture. From the mid-to-late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term ''mod'' in a wider sense, to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or [[modern era|modern]].

Paul Jobling and David Crowley argued that the definition of ''mod'' could be difficult to pin down because, throughout the subculture's original era, it was "prone to continuous reinvention".<ref name="Graphic Design 1800. Page 213">Jobling, Paul and David Crowley, ''Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation Since 1800'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996) {{ISBN|0-7190-4467-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7190-4467-0}}, p. 213</ref> They claim that, since the mod scene was so pluralist, the word ''mod'' was an umbrella term that covered several distinct sub-scenes. Terry Rawlings argued that mods were difficult to define because the subculture started out as a "mysterious semi-secret world", which the Who's manager [[Peter Meaden]] summarised as "clean living under difficult circumstances".<ref name=autogenerated5>Rawlings, Terry, ''Mod: Clean Living Under Very Difficult Circumstances: a Very British Phenomenon'' (Omnibus Press, 2000) {{ISBN|0-7119-6813-6}}</ref>